John says his addiction harmed his relationship with his three children and contributed to the break-up of two marriages.
“It took me years to seek help.
“For so long I lived in chaos. There was the deceit, the lies, the manipulation of friends to lend money for my addiction. All I really thought about was gambling,” he says.
Even as a teenager in the 1980s, John remembers changing out of his school uniform to go to the bookmakers at lunchtime, using his dinner money to bet.
Then with the later advent of mobile phones, he says “everything in my life was gambling-related”.
“As soon as I woke up in the morning I’d pick up my phone to check to see if I’d won or lost the night before,” he says.