Gambling, Addiction and Me: The Real Hustler

This is a joker. I'm going to take the joker,

I'm going to wave it on top of the jack of spades and I touch it

and now I have the jack of spades and you have?

Joker.

My name is Alex Conran.

Since childhood, I've been fascinated by gambling and by cards.

It got me a job presenting The Real Hustle,

which warns people about how to avoid getting conned.

It's all a bit ironic, if you know about my dad.

My father was a gambling addict

who turned into a conman and a fraudster and ended up in jail.

So what was this urge that drove my dad away from me?

His, has been a life of gambling and crime.

But might I be under its spell too?

If I did have that problem,

it would make me one of up to half a million people in the UK

estimated to be problem gamblers.

Yes!

And that number is rising.

What's the most you've ever lost in a day?

In a day? Four grand.

Four grand? In a day?

In 20 minutes.

The machine's been there in my life

more than anyone else has been in my life.

-You've become best friends with a machine that takes your money?

-Yeah.

Their brains really are different.

Something different happens when they gamble.

So this film is a journey to find why a fun pastime for some people,

can become a compulsion or even an addiction for others.

I'd like an answer to the one question

I want to ask my dad, Dimitri.

Why?

Blackjack! Yes!

Gambling surrounds me.

Each one of my jackets has got a deck of cards in it.

Every time I'm thinking or talking,

talking on the phone, every now and then, I'll get people going,

"are you shuffling cards?"

And I found when we worked on conning people in the Real Hustle,

that I was a natural at that too.

I'm the general manager here.

Has anyone talked to you about cons?

This is what they're here for,

a winning ticket now worth over 300.

OK, I'll be right back.

Little do they know, they'll never see that pen,

the helpful manager, or their winnings ever again.

Maybe that's something I inherited from my dad.

You see he became a conman to feed a huge gambling habit.

Ultimately, it drove him away from me,

leaving me and my mum when I was only seven.

He's now in jail in Greece

and I've not had any contact with him for 20 years.

I hardly know my dad, but because of the chaos he brought to our lives,

I've always blamed him.

I never wanted him in my life or even in the life of my family.

By not wanting to contact his dad, he's protecting himself,

he's protecting his mum,

all the other family members who were affected by it.

And us, I think.

But I've also always wondered what was so strong

about that compulsion that made him give up on his wife,

his family, on me?

And what exactly have I inherited from him?

I've clearly got his ability to con people.

So, could I also be at risk of becoming a problem gambler too?

It's an important issue for him.

Something he has to work through somehow.

There's so many questions that he needs to answer for himself.

He's just trying to find an explanation.

And I guess talking to other people

will have a very restorative and positive effect on him.

So, where to start?

How does the occasional flutter turn into a daily fix?

Just like other addictions, the answer can be frighteningly early.

And for many, it starts in places like this.

A seaside arcade with machines like these.

It probably appeals to our very basic emotions, you know.

Flashing lights, there's buttons, there's things happening.

And why? To keep you more entertained,

to keep you more involved into the game.

You've got different options, different ways of making money.

It's no longer just waiting for that spin.

It gives you the perception that you're actually more in control.

Some of these machines here, you can win up to £500.

If you go across the road to the bookies,

to the fixed odds betting terminals, you can pay £100 a spin.

And those are the crack cocaine of fruit machines for gambling addicts.

These machines do nothing for me, I prefer poker.

But they can be very addictive for some young people.

They got Andreas hooked as a teenager.

Now he works on a stall in one of Blackpool's piers.

But he started gambling aged 12

and he now spends in excess of 25 grand a year on it.

Would you say you gamble every day?

-Every day.

-Every day of your life?

-Yep.

In a week, how much do you reckon you spend on gambling?

-At least 500.

-£500 a week.

-At least.

Playing the roulette when they first came out, I was 15.

I lied about my age, said I was 18.

I got away with it and then they found me age out by about 18.

By that time, they couldn't do anything about it.

-What's the most you've ever lost in a day?

-In a day?

Four grand.

Four grand in a day?

In 20 minutes.

In 20 minutes, where, how?

-Roulette.

-Again, those machines?

What is it about those machines that you like gambling on,

the fixed-odd betting machines. What is it you prefer?

It's the quick money, isn't it.

They say you can win 10 grand within a space of what, three minutes.

That's a lot of money to win off three minutes.

I just literally walked in and I went in with me mum.

She's gone to collect her winnings for the Irish lotteries.

I had £2 in change and ended up walking out with 10 grand.

How quickly did you lose that 10 grand after you won it?

-Within a week.

-Within a week?

-A week and a half.

-Do you think about it all the time?

-Always.

Every night you see how much you've spent.

You can actually win from gambling.

I win every day, it's just about walking away.

All right.

It's about saying no to the addiction.

I'm not going to gamble anymore, I've made enough money now.

I want you to stop gambling. That's what I want.

I want to stop, mate.

It's killing me slowly.

You can play a machine

with a jackpot of up to £5 as a child in the UK.

It makes us one of the few countries in the developed world

that allows kids to gamble.

