Potter draws on gambling hell to help save others
PAUL REES talks to Mark Potter about his fall and rise after gambling addiction
When Mark Potter tells sportsmen and women that gambling can ravage careers, he is speaking after a harrowing experience that very nearly ruined his life. What started as a couple of pounds on the horses spiralled out of control to the point where he faced going to prison and borrowed money from a Dublin-based gangster.
The low point for Potter came when he sold his wife’s engagement ring and children’s possessions to fund his addiction. It was then that he realised that, at the age of 32, he had sunk so low that if he did not do anything about it, he would never re-emerge.
“I am an example of how someone involved in sport can become trapped in gambling negatively,” said Potter, who is now approaching 41 and works for EPIC Risk Management, a consultancy which helps a number of sports organisations and schools tackle the issue of gambling at its roots.
“You do not think there is a risk when you start and then, 13 years down the line in my case, you wonder what you could have achieved in your sport but for gambling which left you with nothing except a number of regrets. That is why we concentrate on the preventative side at Epic.”
Potter, right, was rescued from his despair by the Rugby Players’ Association who paid for him to be treated at the Sporting Chance Clinic, founded by the former Arsenal captain Tony Adams after he admitted he was an alcoholic. Very few of its clients then sought help because of gambling: now they make up virtually half of its client list, most of them professionals.
“Gambling is an invisible problem,” said Potter. “You will not get away with drinking or taking drugs in sport because detection is easy and there are physical signs. Because of that and the growing number of sponsorships and partnerships between sports organisations and gambling operators, it is more relevant than ever to ensure people are educated about the risks it poses to athletes and clubs.
“Studies show that sports people are at least four times more likely to suffer from gambling harm because they are inherently competitive and driven by a will to win. The ups and downs of sport are very similar to winning and losing when gambling. I fell into it at the age of 19 when I was injured and spent a lot of time on my own and then had a big win of £14,000. When you do not have the stimuli that drives you as a professional, being around your teammates, training and having a laugh, it leaves a void. Gambling filled mine for 13 years.”
Potter was a second row/ back row whose rugby journey began and ended at his boyhood club Liverpool-St Helens, took in Leeds and also Buccaneers in the All-Ireland League. “I was never going to play for the Lions, but I’m fairly sure if gambling hadn’t been such an issue I would have ended up doing better than I did.”
He will now sadly never know whether he had the ability to climb higher. His story highlights how addiction is an illness, one that you cannot treat yourself.
“I played all sports as a kid to a high level, but it was rugby where I earned money,” he said. “The boys at the clubs I played for loved going to the races or the casino and I was a low-level gambler at first. When I had a long-term injury, I struggled because I just wanted to be training and playing. I thrived on competing and its adrenalin rush and started to look for it elsewhere.
“It was when I had a pretty significant win that my problems started. From betting £2 or £3 on a horse, I increased the stakes tenfold because I had so much money in my account. I got used to a level of pay and a bet frequency that was always going to be unsustainable when the money ran out. Which it did.
“I found it really hard to go back to an affordable spend and so I didn’t because I did not think I would win big on small bets again. It materialised into credit cards and loans and I ended up in serious financial difficulty.”
It was when Potter left England for Buccaneers, a club in Athlone, that his problems spiralled. “I was married with kids and was making a mess of my career and certainly not doing well at a club I enjoyed being a part of because I was not concentrating, my performances were poor and my money worries were growing,” he said. “I stole money from an employer and almost went to prison.
“I was in debt and had lost a significant amount of money while the court case was pending. I borrowed 15,000 Euros off a gangster who was heavily involved in drug crime: you do not need much imagination to realise what he’d have done if I had not paid him back.
“I went to him because I was desperate having exhausted all other avenues of credit. I could not borrow any
more off my teammates, family or friends and could not get any more credit cards or loans. It was the only way
I thought I could continue to hide my behaviour. I was no longer being paid by my club and had been sacked from my job, but I did not want my wife to find out.
“Your moral compass goes out of the window when you are involved in this because you need money and secrecy. You are so immersed in it, you cannot get out, not even when faced with going to prison or dealing with gangsters. The catalyst for doing something about it was when we were back in the UK and my wife took the kids to see her family.
“I sold some of the kids’ things and my wife’s engagement ring to place a bet on a horse because I felt I needed to. I realised that there could be nothing worse than that and, fortunately for me, the RPA stepped in and funded my treatment at the Sporting Chance Clinic. But for them, it would have been a very different outcome and it is hard to say where I would be now. I am delighted that they are one of the organisations we work with at Epic.”
Potter finished his career at Liverpool-St Helen’s after being successfully treated for his addiction. “I wanted to go out on my terms and enjoy the game again,” he said. “I went on until I was 38, probably too long. My work now is trying to ensure that harmful gambling is not what stops a person having the life or career they should have.”
Potter is Epic’s head of delivery US and he works with elite US professional sports organisations whose players enjoy lucrative contracts. “We have formed a professional sports advisory board,” he said. “It brings everyone together to discuss how best to manage and mitigate gambling harm across sport and Marcus Horan (the former Ireland prop) is involved in it, which is great from a rugby perspective to have someone involved. It is a growing issue and until there is fit for purpose regulation and protection for people, there will continue to be high profile cases of gambling addiction.
“This is also the first year we have educated females in sport through our partnership with the Professional Cricketers Association and the plan is also to replicate this within rugby in 2022. Statistics show gambling harm has increased in recent years as the growth of women’s sports has increased the spotlight. With that comes a duty of care and they need the same guidance as men.
“What is most important is recognising there is a reason why these things happen. I would guess that if I had not got injured or won £14,000 when I was 19 off a £30 bet none of this would have happened. I gambled away a lot of money, but the biggest impact was time: I missed a number of family events with my wife and kids and upset my parents a lot. They are more important than money.”
“I am fortunate now that I have a good relationship with my old club and teammates at Buccaneers. I did not at first, but after my treatment I went back there and talked about things with them, explaining the reasons for what I did. I have delivered sessions for them.
“It has not been the same with some others, but the past is done, and I just want to prevent people from getting into the same place I was once. I suffered alone but no one has to anymore because gambling addiction is now recognised as an illness. And it is treatable.”
“I borrowed 15,000 Euros off a gangster involved in drug crime”