When online gambling started to take off in the UK, Online Casino I had been a bookmaker for close to three decades. But despite my many years of experience, I failed to see the scale of the emerging challenge, until too late.
I resigned from the board of the company I co-founded in 2016 because of deep concern that bookmakers were failing to take effective action to curb gambling addiction - but I have not written about it in public until now.
Even in the mental health arena, where I now work, gambling was considered by many to be only a quasi-addictive pursuit.

But online gambling, which places a 24-hour casino and bookmaker into every pocket and home in the country, has shifted betting from a camouflaged addiction to one that's now front page news.