£5 is quite a lot to a 12 year-old.

If you grow up with a sort of, "Oh, gambling's fun,

"it's tolerated, I can do it with my mum and dad."

When people talk about drugs

they talk about a ladder of addiction.

Softer drugs leading to more hardcore class A drugs.

Maybe we should take the same view about gambling.

Penny falls, one arm bandits, larger jackpot machines

and finally the ones in the bookmakers,

where you can bet £100 a spin.

While I was in Blackpool, I met Darren.

He says those gambling machines in the bookies

have wrecked his life.

He's spent six months in a homeless hostel

and he's now trying to get his life back on track.

I was chasing the numbers on the machine basically

and I was putting every single penny of my money in.

I had my partner for five year,

but she's left me because of gambling, basically.

We were getting giros and I was putting full giros in,

not thinking about shopping or anything.

I didn't see nothing else, but gambling was me life.

That was it.

I'd wake up in the morning, any money that I had in my pocket,

I'd go straight to the bookmakers.

I could be in there from nine o'clock in the morning

till eight o'clock at night.

It's not about the money no more,

it's not about the money, winning money.

What is it about now?

Just about playing the machine.

The machine, to me, it's like my best friend in a way.

That's how I feel like about the machine.

It's a friend.

The machine's been there in my life more than anyone else.

That machine has been there more than anyone.

You think you've spent,

-you've become best friends with a machine that takes your money?

-Yeah.

I could go in with like 40 quid, 50 quid sometimes

and I can lose it straight away.

I could go in with £2.40, £2,

and I can get up to £100 straight away with that.

What do you do with that money once you get it?

-Do you walk away?

-Half the time, I don't.

I use it to go back in.

I've always got it in my mind to go back in with.

I've got myself into 15 to 18 grand's worth of debt because of it.

So you currently have 18 grand's worth of debt?

18 grand's worth of debt.

What's your general attitude towards gambling?

It'll get you nowhere in life.

It'll get you like me.

I'm only young, but I'm 23, I had it all.

I had me own house.

I had a lovely partner at the time.

I had two dogs.

I had it pretty all right, but now I've got nothing,

absolutely nothing.

That is through gambling.

The good thing about Darren, is he wants to quit.

He knows it's dragging him down and ruining his life.

He's intelligent enough to know that, but stopping is really hard.

They're all aware of the problem

and yet they all think that they can beat those machines.

I've never thought that, but maybe that's how my dad feels about it.

But when he got hooked, gambling was less widely available than today.

Now, it's not just fruit machines and roulette in bookies,

it's football betting, scratch cards, the National Lottery.

If you're a potential problem gambler,

a simple trip down the high street

can be like running the gauntlet of temptation.

Here we are, we're on Mare Street, we're in Hackney.

Hackney has got quite high unemployment level.

It's quite a poor borough.

And yet on this high street that we're standing on,

there are eight betting shops, with plans to build more.

In the back there, you see the church.

The building next to it, is the Hackney Old Town Hall,

which is no longer a town hall.

It's a bookies.

The old cornerstone of the community here,

the town hall, the centre where everybody used to come

and things used to happen, is now a bookies.

I don't want to put cynical ideas out,

but I'm kind of thinking this is a very poor high street,

with very, very high unemployment and you've got eight bookies here.

I would wager that if you went to Kensington and Chelsea,

or to more affluent areas, you'd maybe find one, maybe two.

Now why is that?

There's pawnbrokers over there.

Betting shop just 100 yards away.

You can't tell me that that is not somehow catering to people

who have this addiction and why are we doing that?

Why are we letting people pawn their stuff and go in there and bet it?

Why are we leaving the door open to people who've got that problem?

It matters because we know if you're susceptible,

then just like other addictions, stopping is no simple matter.

-You've been to Las Vegas all together?

-No.

I've come to Peterborough to meet Gareth,

28 year old working in sales, and his mother, Isabel.

Together, they're trying to help Gareth do what my dad couldn't

and quit.

I would literally go into work, fill my diary with fake appointments

and then walk to the bookies.

I wouldn't eat, I wouldn't drink, I would just be there,

and all that would be, would be me and this machine, if you like.

You're feeding notes in and not even considering each £20 note,

what that could buy you.

A tank of petrol, your bills, whatever.

It doesn't cross my mind and it's just a figure on a screen.

Probably in the last week and a half, two weeks maximum,

I've probably lost about £1,400.

Now I don't get paid £1,400 a month.

When you've put two grand in a machine and you lose

and it goes in half an hour,

why does that not leave you with a sense of,

right, I'm never going to do that again?

I walk out of there in tears, sick to the pit of my stomach,

contemplating all sorts of things to get it back

or to make myself feel better.

Hurting myself.

I just have these rages.

And then the guilt sinks in.

You realise what you've done and how much you've lost

and what you could've done with it.

Probably if it wasn't for my parents, I'd be in prison

or not around at all.

I have all his money.

It comes, it goes transferred into my bank when he gets paid

and I withdraw all of it.

When he wants it, he can have it.

