"My dad bet on the horses. And that affected me as I ended up in care from when I was a baby because of it. I got taken off of my mum and dad cause my dad used to gamble all the money and batter my mum and fight with her. The two of them used to fight. He used to batter her so I ended up in care most of my life. He would go out, get paid, get his wages, gamble it, go mad wae it, get mad wae it and then go gambling and he’d come back after losing everything and batter my mum. That's why I don’t gamble. Fair do’s that some people think it’s good, but it’s not. It’s bad.

My mum and dad were homeless quite a lot because my dad rattled all the money and they couldn’t pay bills and stuff like that. They would get papped out the house, then they’d have to move cause he was tappin’ people money to pay for his gambling. There was one point he took money off of a money lender and he wouldn’t pay it back. The guy threatened to take his legs off him so we had to move. I got put back in care after that.

It all comes hand in hand though, doesn't it? Addiction. Addiction starts when you're younger and then it might not stop there. I started when I was 13 or 14, smoking weed and then it went on to eccies, speed, coke, and then when I was 30 it was smack and valium. I never drank. Drink wasn’t my thing because of my dad. I went down the road of taking downers like valium and stuff like that to sedate myself. The gateway drug isn’t cannabis, it's circumstances. It's your mental health, the quicker you get out of that mindset the better.

Gambling is destruction. If you start gambling, destruction follows. Same as it follows behind other addictions. Carnage, mayhem, destruction, paranoia, fear, anxiety and then they bring all their pals with them. You start dramatizing things in your head. You rationalise it in your head thinking it’s a good thing. And then once you’ve spent all the money you start thinking about things that could happen and worry more."