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‘I’ve gambled away £750,000 – so why did lenders keep giving me money?’


Man with his head in his hands, resting on a lit-up slot machine, after losing a gambling game

Ali wasn’t even allowed to legally vote when he took out his first bank loan to pay for his gambling habit. (Credits: Getty Images)

As a nine-year-old, Ali Robb was fascinated by the bright lights of the seaside amusement arcades where his parents took him to play on the coin pushers each summer.

He was enticed by those two penny pieces piling up, edging precariously close to the precipice, knowing that they could all fall down any minute and he would make the big win of 20p.

By the time he was 11, Ali was already hooked on the buzz of a £2 jackpot and within a couple of years was happily heading to the bookies with his dad to watch the morning dog racing and wait for his dad to place his afternoon TV bets.

When he started getting wages from his first finance job at 16, Ali began to spend up to £40 a day in the high street arcades.

He didn’t realise it at the time – and he doesn’t blame his parents – but the dopamine hits Ali got with every win were the early symptoms of an addiction that would take over his whole life, eventually costing him his home, his career, his relationships and his mental health.

‘The fact that I’ve lost so much of my life to gambling is devastating. It’s not about the money; it’s the way it’s robbed me of living a normal life in every respect. It was all lost to the bright lights and chance of a big win,’ Ali, now 52, explains. 

Ali didn’t realise it at the time but the dopamine hits he got with every win were the early symptoms of an addiction (Credits: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

He wasn’t even legally allowed to vote when he took out his first loan – £1,000 from a high street bank – to pay for his habit. Although he was earning, the 17–year-old’s gambling was already outstripping his wages, and he refinanced the loan at least seven times over the following decade. 

Each request was met without question on why he needed the money. 

By the mid nineties, Ali was making good money working for international banks, but the more his pay-packet increased, the more he would gamble. He bought a two-bed flat in Chigwell for £57,000, which he soon had to remortgage.

But his addiction wasn’t just impacting his finances, it was causing harm to Ali’s friendships. Although he was going out in the evenings, he would get annoyed if his friends chose a pub without a fruit machine, because his evenings were either spent playing on one, or watching others play. He’d even turn his phone off the moment he stood in front of a machine, so that nothing would interrupt his gambling time. 

Ali’s gambling addiction was negatively effecting every aspect of his life (Picture: Supplied)

‘When you’re gambling, you feel like nothing else matters. If you come out losing, you feel rubbish, ashamed and dirty for an hour or so, …read more

Source:: Metro

      

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