A 20-year-old gambling addict has issued a warning to others after losing £20,000 in a matter of months.
Joshua Keys from Limavady, Co Derry, has spoken to Belfast Live about the impact that his gambling addiction has had on him, his personal relationships and education, saying that he has lost thousands after he "kept chasing loss after loss".
He says that his problems with gambling started when he was 18 and was legally allowed to do so, with this starting with small bets once a week and growing to the point where he was making a bet every single day.
Read more: Belfast gambling addict's warning after 'ruining life due to the casino in his pocket'
Then as his addiction gained a greater hold over him he found that he was losing thousands in the space of a couple of hours.
Joshua says that the problem impacted his education as his gambling addiction left him in a "depression like state" and he found himself spending less time with friends as all of his money was being used to gamble.
There were even times when he was unable to afford his rent due to having gambled it away.
Joshua said: "I had never really gambled before I turned 18, but since then it is something that has taken a complete hold over me and had such a negative impact on my life.
"In the beginning I was making a bet here and there on the football or tennis, but it slowly started to creep up on me and I found my gambling more and more.
"At the time I was repeating upper sixth in school and it got to the point where I was making bets in between my classes and throughout all of our breaks.
"After a few months of this I managed to get a hold of my gambling and managed to stop for a while. But then I discovered that I had a savings account in my name with a significant amount of money in it and I quickly fell back into the habit of gambling, only things got much worse.
"I thought that I would use the money to make easy bets that I was likely to win, such as an in-play bet where a team was 2-0 up with a few minutes to go, but I would then lose these and try to recoup my losses by betting even more.
"One time I found myself making £1,600 off of a £70 bet, but then within a matter of hours that was all gone and I continued to chase my loses after that and gambled even more.
"There have been times that I have spent so much that I had no money available to pay my rent or other bills and had to start asking my family for help with this and eventually explain to them where my money had gone. This put a strain on our relationship and anytime I needed a bit of money it was assumed that I had wasted it all gambling.
"My addiction has impacted my life in so many ways. My grades were down at school because I had become depressed due to my gambling but was unable to stop and I was never able to go out with friends and socialise because I had no money as it had been gambled away.
"I am only now beginning to get a grip on my addiction and am trying desperately to put it all behind me, but it is very difficult to do and is something that constantly plays on my mind."
For help with problem gambling visit www.begambleaware.org
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