JOHN HARTSON’S FINAL VERDICT
Ican’t tell you how much the betting companies loved me. they laid on seats at concerts and invited me to their golf events.
For 10 years a certain firm I won’t name even laid on a corporate table at cheltenham races for me to bring 10 friends. I didn’t have to leave my seat all day. they just sent staff in to take my bets. those people just couldn’t do enough for me.
that was clever of them. I was a deeply addicted gambler and they knew it. But no one’s going to say ‘no’ when the whole world knows you’re on a big four-year deal, there’s £40,000 dropping into your account on a very regular basis and you want to place a bet. It was worth their while to keep me happy.
It’s when you start opening accounts with the betting firms that the roof starts falling in for people, like me, who are addicted gamblers. It’s like Monopoly money then, because it’s all on account. You’re not holding the notes in your hand. You’re not seeing it go.
I had accounts with seven or eight different companies in the end — StanJames, William Hill, Ladbrokes, Sunderlands and others. If one account runs down, you can use another. and the accounts mean you can hide what you’re doing very well. You can place a bet while you’re sitting down to dinner with your family or having a conversation with your wife.
In my case, that’s Sarah — the woman who kept things on the road for us in the most challenging times you could imagine eight years ago. I’d been diagnosed with cancer and while I was in hospital, in and out of consciousness after major brain surgery, she was the rock of our little family.
She was pregnant, she looked after the children, she ran the household and then — despite everything she had done — I came out of hospital and carried on with the gambling. this was a man who earned millions. My wife couldn’t pay the bills.
It was because of Sarah that I stopped in the end. She’d had enough of my walking in from trips, ignoring her and the girls, going straight to the tV and turning on a cricket match, golf tournament or horse race I had £5,000 on. She made a decision to pack her bags and leave me. ‘I won’t put my girls through this,’ she said. I remember those words like it was yesterday.
So the penny dropped then. I ended up at Gamblers anonymous and it’s saved me. I’ve found other ways to protect myself, too. I do football tV analysis work week-in, week- out, and every single penny goes into my wife’s bank account.
It’s six years this month since I last placed a bet and the effect of having kicked it makes me feel free and alive. We’ve just bought a beautiful piece of land south of Edinburgh, where we’re creating a home. the children are settling into their new surroundings.
Betting companies are everywhere in football — billboards, tV ads, the front of team’s shirts. But the advertising didn’t make me bet or prevent me stopping. I started because of the fruit machines in small working men’s clubs in Swansea where I started out washing pots years ago.
It’s not a quick fix of course. Even though Gamblers anonymous has groups in every city. and even though you can ban yourself from bookies and casinos and install internet filters.
I’ve had calls from six Premier League managers in the past six months, asking me to help a player with gambling problems.
But I can just talk about the difference between back then and now.
I wake up every day, open my back door, suck in the fresh air and give thanks that the past is over.
I’ve had calls from six managers in the past six months asking me to help a player with gambling problems