It's different for him if he's got a debit card,

that's not real money to him.

It's just a bit of plastic, he doesn't see where it's going.

A debit card or a credit card - absolutely lethal to a gambler.

-You've borrowed money to help him out, right?

-Yes.

Financially, that must be a strain?

We've taken loans, yeah.

Because the thing is,

if we don't, all you think is what will happen to him if we don't?

He gets so despaired, you know,

you're worried he might do something stupid

because he doesn't know how to get out of this hole he's in.

If I walked into a bookies with £100

and I walked straight in and won £200 or £300,

I wouldn't be happy cos I haven't got that fix.

I would rather go in there, be in there all day

and walk out maybe £50 or £60 down.

To me, that would've been a really good day,

I'd be happy with that.

Every time he gambles and loses money, I will get a text from him.

Sometimes I've had a text when he's actually in the bookmakers

and said, "Help me," and I've gone and got him.

I dread every text message I get,

without even knowing who it's from because I think, "Not again."

I dread every text message.

It did come to a point, 18 months ago,

when it did really, really did hit the bottom,

where it did nearly pull us apart, all of us.

It was horrible.

It was a horrible, horrible time

and I never, ever want to go through it again, ever. It was awful.

-I'm sorry.

-It's all right, it's OK. It's OK.

When he starts again, he starts to get secretive.

He lies, you know he's lying.

But if you say to him, "Are you lying?"

it's saying, "I'm not trusting you anymore,"

and he just wants to be trusted.

I know if I could be gambling-free

and put my concentration into something good,

then I could be a real big success at anything I do.

I'm like Rainman with numbers because of the gambling and so on.

When I went to college, I gambled and I've done it ever since,

so I've never had a period of time where I could sit back

and see what I'm actually capable of doing as a person.

You need something, an instant fix and there isn't an instant fix.

It's just going to go on and on and on,

until they decide enough's enough.

It either ends in the awful way or it ends by him stopping.

So what happens if you can't stop?

In London, I went to meet Mandy.

She's not's your typical idea of a problem gambler.

It wasn't until her mid 30s

that she succumbed to the lure of the high street bookmaker.

And when she couldn't stop, it ended, as with my dad,

with this mother of two going to jail.

I hadn't committed a crime till I was 35.

I was a law-abiding citizen until the day I started gambling.

And all my everything went out the window.

I was shoplifting to feed my habit.

I was probably stealing about £3,000 or £4,000 worth of goods a day.

I was going into a supermarket, filling up a trolley with booze,

meat, everything and walking out with it.

I was committing crime five, six, seven, eight times a day.

-To fund your habit?

-To fund my habit.

In the end, my luck ran out

and well, it didn't run out cos I've never had any luck, but...

I got sent to prison for four months, my children went into care.

Did you gamble again after you came out of prison?

-The day I came out of prison.

-The day you came out?

I DESPISE it. I despise gambling. I HATE it.

But I can't stop.

-Still?

-I've been in the bookies this morning.

-This morning, you went...?

-I've been in the bookies this morning.

-And you placed a bet?

-I won £70 on the machine.

My opinion of it is, is an illness -

I've got an illness.

-And I wish there was a cure.

-Mmm.

The experts tell us that 60% of problem gamblers who are attending

Gamblers Anonymous in the UK admit to having committed

a crime to fund their habit.

And so it was with Mandy.

But Mandy is trying hard to help herself, and to quit.

She's in therapy and she's filled in self-exclusion forms

at all her local bookies.

There it is.

-That's the one that you're excluded from right now?

-It is.

Good. I like that.

I'm excluded from all bookies around here,

I'm not allowed in any of them.

Does that...? Do you feel strange being outside of it

-or does it...?

-Mmm, a little bit.

-A little bit. OK, let's go.

Mmm. A little bit.

There it is, Ladbrokes.

I spent some grim days in there.

-Did you...? Was this your sort of regular haunt?

-Yeah, it was.

Every day I used to stand and wait for it to open.

-Did you ever get approached by anybody in there?

-Never.

-To say, "Aren't you been here a bit too often?"

-Not once.

Not once has one person ever approached me and said,

-"Don't you think that's enough?"

-Mmm.

Not once in 11 years.

They have pictures of armed robbers up -

why don't they picture have pictures of problem gamblers?

Having met Mandy now, you know, several times she said,

you know, "I'm ill.

"I am not well."

And it must be appalling to have to be to be saying that

and people not to be listening. To kind of go,

"No, not really, you just have to stop playing fruit machines!"

And it's not as simple as that, it can't be.

People wouldn't be doing that to their lives

if it was as simple as walking away.

'I don't think I'd realised until talking to gamblers like Mandy

'just how hard it can be to quit.

'It makes me think of my dad and his decision to leave

'with a bit more sympathy.'

My mum's kept most of the details of what my dad's gambling led to

a secret from me, to protect me. But I've come to Greece,

where she lives because I now want to understand what happened.

I don't really remember much about my dad.

He was always smiling or telling a joke. He was quite larger than life.

My parents divorced when I was seven.

