Norfolk YouTuber's 'dangerous' gambling addition saw him lose £12k in a day
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A Norfolk YouTuber, who "got hooked" on gambling at the age of 14 says his "dangerous" gambling addiction saw him lose £12,000 in one day. Ellis Platten, 25, wants to make sure others "seek help" if they find themselves gripped by gambling during the World Cup.
The NHS has reported a 42 per cent annual rise in demand for their gambling clinics - which treat patients' addiction by providing specialist addiction therapy. Ellis says he was "addicted to betting on football", and would place bets on matches everyday online.
The football content creator - who has 224k subscribers to his channel 'Away Days' - says his gambling addiction resulted in him "losing my love for the game" and "hindered" his career. Ellis sought treatment for his addiction in 2017, using services to speak to people who had been through a similar experience, and blocking gambling sites on his phone. He has now been bet-free for five years and is speaking out about the "horrible" addiction and urging others to get help.
Ellis said: "I started gambling when I was 14 in high school with my mates. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but my friends were able to reign it in whereas I got hooked by it. From then, it became a part of my daily routine.
"I had a paper round at the time, and would spend everything I earned on gambling. Then as I got older and made more money from working, I would also spend more on betting. It snowballed as I made more money, I gambled it all away because I was in a habit from a young age to lose everything I had earned.
"Online betting was so easy and accessible for a young person like me, it wasn't difficult to put bets on within a second. It was at its worst just before I stopped - five years ago in 2017. There was one instance where I'd deposited £50 and had won £12k - which is a massive amount of money for a 19-year-old. It was all lost within an hour after a few more bets."
Ellis' addiction 'stunted his career' as he claims he didn't have enough money to create content. He says it also impacted his relationships with family and friends - particularly his girlfriend, Jodie, who was his "main reason for stopping". His final bet was "ironically a winning one" on a pre-season football match in 2017 - which made him realise gambling was taking over his life.
Ellis said: "Ironically, I actually won the bet, but I just started crying. I was so annoyed at myself, I just went for a run - I didn't know what to do with my emotions. Gambling is the worst addiction there is because you can't tell when someone's a gambling addict - there's no physical affects and you become so good at lying.
"But it takes over your whole life, and you become emotionally numb to it. When you're betting you don't think about it, it's not until the morning when you wake up and remember what you've done that's the worst.
"I look back at myself at that time and get so frustrated with myself as I can see how it impacted myself and others around me. I see it as a learning curve, I thank God it happened to me when I was younger because I can only imagine the damage it would have done if I was married with kids.
"When I first stopped it was really weird. My brain had gotten so used to the dopamine rush, so when that stopped it was starved of that and I kept getting weird dreams and intrusive thoughts. But now I'm five years on and I know everyone's really proud of me."
Now, Ellis has joined forces with ex-footballer, Paul Merson and Liverpool defender, Gilly Flaherty, to speak out about gambling during sporting events. They're encouraging addicts to use tools available via TalkBanStop - a partnership between GamCare, where people can speak with a trained advisor, Gamban, which blocks devices from accessing gambling websites, and GAMSTOP, where people can register to self-exclude from all UK gambling apps and websites.
Ellis said: "There's always heightened messaging and an urge to gamble around the World Cup. It's everywhere and you can't really escape it - so it's the perfect time to get these measures in place. In this day and age you have your own Vegas on your phone really, so having something to block sites is really helpful.
"The free tools and support can help people control their online gambling so they can start to enjoy football for the game again, rather than the betting potential.”
