A man who lost \u00a3500,000 betting has described how his gambling addiction started with gaming as a teenager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jordan Lea, from Llysfaen, Conwy county, started placing bets at about 14, and by his late 20s, was in huge debt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has set up a gambling help charity that is seeing “a huge amount” of young people getting hooked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early education on problem gambling is urgently needed, Public Health Wales (PHW) said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Lea said there was “a very prominent link” between gaming and gambling, adding: “I actually became addicted to gambling through gaming when I was 14 or 15 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“By the time I was 18, I was already primed for quite a severe gambling addiction, which led me down a [path to the] criminal justice system.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By his late 20s, his life had collapsed into debt and compulsive betting, he told BBC Radio Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But his life changed when a casino croupier confronted him about his problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I just broke down in tears,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“That was the catalyst that really pushed me to get help.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He later founded Deal Me Out, an awareness and education charity on gambling and gaming-related harms in Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“People call it the hidden addiction,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“With online gambling it’s on your phone, you have a casino in your pocket. You can do that on the toilet without being seen by anyone.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He believes a “severe lack of education” about the dangers of gambling meant his problems went unacknowledged for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a support worker, his “primary concern” is now for young people getting hooked online “through skin betting with crypto websites”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said “frontline education” is needed for young people and their parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PHW said the links between gambling and gaming need to be acknowledged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It called for urgent action to tighten “regulation of gambling industry advertising and practices”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The organisation also wants early education, more addiction support, and help from frontline health workers to identify problem gamblers and get them the help they need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
PHW’s Annie Ashman said harmful gambling was having “devastating effects” on health and wellbeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“A system-wide approach is needed to take action on every level of the causes and resulting harms that gambling can have,” she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This includes knocking down the barrier of shame and stigma, early education in schools, empowering GPs and other frontline services to identify and refer on to specialist services.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A man who lost \u00a3500,000 betting has described how his gambling addiction started with gaming as a teenager. Jordan Lea, from Llysfaen, Conwy county, started placing bets at about 14, and by his late 20s, was in huge debt. He has set up a gambling help charity that is seeing “a huge amount” of young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}