Cheddar man calls for better education into gambling
Chris Spindler hid his gambling addiction for years.
A man from Cheddar is on a mission to change how Gambling is perceived to stop people becoming addicted.
When Chris Spindler was 12-years-old, he and his friends began making bets with each other on football games and he started spending his paper round wages on FIFA packs, which are in-game loot boxes containing mystery content of varying value.
By the time he approached his 18th birthday, he was more excited to be able to start betting on football than any other aspect of the milestone.
Within six months, what had seemed like harmless fun had developed into a serious problem.
As well as building up large amounts of credit card debt, his jobs, relationships and mental health suffered, and he felt so desperate at times that he even contemplated suicide.
Chris had kept his gambling a secret from everyone in his life as he did not know how to open about his struggles.
After some years, his parents recognised that something was wrong when he started receiving several letters from his bank regarding his growing debt.
They were completely understanding and helped him to seek support, even setting up a group chat with his friends to ensure he had a community of support around him.
Chris has since accessed a range of resources to help him deal with his gambling - from setting up blocks on his phone to stop him from gambling to receiving support from groups such as Gamblers Anonymous, and using mental health helplines and text message services.
Chris said: "Recently I've just launched a website called Gamvention and I want to go round schools, colleges, universities, workplaces and deliver workshops talking about the harms of gambling.
"I remember when I was at school, people would always come in to tell us about drug or alcohol mis-use but nothing ever was done on gambling.
"It's painted to be a pretty picture where you win money but in reality it can destroy lives.
He’s also found that passing on responsibility of his personal money to family has been very effective in preventing him from gambling.
In 2022, Chris was contacted by a friend who was experiencing gambling harm and looking for advice.
Chris realised that by opening up about his own experience, he could show other young people that it’s possible to seek help and decided to begin a TikTok account to share his story, which has since grown to receive over 380,000 likes.
Since he stopped gambling, Chris has felt a great improvement in his mental health and is learning to rebuild his relationship with money.