After the age of seven he was very...an absent figure.

So I want to find out, you know,

what was it that drove a very intelligent,

very charming man...into jail?

Did you ever play backgammon with Dimitri?

Yeah, I did.

He was very good, I must say.

I mean, everybody remembers jokes.

He was fun! I wouldn't have married him and had a child with him

if he was just the absolute, "I've got to gamble!"

When did YOU realise that he was gambling?

It first started when I was pregnant

and I got this letter from this woman saying,

"I hope Lena has survived the operation..."

And I'm reading this, like, what operation?

What is this woman talking about?

"But I really need these 3,000 if you could return them."

And then the landlady called me and she said,

"I realise you're giving birth, but, you know,

"we haven't received the rent for six months."

SHE SIGHS

I could see it was gambling.

I could see that it was compulsive.

I did not know at the time that that was an illness

and I did not know that this can be helped...

-Mmm.

-..by, you know, specialists.

But I knew that this was something that would not finish.

'My dad's gambling got worse and worse.

'And then one day, when we were living in Paris,

'my mum came home to the apartment to find a letter.

'Dimitri, my dad, had fled.'

And I open it.

And I read...this...

"My dear Lena, as you very well understood, I've messed up.

"So unfortunately the only solution I have is to leave France.

"I owe Madame Fresco..." Madame Fresco is this poor woman

from who we were renting the apartment,

"..four rents plus the electric bill." Etcetera, etcetera.

"I owe the bank 2,000 francs.

"I also know owe Nicola..." - a friend - "..1,000 francs,

"Costas Bletis, 450, I think.

"Of this money, of course, I did not spend it with other women,

"as you very well know, but on horse races.

"Please kiss our child for me.

"I also owe 800 to Bernard."

-Just at the end, there's a little reminder.

-Yeah.

'Over backgammon, my mum told me

'how, to fund his habit, Dimitri would continually

'steal not just from strangers, but his employer, his friends,

'even his family.

'It's no wonder she was so terrified that I would turn out like him.'

I remember once, Alexi, he was about seven or eight.

He lied about something and I beat him up,

I'm ashamed to say that, so much that my finger got swollen.

And I realised I was not beating Alexi, I was beating Dimitri.

The Real Hustle,

I was very, very worried at the beginning.

I was more worried with the card playing, the actual card in the hand.

'Feeling flush, more from the alcohol than the cards,

'Alex ups the ante, and what was a friendly game

'with a limit of £100 now has no limits.

'I want to get some more money on the table...'

I think my mum was petrified.

My mum was petrified when she saw me with a pack of cards

in my hands doing magic tricks

because she associated a pack of cards, a love of gambling,

love of cards, which is what my dad was into...

Is her son going to go down the same slippery road as his father did?

Well, there've been times where I've wondered that myself.

And one of them was here.

Welcome to Las Vegas - a town built entirely on gambling.

In 2007, I spent three months in Vegas filming for The Real Hustle.

Ooh, that's nasty. Oh, but that's good...!

Yes!

'And I found as the rest of the crew would go off to bed...' Yes!

I stayed at the table a little bit longer and I gambled most nights.

I know that my family were a little bit anxious

about me being around casinos, because of my father.

You know, and I have to admit, you know,

the first time I walked into a casino,

my heart was pumping.

I can understand their worry, that I, maybe,

would be around casinos and would turn out to be like my dad.

17.

Blackjack. Yes!

Oh, come on!

Oh!

Look how quick we've blown 200!

Do I think I might have something in me that

might say that I'm a gambling addict?

I don't think so.

Oh!

It's just not your day!

But I do enjoy it. There, I said it -

I like gambling.

And if you like a flutter, then this is the place to be.

But whilst on the surface, this is a pleasure town,

fantastically over the top, a temple to entertainment and fun,

when you look for it, this city has a dark side.

These jets you can see here, they're the high-roller jets,

the jets of the people, the billionaires,

who come to gamble in Vegas.

The jets that hotels use to ferry the rich people in,

the whales as they call them.

So that's here. Over here, we have

the most iconic sign of Las Vegas,

this is...this is the beginning of the strip here.

And right over there, where that advertising billboard is,

underneath there, in a sewer,

is where you have... people living there.

Here in the flood tunnels running under this city

live hundreds of homeless people,

many who have hit rock bottom because of gambling.

And I've come to find them.

I mean, is this basically it?

You've got your couch and you've got your little chair here...

WOMAN LAUGHS Yeah!

I can see you've got a suitcase...

'Compulsive gambler Cyril and his 27-year-old girlfriend Becky

have been living in these tunnels off and on for more than six months.

-So this is where you'll put your stuff...

-If it were to rain.

..to protect it from the rain.

Yeah. Our clothes are over there in that basket.

They're all clean but that's where we keep them.

During your gambling stuff,

how much money do you think has passed through your hands?

Since I've started gambling...

He made a million dollars one year at least.

-And...

-You made a million dollars?

-He probably went through...

-I...

-Won and lost a million dollars.

I know I had over a million dollars go through my hands

in about a year and a half.

