Former conman Pat Sheedy used his time in jail to write a book about his experiences
Pat Sheedy, whose book ‘A Hundred to One’ tells the story of his struggles with gambling addiction. Photo: Mark Condren
Pat Sheedy remembers placing his first bet, for 10p, at age 12. His father had sent his son down to a bookies in their native Limerick to make the bet, which wasn’t an unusual occurrence in the 1980s.
Within a couple of years, 14-year-old Sheedy was making “the odd bet here and there”. But it was a bet he made the following year that marked the beginning of his life as a compulsive gambler and a conman who would amass close to 100 criminal convictions.