Gambling addiction: Families step up fight to tackle ‘silent killer’

Peter and Sadie Keogh lost their son Lewis, 34, after his addiction to betting became all-consuming in 2013.

Lewis took his own life after running up debts of more than £50,000 but, as mum Sadie explained, it was the feeling of hopelessness more than the debt that led to his death.

“The suicides have nothing to do with the amounts of money that these people have lost, it is to do with the addiction.

“When you get that far it’s not about the money – you just have to gamble. We knew he had debt but we didn’t know he had a gambling addiction,” she said.

“Nobody had any idea what he was struggling with.”

Peter added: “He left us a note which said ‘addiction is cruel and I need peace’. He never mentioned the money. It just creeps up on people and they feel totally helpless.”

Lewis had a degree in sports science from Teesside University and had been working for a number years as a facilities manager in Leeds.

The Keoghs will be joined at Stormont’s Long Gallery today by other parents bereaved as a result of a gambling addiction at the Gambling With Lives charity event.

Those attending are calling for “effective regulation of addictive gambling products” and an end to the “predatory marketing practices” of the big betting companies.

The Keoghs have traced the origins of Lewis’s problems back to Enniskillen when he was squandering his money in a gaming arcade while waiting on a bus home.

“He didn’t have an iPhone back then in the early 1990s, only these machines to play, so you can imagine the dangers out there for our young people today,” Peter said.

“People are starting to realise that it is a real killer. It’s like alcohol, it’s like drugs but the difference is that with gambling it is a silent killer. No one can see it happening.

“We have a unique situation in Northern Ireland. There is a Gambling Commission in England and Wales that oversees laws passed by Parliament. We want a specific body in Northern Ireland that can do that. We have a gambling crisis.”

Peter added: “We have not had a law change here regarding gambling since 1985, and that was light years ago in that it was pre-internet.”

Liz Ritchie – whose 24-year-old son Jack also took his own life due to a gambling addiction – will also be at Stormont today.

She said: “When young people are enticed into gambling they do not know that they are being given the equivalent of hard drugs – the electronic machines and online games are highly addictive. They and their families think they are safe because there is no warning. A six-year-old knows that smoking kills, who knows that gambling kills?”

• If your family has been bereaved by gambling related suicide, you can contact [email protected] or call 07864 299158.