Do you think that your gambling is part of the reason

that maybe you're sort of where you are now?

No, I blame him, I really do.

-That's messed-up to say, but yeah.

-How can you blame...?

Gambling is a big part of who I am right now, but...

I didn't start it.

Would you consider yourself as a problem gambler, that

-you have a...?

-Erm, no, not really.

If you just keep going for it, you're going to win,

-especially if you start with zero - you can't lose.

-Right.

-You know?

The gambling pays for everything that we do positive,

and then we pay for everything

that we do because of the gambling that's negative.

-When you see what's above us right now...

-Right.

..the amazing hotels, the size of this city, which is just phenomenal,

it's all been built

from money that people have come and lost here, right?

Right. I know I'm going to go and beat them,

I know I'm going to take their money, you know.

And...but after my work's over and it's playtime,

I know they're probably going to take my money.

It's quite...shocking to meet

Becky and Cyril in the situation that they find themselves in.

I mean, how do you wake up in there, look around,

realise you're living in a flood tunnel,

and think, "I'm going to gamble my way out of here, I'm going to

"make enough money through gambling to get out of here"?

And by his own admission, you know,

every time he makes some money, he'll just gamble it.

I defy anybody to come down here and look at this and sort of say,

"Well, he just has an issue with money."

The guy is...an addict, the guy cannot stop gambling.

No matter how bad things get,

Cyril's still denying he's an addict.

Is that what my dad is like?

And as with all addictions, the first step

is recognising that you've got a problem.

The following day, I went looking for Cyril and Becky

and found them searching the strip and the casinos.

They were looking for money for Cyril to gamble.

I wanted to ask them more.

Don't they realise that Cyril is an addict?!

That gambling is the cause of their problems, rather than the solution?

You went into a casino - what happened?

-When? Oh, just now?

-Yeah.

-Nothing.

-There wasn't really anything in there.

-What were you looking for?

Money. To see if there was anything left on the machines,

walk by the tables, people drop chips.

If I find five bucks I'll go try it, and if it doesn't hit,

I'll got walk around and find five more bucks and play it.

And usually I can like keep at the same machine

until I get a hit for the day, you know what I'm saying?

And that will give me my little jump.

Then that will turn my 20 into 40 or 50, and take it from there.

I have to get him to break away from this whole thing,

but he doesn't want to do it. Like he does, but...

He does... I don't know, He can't, he's a gambling addict.

-So you think...?

-This is his element right here.

I'm taking him away from that if I make him come with me.

So in your eyes, you do think that Cyril is a gambling addict?

-Yes, I know he is.

-Do you think he knows he is?

Yeah, but he doesn't want to admit it.

What would you say a problem gambler is?

Erm, I don't know, someone who's got a family

and after they've worked all week,

instead of coming home, went to a casino

and blew their whole cheque and then came home.

I mean, also probably someone who lives in a tunnel...!

But...!

Right!

I don't see myself in five years being here and being happy.

I see myself either dead, you know, still homeless or struggling,

basically, and erm... I don't like that.

But you're looking at what's destroying you...to help you.

-Right?

-It's a double-edged sword, I guess. I know what you're saying.

But I will, I mean I will do that within the next couple of weeks,

I will make, like, my...my lick.

It's as if they sort of both know what's killing them,

but they're not doing anything about it.

Or they can't do anything about it.

He just seems to have what I think is typical about problem gamblers -

that, "You know what? I'm going to get myself out of it with gambling,

"all I need is that one big win.

"And I'm not going to stop, or you know I'm going to play poker,

"but not the not the slots," as if it is any different.

That's like an alcoholic saying,

"I won't drink spirits, I'll just stick to beer."

That's how, I think, unaware he is of the seriousness of his problem.

And if you've got a problem, you don't need to take a trip to Vegas

or to the casino.

You see, these days, you can get your fix in perfect isolation.

Among the latest in home comforts

is the chance to have a casino under your own roof.

I can close my door here.

The family are downstairs, they don't know what I'm doing,

and I can just have that isolation between me and the computer screen

and get sucked into that... that emotional rollercoaster

that is playing roulette or blackjack or...

or poker for a lot money.

I've just put "bet online" in Google.

I've got 228 million results.

I've got Ladbrokes, William Hill, Bet365, Paddy Power.

Hundred and hundreds. Totesport, Blue Square.

I don't have to go anywhere

and I can spend a lot of money on playing whatever I want.

I can play roulette, I can play craps, I can play blackjack,

I can play poker, I can bet on horses.

Every single horse race around the world, mind you.

It's not as if I can go, "Oh, well, it's night-time now,

"it's past eight o'clock, you know, there's no more races."

Well, I can bet on races in China.

I can bet on races in America.

It is 24 hours a day and it's in your home.

A lot of people that we've talked to about gambling,

it's that isolation,

it's what gamblers call "The Bubble," you know?

It's me and the machine.

Nothing else matters.

The building can be burning behind you,

but it's me and that machine

and I think you get the same sense at home.

It's quite frightening.

'No more bets, please.'

