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'I gambled away £1m, two marriages and tried to take my life - but I'm still seeing adverts'
Sitting beside the hospital bed of his disabled daughter, Hussain Vorajee was gambling.
It was 2012, and she was spending the first year of her fragile life undergoing numerous operations at Bristol Children's Hospital. Hussain had spent the past 10 years of his placing bets.
Before the next 10 were up, he would lose more than £1m. That he had made it from his home in Gloucester to Bristol was an accomplishment.
On numerous occasions, he had gambled away the money he needed for the trip. Gambling was the first thing he did in the morning.
He gambled at work, at red traffic lights and, on one occasion, while attending a gamblers anonymous meeting. "My mind was gone," Hussain, now 49, says.
"It was very severe. I didn't know where to turn.
I tried to end my life." Hussain hasn't gambled in six years - no thanks to the industry, he says, which has surrounded him with temptation. There are 24 betting shops in Gloucester, billboards marketing the upcoming races at nearby Cheltenham Festival and a barrage of adverts at each Manchester United match the football superfan attends.
Some 62% of people say gambling advertising is "everywhere" and 31% recall seeing their first gambling advert before the age of 17, according to a study of 3,000 people by charity GambleAware published on Wednesday. Hussain feels the same: "I still struggle because every corner I turn, I feel that I'm very close to my next bet," he says.
"Even all those years of not gambling, the addiction is there. It will always be there." While the prevalence of gambling addicts like Hussain is disputed, a Gambling Commission survey of 10,000 adults in 2023 found 2.5% were "problem gamblers.
Amir Nisi
Creative and experienced content writer with 6+ years of experience lazy to create unique content strategy for News5 to turn website visitors into customers.
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