'My friends and family had no idea how much trouble I was in,' recovering gambling addict says 

A new report examining the links between gambling addiction and suicide has been published, as a recovering gambling addict from Cork explains that it’s a particularly isolating addiction as it can be easy to hide.

Gambling was identified in the coroner files of 23 deaths by suicide in Ireland over a six-year period since 2015, according to the results of the first national study to investigate links between suicide and gambling.

Six Irish researchers worked on the report, including Cork’s Katerina Kavalidou of the National Suicide Research Foundation and University College Cork.

The study found that gambling was documented in 23, or 0.6% of all deaths by probable suicide recorded over this six-year period.

The study — a qualitative analysis of people who died by suicide and had gambling documented in their coronial file — also found an over-representation of males at 91%.

Studies from several jurisdictions have shown that, among people receiving treatment for problem gambling, between 22% and 81% have thought about suicide, and 7% to 30% have attempted suicide.

A recovering gambling addict from Cork told The Echo: “The thing about gambling is that everything can look fine on the outside, but there can be so much pain on the inside.

“It’s completely different to being addicted to drink and drugs where people can see you falling around. It’s not like you have to go into the bookies like the old days, now you can be placing bets on your phone any time of the day or night.

“My friends and family had no idea how much trouble I was in, and you kind of don’t want to tell anyone or ask for help because you want to protect the addiction, or you’ve asked them to borrow money recently and don’t want them to know that’s what you needed it for.

“I didn’t want to have to stop gambling, especially as it felt like it was the solution to my money issues, like if I won big then the problem would just go away anyway, so you get very secretive and it can really isolate you from people.

“When you lose a big amount of money it’s the worst feeling in the world, and even when you win one you think, ‘why didn’t I put more money on, then I could have won even more’, and next time you have to bet more, so there’s regret either way, but you keep thinking the next one will be different.”

Mick Devine, clinical director of Cork treatment centre Tabor Lodge previously told The Echo: “There isn’t an inebriation that goes with gambling, no tell-tale sign that someone’s been doing it, so it’s a lot more hideable.

“It’s usually pretty serious financial consequences that bring people to treatment, a lot of debt but also a lot of secrecy which can lead to a crisis — it’s not unusual for there to be self-harm and suicidal thoughts.”

The report called for standardisation and improvements in the detection of gambling in deaths by suicide and advances in gambling operator data sharing practices, such as betting accounts of the deceased, saying this could aid in identifying gambling products that are higher risk and are therefore in need of more stringent regulation.

In October, 2024, the Gambling Regulation Act was passed into law in Ireland.

This allows for the establishment of the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, which is expected to be set up in the coming weeks.