Mark Bradshaw lost over €5 million over a twenty-year period due to online gambling.

Mark, who is originally from Yorkshire but now living in Ireland, said he could spend up to 18 hours a day betting online.

“I was introduced to horse racing gambling and sports gambling. Then as mobile technology advanced, I started online gambling. It consumed my life for almost 20 years,” Mark said.

The former rugby player, who played for England at schoolboy level, said he played on an online platform where there were zero betting limits.

“The company that operated this platform took commission from all sides. So, win, lose or draw they made money from all sides. Nobody checked up on your welfare to see what you were doing was causing any harm. It was quite the opposite in fact, if you took periods off it, they would actively come on and give you free bets,” Mark said.

Mark said he lost everything while gambling.

“I lost northwards of €5 million. I lost my family. Every part of my life fell apart because of gambling. I kept it secret for years so nobody knew what I had been doing. I lost everything,” Mark said.

According to ESRI research published today, around 12,000 adults in Ireland have been recorded as problem gamblers, with tens of thousands more recorded as being at risk from problem gambling.

Mark travelled to Portugal in order to quit gambling and to rebuild his life.

“At that point I needed to take some time to rebuild, and I chose to do that in a country where gambling isn’t as readily accessible. So, I went to Portugal. I was really at rock bottom while travelling out there,” Mark said.

Mark said it has taken him four and-a-half years to rebuild his life and move forward.

“The betting company I bet with online was an Irish betting platform. They actively encouraged me to gamble all the time. Their algorithms and their system knew exactly what it was doing. It was targeting me,” Mark said.

Mark believes there are far too many gambling licences in Ireland.

“I believe it’s in excess of a hundred and I can’t understand why you would want to give out that many licences to gambling companies. I think you could minimise that number. I also think that the legislation you put in front of companies needs to be that severe that if they break the rules they just have their licence taken off them. If they target vulnerable gamblers, they should get their licence taken off them. I think it needs to be that simple. I’m not anti-gambling, I’m anti exploitation,” Mark said.