'So where would I go if I really do feel like I want help?

PHONE RINGS Good afternoon, GamCare.

'When my dad gambled, nobody talked about it in terms of a disease.

'Now, that's starting to change.

'This is GamCare.

'They run a helpline which supports problem gamblers

'and the people around them.'

All these people here will handle calls coming in?

Yes, they'll be handling live calls as they come in.

We get about 35,000 calls a year.

-Can we have a look at what's happening over here?

-Absolutely.

Yes, this is Mike.

-Hi, Mike.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

When the call comes through, it will be a one-on-one sort of chat box.

More often that not, people come in and say,

"How can I change what my son's doing? How can I make him stop?"

Sometimes people just want somewhere to talk,

so you don't have to say much.

And sometimes they want more direction,

-so they might say, "Where can I go to get help?"

-Right.

"Where's my local GA meeting?" That kind of thing.

'While I was at the GamCare, they let me speak to one caller

'whose experience of discovering her husband's secret gambling

'took me right back to my own childhood.'

'He started gambling, oh, many years ago on football and horses

'and I found out about it and he said he'd never do it again.

'The biggest horse bet he had was about £100.

'I lost my mother and she left some money.

'I thought I'd pay the mortgage off.

'She told me the figure of the mortgage

'and I said, "Oh, no, that's not right, it can't be.

'It had been doubled.'

How much was it, if you don't mind me asking?

'The mortgage had gone up from 50 to a 100,

'almost £100,000.'

£100,000.

'The mortgage had... Yeah. It doubled from 50.'

-It doubled from 50,000 to 100,000.

-'Yes.'

-Wow.

'Yeah, I had two insurance policies.

'He forged the signatures and got the money for those as well.'

So, in total, how much money had your husband...?

'It was over 100 in total.'

Over £100,000?

'Over £100,000 in total.'

'It got to the point where I just...

'Well, I contemplated suicide.

'You get so low and that's how I felt.

'I felt that he couldn't have wanted me or loved me.

'He wouldn't have put the children and myself through this.'

I mean, I know it's a very difficult question,

but how do you feel towards your husband now?

'I can't trust him.

'I still to this day don't think I'll ever trust him fully.

'And I just hope that the love of his children

'will stop him from doing it again.'

'I've witnessed first-hand a family imploding like that

'and all the heartbreak it brings.

'I'd never want my own family to go through anything like that.

'So perhaps it's time I got tested

'to answer once and for all if there's any risk

'I could I turn out like my dad.

'These days, the NHS has a clinic for problem gamblers.

'It's the first one.

'I'm going to be checked out by psychiatrist

'Doctor Henrietta Bowden-Jones.'

Welcome to the National Problem Gambling Clinic.

Obviously my father was a gambling addict who turned into a conman

and a fraudster and ended up in jail.

And I guess I have always wondered whether or not...

..it was something that was hereditary?

It's interesting you say this because we know that young people

with parents who gamble regularly

and young people with parents who are problem gamblers,

do have a higher likelihood of developing this illness

than the general population.

So someone like me might be at risk, for example?

Might be at risk. Exactly.

I like gambling. I won't deny it.

I think it's a good, fun pastime.

But I always treat it with a sense

-that I'm dealing with something that can be extremely dangerous.

-Yeah.

So, Alex, I'm going to ask you a few things now

that would allow me to go through my mental checklist

to know whether you do have a problem or not.

How often over the past month you have actually gambled?

-I would say five days in the last month.

-Five days.

But the month before, it was zero days.

How often have you bet more that you could afford to lose?

Never.

How often have you need to gamble with larger amounts of money

to get the same feeling of excitement?

Never.

How often have you gone back another day

to try to win back the money you lost?

Never.

-OK. That's called chasing losses.

-Yeah.

And I would say that 99.9% of people in this clinic...

Will go back to...

..are loss chasers.

How often have you felt that you might have a problem with gambling?

What's the next one up from never?

-Sometimes.

-Sometimes.

How often have you felt guilty about the way you gamble?

Er, often.

So you've scored two

and essentially you need to score at least nine...

-Phew!

-..to have any significant problems with this.

THEY LAUGH

Do you find it a little odd that, given my father's history,

being a card player, fraudster, um, I've ended up...

..you know, with a pack of cards in my hand on a daily basis,

fascinated by scams and cons,

although I've had very, very little contact with my father.

You could say that what you're doing is trying to keep in touch with him

at some level without harming yourself.

Yep.

'I think maybe it is a way of keeping a link to my dad.'

But it's definitely not something I'm doing consciously, you know?

You've got to remember I'm petrified of a relationship with my dad as...

..having a problem gambler in your life is dangerous.

'And it can be dangerous because, like other addictions,

'the urge to gamble can be with you all your life.

'In Cambridge, I met Lewis Constable.

'He got hooked on slot machines and online poker.

'Lewis has managed to quit, but he still admits to getting urges.'

I mean, you haven't gambled now for six months.

Do you miss the thrill?

Er, yeah, definitely.

-I find it hard if I walk past the bookies.

