Snooker star Mark King has opened up about what he was like at the peak of his gambling addiction and how Gamblers Anonymous has helped him out of his struggles.
King was ranked inside the top 32 players in the world for nine years between 1996 and 2015 and won the Northern Ireland Open the following year.
But away from the table, things haven't been all that smooth for King. The Romford Battler has spoken about his gambling addiction which was “a firework that went off”.
"It got to the stage where you don't care for anybody else around you or what you do," said King talking to the BBC's Framed: The Snooker Podcast.
"You don't care, my wife and three children could be on their knees saying 'please dad don't go' and I'd just walk out.
"I was in the height of the battle and the height of just wanting to gamble. I look back now and can't believe I did that. When I gambled I was like a firework that went off and I just didn't care who I hurt. It didn't matter, I'd lie to everyone just to borrow money and have a row with my Mrs just to get out and gamble."
The world number 52 said he first started playing cards with his nan from a young age which then developed from playing cards in the snooker clubs.
"It just grabbled hold of me," said King. "My nan used to like to have a little bet so we'd play Yahtzee and things like that.
"When I got older we started playing cards at the snooker club. Everybody used to play it and they'd be four or five of us playing at a time. You could play four or five hours and lose maybe £20 or £30."
However, it was when King progressed to playing in card clubs that his addiction developed and the snooker star would spend 'all day and night' gambling.
"I've spent lots of evenings in there even to the point of coming out of there the next day," he added. "I'd have been in there all day, all night gambling. It went from the card schools to the betting shops.
"I'd never been into a betting shop before that age, I was about 16, and that turned into horses, dogs, roulette machines and casinos. In the end you were just betting on everything and anything."
King has thanked Gamblers Anonymous for helping to turn his life around - first attending in 1997 and the 48-year-old has been attending regular meetings since 2003.
"It was disgusting and I hate that person," added King. "Getting a statement (bank) through the door and it was just withdraw, withdraw, withdraw and she (his wife) asked me what I was doing. It got to the stage where she said I either get help or she was off. She's been an absolute diamond and stuck with me."
