I lost everything to online gambling. A national self-exclusion register might save others

‘Within months, my entire superannuation and insurance TPD payment – $436,000 – was all gambled away.’ Photograph: David Burton/Alamy

I have been waiting for this day; waiting for almost five years for the federal government’s national gambling self-exclusion register, BetStop, to be open for business.

In November 2018 I met with former communications minister Paul Fletcher and he used my story to announce the creation of the register. At that point, I had been made redundant and had gambled my $190,000 redundancy package. I had been earning $130,000 in a professional role with a blue chip company for 20 years. I was suddenly unemployed and fragile. My payment went, I lost the family home, my marriage ended and I entered into personal insolvency.