-You do?

I find it hard, especially on match day, cos I'm a big football fan.

If I want to do a bet, an accumulator on all the teams,

I find it quite hard not to do that.

I was probably on internet poker for about...

I'd say a year and a half to two years.

-I lost a lot of money on that.

-How much money do you reckon you lost?

Well, I lost, probably, on online poker...

over seven grand, I'd say.

I remember that probably being the loneliest or the hardest time.

The thing I'd say about gambling is that it is such a lonely addiction.

With drugs, you can do it with other people, you can...

Drink, you can do with other people.

Smoking, you can share a cigarette when you're addicted.

With gambling, I found when I was gambling that I was so lonely.

You'd lose a bet and you wouldn't want to tell anyone

because you've lost a lot of money and you were ashamed.

You tell them and they were like, "Why did you do that?"

You keep it within yourself.

'But even though Lewis HAS quit,

'he's still got the potential to have a problem with gambling.

'And there's now ground-breaking scientific research,

'which shows that problem gambler's brains

'really are wired differently.

'Lewis has agreed to take part in a demonstration of this research

'with me here in Cambridge.

'Dr Luke Clarke, a leading expert in problem gambling

'has made an extraordinary discovery.

'He's proved that for gambling addicts,

'it's not so much the winning they're hooked on,

'but the experience of a near miss.'

You can see the spin coming through here.

-KERCHING!

-Yay!

And this is Alex's first win.

And this is his skin conductance going up here.

Alex is interested in the wins,

but we're also interested in the near misses.

We see in problem gamblers that these near misses

are very significant events

and they make them want to carry on playing more.

And we can see, in our brain imaging data,

we can see a stronger brain response in particular to near-miss outcomes,

as someone becomes more of a problem gambler.

These brain responses are in parts of the brain

that are innovated by dopamine,

a very important brain chemical in reward behaviour

and also in drug addiction.

-Come on. Oh.

-LOW BEEP

My results were perfectly normal,

but Dr Clarke expects a problem gambler

to have a very significant reaction to a near miss.

You get near misses in all gambling games.

And indeed you get near misses out there in the real world.

A lot of those real-world situations

are skill situations where the near misses really do tell you something.

If your shot at a goal bounces out off the post,

you haven't got a goal, but it tells you that you should carry on.

But in gambling games, chance, that reasoning doesn't apply

and that seems to be the main mistake that that people make

when they read too much into them.

Then it was Lewis' turn

and it quickly became clear that in his case,

it wasn't the winning that thrilled him, but the near misses.

Well, that first win that he received,

it had very little impact.

What was it when I had my first win, do you remember?

-Was it a big impact?

-Yeah, it was a clear...

-I was like, "Yay!"

-Yeah, yeah.

This is going to be a near miss?

-Yeah.

-LOW BEEP

That is definitely a much stronger response to a near miss

-than it was to the previous win.

-Exactly, yeah.

So then if you never met either of us and you put us together,

would that be sort of a suggestion that Lewis might have a problem?

Well, these near misses seem to be more significant and more salient...

Right.

..to Lewis and within a game of chance, that's a...

that's a dangerous mind-set.

LOW BEEP

You're saying that somebody who is not a problem gambler

would have a bigger response, "Hey, I've won something!"?

Yeah, these are pleasant, rewarding outcomes.

But for a problem gambler, it just doesn't have that much of an effect?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-That's fascinating.

When you remember back to when you were playing the slot machines,

would a near miss spur you to chase your money?

I would never want anyone else to win the money

that I've put in that machine,

cos I knew that that the machine would pay out soon.

You felt someone else would come along, put a pound in

-and get your money, get your win?

-That's the last thing I would want.

Yeah I think this test has shown me that...

you know, my mind really wasn't about...

-It wasn't about getting the money, it was about the thrill.

-Right.

Well, that's done enough to convince me that my brain

is wired completely differently to that of a problem gambler.

You know, I don't react that way when I gamble.

But it has made me wonder, you know,

what was my father like when he gambled?

How was he reacting?

What was going on inside his brain, you know?

Unfortunately when my dad was, you know, gambling,

we didn't have any of these techniques, you know.

We don't know, but it makes me wonder.

You know, I have a feeling that he was the same as Lewis,

you know, he got the thrills of the near misses

and the winning wasn't enough for him,

otherwise he would have stopped.

So, like drugs and alcohol, once you've been an addict,

you'll always either be an addict or an addict in recovery.

-Hi, everybody. Hi.

-Hello.

-Hello.

'This is the Problem Gambling Centre in Las Vegas,

'run by Doctor Robert Hunter.

'Normally these meetings are anonymous affairs,

'but I've been allowed to sit in on one.

'Many of these addicts

'are around my dad's age, so are these the sort of struggles

'he's been having throughout his life?

I was fully aware that I was destroying my life.

I didn't do it to forget.

I did drugs to forget.

I'm aware of that, I know I did.

But gambling, I...I made myself sick.

I've urinated my pants while I was gambling and kept gambling.

