Chris Spindler said he started gambling as soon as he turned 18 as it was “what I was looking forward to most”.
His stakes started off small, but as the addiction increased, they grew bigger and bigger.
Now clean, Chris is using his experiences to help others avoid falling into the same problem he did.
The 25-year-old, who works at Callaway Golf on the production line, told the Adver of how his experience began as innocent but soon developed into an addiction.
“Most teens want to go out for drinks at that age but I wanted to smash all the bets and within days, I was signed up to every single gambling site,” he said.
“It started off very responsible with £5 and £10 stakes on the weekend but it progressed to higher stakes.
“I would throw ridiculous amounts of money at random things and it spiralled out of control.
“It got to the point where I would get paid from my job and the money would go straight out of the account. If my wages lasted longer than a couple of days it was a miracle.
It was a vicious cycle as I would lose all my wages in hours, take out a new loan on the internet but then spend all of that on bets and lose it again.
“I surprised myself how I would even survive the month to be honest.”
The debt rose to £25,000 in 2020 with Chris, who lives in West Swindon, mainly following football, which led to his parents discovering the financial problem.
“I always saw it as a way to make money with the football but there’s only one winner and it’s not the gambler,” he said.
“My parents caught me out when lots of letters arrived at the house as one day there were 15 letters all addressed to me when I came back from work.”
Chris has now been on the recovery road for three years but admits it is a gradual process.
“The last three years without gambling have been good but there has been a few relapses of course,” he said.
“It is all about being on the right path and you have to pick yourself back up and from knowing that, this last year has been better in terms of relapses.”
It is not only the fans but also players too who can fall into the gambling cycle.
Premier League footballer Ivan Toney was recently banned for eight months for betting offences, and Chris feels that the reaction is unfair.
“I personally don’t think he should be punished by it and he’s just using a product that he wears the adverts [for] every day.
“At Brentford, the club’s main sponsor is Hollywoodbets and when he won awards at Peterborough, it was sponsored by SkyBet.
“He is a walking billboard for betting companies so I feel the punishment is very harsh and there needs to be a change within the betting advertising in football.
“It’s so heavily advertised and it makes it socially acceptable to gamble.”
The Swindonian now provides advice to others going through the same issue via his website nobet.co.uk as well as his TikTok, NoBetChris, with 17,000 followers.
“I want to raise awareness and help people who are going through what I went through as it is seen as a very lonely thing,” he said.
“When you start your recovery you find that there are many people who want to help.
“You have to speak to someone that you trust and go to a meeting as no one knows about the help you can get before it’s too late.”