Published on: 12 September 2024
With £80,000 of debt and a broken marriage, Craig Clements’ life was in tatters. And it all started with a flutter on the horses.
The 47-year-old from Chesterfield had been gambling on horses and football since his late teens and had even spent hundreds of pounds playing roulette games in the bookies, spending every penny he earned chasing that dopamine hit of a big win.
But since the beginning of this year, all that has changed, after Craig reached out to the East Midlands Gambling Harms Service for help.
“Originally I thought I’d just try to cut down and get it under control,” he said. “The team asked me to give up gambling but I was determined I just wanted to reduce it. Then, within a few weeks of being on the programme, I realised that I needed to give it up completely.”
At the time of speaking, Craig was 83 days free of gambling and confidently looking ahead to a gambling-free life with his partner and seven dogs. Although he still has health conditions, he is looking at applying for some form of part time or voluntary work, is repaying his debts and his future is looking bright.
His first memories of gambling are from placing bets on horse racing for his uncle. “I would have been about 18, and I’d see him win £20 here and there, and then the odd big win of a couple of hundred. I started to think, maybe I could win like that.”
Very quickly Craig started to spend all his money at the bookies, a habit which continued throughout his career in the Marines. When he left the Forces, memories of a childhood trauma resurfaced, seeing him turn to alcohol and gambling as a way of blocking it out.
He married and started a family, working as a care assistant and for social services in Derby, but gambling was never far from his mind.
“It’s so easy to hide a gambling habit,” he said. “With drugs or alcohol there are physical signs, but you can hide gambling, and mine was getting really bad. I was getting loans out and putting it all on another bet.
“In 2006 my wife and I split up because of my gambling – we had to sell the house and I was about £80,000 in debt. I was working all the hours I could, doing as much overtime as I could but it just spiralled out of control.
“I did stop for about eight months – but that was purely because I just didn’t have the funds to do it. I’d been gambling away the money before putting milk and bread on the table.”
But the lure of gambling pulled Craig back in. “The biggest win I ever had was £19,500,” he said. “It was on a seven-horse accumulator and I was buzzing. I bought a car, got my partner a £2,500 engagement ring… it was a great feeling at the time, but it just encouraged me to gamble more.”
Seeking help for health problems including PTSD made Craig realise he had a problem with gambling. “I did a lot of therapy and realised that, because I had a difficult childhood which didn’t have a lot of love and affection, my subconscious didn’t know how to do ‘normal’. My subconscious was trying to sabotage my relationships and I was in destructive mode, but having realised that, I’ve addressed it.”
Part of that realisation saw Craig seek help from the East Midlands Gambling Harms Service, run by the NHS. He completed the free 12-week course, which includes workshops, cognitive behavioural therapy and support, and said hearing other people’s stories really helped him.
“It was brilliant and really helped me to change my life,” he said. “I realised that it’s a journey you have to go on and that if you have a blip, it’s ok, it’s not the end of the world.
“I just had to think, right, I’ve been a naughty lad but it is out of the way now, let’s start again.”
Craig also learned a lot from other people’s experiences including strategies to cope with losing that dopamine hit that gambling gives.
“I’ve had to find other things to do, and I admit that’s not easy,” he said. “I sit out in the garden a lot with my partner, and we’ve got seven dogs between us so that keeps us busy! I don’t watch horse racing on TV any more, although I still do watch football, I just won’t have a bet. We make plans for the weekend – I’m learning to live without gambling.
“I still have some debts I’m paying off but I’m getting there.”
And Craig has already recommended the service to someone else.
“We were on holiday in Lincolnshire, and I started talking to a bloke from Leicester. I told him about my gambling and that I don’t do it any more, because I’m really open about it, and recommended he give it a try. I really hope he has.”
Paul Sanger, Operational Lead for the East Midlands Gambling Harms Service, said he was delighted that Craig has come so far on his recovery journey.
“We are a clinical team made up of psychologists, therapists, mental health practitioners and psychiatrists. Within the team we are developing our offer by recruiting experts with experience, helping to support individuals ongoing recovery journey,” said Paul. “It’s great to hear Craig’s enthusiasm for our service, and we are happy to have supported him.
“We are here for anyone from across the region who needs help with their gambling.”
For more information on the service, please visit East Midlands Gambling Harms Service