I'm down to my last 300 bucks at Boulder Station

and all of a sudden I vomit all over the machine.

And talk about creating a panic!

I left here yesterday fighting urges.

I walked in the door of my house fighting urges.

I'm fighting urges right now and I just don't...

..understand why I can't get this.

You're in the right place at the right time.

I'm sorry about the pain in your eyes, you look like someone...

who got pulled out of a burning car.

you look like you're in agony,

but I've seen that look and I've seen it turn into those looks,

so please just go where they point you, just go where they guide you.

Problem gambling is as old as man.

It's only been in the last few decades that we've had lab research

that suggests they are different, their brains ARE different.

Something different happens when they gamble.

What's the end of the line?

What's the bottom of the bottom for a gambling addict?

What's the worst-case scenario?

The major danger is to say,

"I am the architect of this destruction and despair.

"I am a bad person who has chosen to harm the people I love,

"therefore I should kill myself as a gift to them."

That's what the end of the trail looks like for a problem gambler.

'There are people here

'who will literally live or die based on how they do.

'There are people in here that will live or die

'on what they do over the next four to five days.'

You've been through the process,

you've recovered, you've relapsed.

Where do you see yourself now?

How do you feel...? What do you feel the future holds for you right now?

Oh!

HE SIGHS

To be perfectly honest with you where I'm at today,

if I don't stop,

I'm going to die.

I don't think people realise the gambling hook.

I mean, to have somebody in there who says, "I've done heroin

"and I've been able to give that up, but gambling is an issue."

I don't think a lot of people are even aware

that gambling is a problem.

There's no doubt in my mind that gambling addiction is a disease.

It's not a habit, it's not a bad habit, it's not,

"Oh, you're a bit bad with money, you don't know where to stop,"

It's a disease.

So if it's an illness, if problem gamblers really are in the grip

of such a powerful addiction,

then is it time now to make peace with my dad?

I no longer feel the resentment I once did towards him

'and so I've come back to visit his best friend, Themis,

'to ask about making contact with Dimitri.'

-Alexi.

-Thank you.

'Themis has stayed in touch with Dimitri

'even although I know he stole a huge amount of money

'from the company they were both directors of.'

He took four million.

Four million?

Four million, seventeen hundred drachmas...

-And he disappeared.

-And he disappeared.

Do you think he took it because he wanted to go and gamble,

or do you think he took it because he was owing money, or...?

To... To play, to gamble.

Everybody knew he was ill, ill,

had the problem with gambling, and yet

everybody was always lending him money, trying to help him.

If you knew that Dimitri was stealing money or borrowing money

-to buy drugs because he was a drug addict...

-Yes.

..that would have been different, wouldn't it?

We never gave to him money in order to play.

Just giving him something in order just to live.

Nobody was hating Dimitri, or even being angry with him

that, er...he took from me money.

They never could be normal fathers, or normal husbands,

and so these people, I believe it.

'But then as we spoke, Themis told me some shocking news about my father.'

Unfortunately the latest news about him

is very bad.

-He is ill, seriously ill.

-What's wrong with him now?

Yeah, I'm afraid it is about cancer

in, er...at his throat, throat.

-Throat.

-Yeah, throat.

Do you think I should go and see Dimitri?

Write to him some words. "I have heard that you are ill.

"I am thinking about you." Don't go to see him.

You don't think so? Too upsetting?

I think he was a victim of a very nasty addiction.

You know, people kept lending him money to help him,

but by helping him they were killing him.

That money was going straight back onto card tables,

casinos, you name it.

I suppose you live with the consequences of what you've done,

but I just find it very difficult to sort of accept that right now.

I don't know, maybe I'm being dramatic, but an image of...

..someone in a hospital bed,

you know, someone who was so social...

..just alone, in prison.

No-one visiting him, no-one caring for him,

nobody bringing him anything.

Nobody really caring whether he's going to recover,

or if he's feeling comfortable, or if he's....

HE SNIFFS

"Dear Dimitri, I've been hearing your news from Themis and Mum.

"I'm sorry to hear that you're not well.

"When I was growing up I never understood why you left.

"I always thought you just preferred to be on your own, away from us.

"I missed having a father.

"However, during the making of this documentary

"I've learnt a lot about people like you, gambling addicts,

"people who can't stop themselves from gambling.

"You never stood a chance.

"Your addiction to gambling is what drove you to steal and borrow

"and is ultimately what landed you in jail.

"Many people call this a hidden addiction.

"At first I didn't really understand why, but I do now.

"It often goes undetected by others

"and it's easy to deny it yourself, if you have it.

"For all it's worth I think you're a gambling addict and I forgive you.

"I wish things had been different. Alexis."

But before I even got to send the letter I received news of my dad.

I'd returned to the UK to complete filming for this documentary.

I got a phone call

telling me that my dad passed away

in hospital, still in prison.

He never got the letter.

I found myself on the phone organising a funeral for my father,

which I couldn't even attend.

So he was buried with no-one there.

And that is a...

..that is a sad end for anybody,

but unfortunately I think it's quite a common end for...gamblers.

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