‘I’m the happiest I’ve ever been’, says problem gambler helped to ditch habit

A Galway man who started betting as a young child now says he is the ‘happiest he has ever been’ been after turning his life around.

Chris Joyce told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that he placed his first bet on the (Aintree) Grand National, and his gambling “spiralled out of control” when he started work. His problem gambling was exposed when his mother discovered his intention to use a bank loan for betting. Two years later he was referred to the Rutland Centre for help.

Earlier this month, the centre launched Ireland’s first fully funded Gambling and Gaming Specific Outpatient Programme.

‘Defeated’

Looking back, the 31-year-old GAA coach said he was “very grateful” that his mother found the bank letter he had attempted to hide, adding: “I wouldn’t be sitting here today if it wasn’t for that.

Reflecting on the importance of family two years later, he “very quickly realised that it wasn’t a game anymore. The person I was back then was very defeated physically and mentally.

“I wasn’t sure what my focus in life was, but that has completely changed six-and-a-half years on. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been”.

‘Far too easy’

Emma Kavanagh, Head of Clinical Services at the Rutland Centre, said staff had seen an increase in problem gambling, “particularly among young men”.

She explained: “Mobile phones and online gambling apps are making the problem worse, as it’s become far too easy to place a bet anytime, anywhere.

Kavanagh  added that the Centre’s Gambling Specific Outpatient Programme “supports people in taking back control”, whether their problem is connected to “sports betting, online casinos, or other forms of gambling”.

The scheme currently has 26 funded places.

Society

At the start of the month, the Government launched the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) as part of the Gambling Regulation Act 2024.

Signing the commencement order to authorise the creation of the national watchdog, Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said the move marked “a new era for the regulation of gambling in the Irish State”.

While streamlining and simplifying Ireland’s outdated licensing framework, O’Callaghan said the GRAI would also “take into account the harms associated with problem gambling, providing safeguards to protect people from those harms, especially children”.

Once fully enacted, the Gambling Regulation Act will also create a social impact fund to address problem gambling, and ban advertising across on-demand services, television and radio between 5:30am and 9pm.