A man has shared how he turned his decade-long gambling addiction into a social enterprise aimed at helping others avoid falling into the same trap as him. Aaron Abbott entered a betting shop for the first time when he was only 16 years old.
As he seemed more mature than his years, no one questioned him when he played roulette indoors and quickly lost £5. But that was the start of a slippery slope that saw him lose relationships, drop out of college and even hurt himself.
By the age of 29, the father-of-one had lost a staggering £263,000 due to his gambling addiction. And after reading the tragic story of how an addict committed suicide, Aaron began working to change his life.
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It was a slow process, but the 33-year-old will soon mark three years without betting. He set up a social enterprise to help curb his addiction and it has since taken off and allowed him to leave his job in contracting.
Aaron now works full-time at Against The Odds to help educate young people about the dangers of gambling, something he believes would have helped him when he was young. Speaking about his early days in gambling, he told BlackCountryLive: “Two friends asked me when I was 16 if I wanted to go to the betting shops and I’d never gone before.
“We all looked older than we were, so we knew we wouldn’t be identified. I put £5 into the roulette machine and lost it immediately. On the way out, I saw a bunch of old men filling football accumulators and I took a few slips home.
“Then I got into the social game, so I was making £2 or £3 every weekend playing football, even though I was underage.” When Aaron was 18, he won £4,500. “Online gambling didn’t exist then, so I got paid in £10 notes,” he said. “I put it in an envelope and kept it in my pocket for eight weeks. I wanted to have the perception that I had all this cash, so I just walked around with it.
“After that, I couldn’t stay away [of the bookies] and I used it again every day for eight weeks until it was completely gone. I left university and went to university to do a diploma in sports science and that’s when things started to get out of hand.
“When I moved from higher education to higher education – and this is what I tell students now – you find yourself with more funding and more freedom. You tend to get student funding and you don’t have a parent or guardian asking you where you are or what you are doing.
“When I started seeing more money coming into my account, I started betting on things I had no idea about. I had a season ticket at Aston Villa, so I knew about football, but I bet on things like police forces Africans and volleyball that I knew nothing about.”
Aaron, who is originally from Coventry but now lives in Staffordshire, dropped out of college during his third year. He said: “I split up with my girlfriend who I had been with since we were in high school. I had a serious ACL injury so I was out for 18 months and decided to withdraw from university without telling my mother. “.
He got a job in contracting but would spend his entire salary on gambling. “He would take my salary and lose it in 48 hours and then take out a short-term payday loan,” he said. “He knew he had problems, but he denied it. It’s a secret addiction that many people don’t know about.
“My grandfather had a £12,300 ISA for me when I turned 21 and I lost it in a week in a casino. “I kept making money and losing it, I just couldn’t stop.
“I started self-harming by hitting myself in the head and pulling out my hair. I would smash laptops and then I discovered that was my way of coping. I would let things build up and then it would all come.” outside.”
During a betting session, Aaron won £19,000 on a game of roulette after spending just £50. But within minutes he had lost everything. In 2020, he read an article about a gambling addict who had taken his own life and noticed similarities in his stories.
“Other than the suicidal element, everything was like me,” he said. “He made me think about how I had done three years of college and two at university, played county sports like cricket and rugby and yet had never been educated in the industry.
“I claimed my spending and discovered I had lost £263,000 between the ages of 18 and 29.” Aaron created Against The Odds in an attempt to help not only himself but others.
He said: “I started hosting educational sessions and started offering a lot of content and received a lot of positive feedback from clients and candidates. The last 18 months have been crazy and I was able to quit my job and do this completely.” time.
“People think it’s anti-play, but it’s not. Our goal is to help students open up about their problems at the earliest stage possible. And then help students identify the transition from social play, which 47 percent of UK students do – to gambling-related harm.
“It’s preventative so that they don’t follow my path and get to 29 or 30 and think ‘I have to do something about this.'”
He believes that gambling advertisements should only be shown after 9 p.m. “When the industry advertises as aggressively as they do 24 hours a day, even though it’s an 18-and-up product, my problem is that we’re not doing enough on the educational side,” he said.
“If you look at alcohol and cigarettes, before they could be advertised during the day, but then it was delayed until after 9:00 p.m. But with gambling, it is from 6:30 a.m. and being a product for over 18 years, for me it should also be delayed until after 9 pm
“Education should be mandatory from the age of 16. Many can play without identification.”
The recovering addict continued: “I’ve now gone almost three years without gambling. “There was a 12-month period where I would go back and not tell anyone, so it was a slow transition.
“When you’re as wrapped up in addiction as I am, you don’t care what feelings you’re hurting or who you’re lying to or how it affects the people around you. I lost two or three relationships because it was out of control.” of order.
“I fought with my family about it, sold personal possessions and told lies. It takes you away from reality and all you think about is making another bet. I didn’t care about winning, I just wanted another bet and to chase the rush. “
Speaking about Against The Odds, he continued: “My USP (unique selling point) now is that we’re not funded by the industry. “They offered me funding, but I didn’t want to put out what they wanted.
“So we offer education based on lived experience and the last 112 months have been crazy. We won social enterprise of the year at the UK startup awards, launched a podcast and started an internal recovery service.
“We have an awareness club and people like Alex Bowen from love island They have helped us spread our message. We’ve been to Steven Gerrard’s academy in Tenerife twice, Wigan, Coventry City, Sheffield Wednesday, Stockport, Loughborough University, the NFL Academy, they are the best NFL players in Europe for their age, so that we’ve been in some really good organizations. “.
He added: “We are not here to benefit shareholders, we are here to benefit the wider community. “My plan for the next three years is to establish a greater presence in elite sport as well as the community.
“I can think of 20 or 30 guys I know who play every day and wouldn’t say [to themselves that] They had a problem.” When asked what advice he would give to someone struggling with gambling, he said: “Talk to someone. It’s really simple, just talk to someone.”
Click here to see Against The Odds Instagram page.
Mental health and suicide support.
Helplines and support groups
He NHS Options Website lists the following helplines and support networks that people can talk to.
- Samaritans (116 123) operates a 24-hour service available every day of the year. If you prefer to write down how you feel, or if you are worried about being overheard on the phone, you can email Samaritans at [email protected].
- children’s line (0800 1111) runs a helpline for children and young people in the UK. Calls are free and the number will not appear on your phone bill.
- PAPYRUS (0800 068 41 41) is an organization that supports teenagers and young adults with suicidal feelings.
- Mind (0300 123 3393) is an England-based charity providing advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.
- Students against depression is a website for students who are depressed, in a bad mood, or having suicidal thoughts.
- Bullying UK is a website for children and adults affected by bullying.
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Youth counseling service – Provide mental health and emotional wellbeing services to children, young people and families in Liverpool. tel: 0151 707 1025 email: [email protected]
