Maybe it will work out one day, thought the man at the online betting shop. He embezzled a million and a half

He was interested in betting on sports matches from a young age. On Sundays, he went to brick-and-mortar establishments, where he most often “bet” on football and hockey, later he also added tennis. He loved the ritual of watching the courses develop all week, keeping statistics, and then discussing his findings with others at the branch. It was a hobby for him, and his overall fondness for sports made it even stronger.

Everything changed with the advent of the Internet. “Betting was no longer a several-day ritual, but suddenly I could bet anywhere and anytime. I completely fell into online betting, especially after the introduction of live bets, where everything is evaluated immediately. You just don’t wait,” explains Jirka.

When he went to play floorball with his friends, he was happy for every substitution so that he could see who had just scored a goal and how the odds were moving. And also bet continuously. “I couldn’t nervously play floorball all the time, I needed information. Right away!” adds Jirka, who even bet on ping-pong matches in China, which may not even have been real. The need to bet on anything, anytime was stronger.

In his job, Jirka was in charge of finances, among other things. And so when he needed money, he reached out to the corporate ones. That’s also why the family budget seemed fine and the wife didn’t suspect anything. In fact, it worked by immediately re-betting what was won, because the winnings were never enough to pay off the debt. He lived in permanent stress and didn’t know how to get out of it. “Maybe it will work out one day and then I’ll pay everything right away,” he thought to himself.

One day there was a financial audit at work. “I was worried about what would happen when the owners found out that I basically took the one and a half million that I lost. Embezzlement, prison, divorce – all this was going through my head,” he recalls. At the same time, however, there was also a great relief. “The incredible weight that had been on me for a long time suddenly seemed to fall away. At the same time, I was going through the worst period of my life,” Jirka describes. His wife did not leave him, but he had to go for treatment immediately.

More and more players are looking for help

He was fired at work, but was not charged. He found a new job outside of his field, and even though he feared his past would come to light, it didn’t. He was even approached from his original job after a while, but he didn’t want to go back to a place where they knew about his gambling problem and where he had experienced so many disheartening moments.

In order to pay off the debt as soon as possible and ensure a relatively normal life for his wife and two children, he worked part-time jobs in the evenings and nights. He slept four to five hours a day. “It wasn’t an easy period, but maybe even the sled helped me slowly get out of it all and find out the specific weight of money. It was no longer just numbers on the display,” he points out.

For several years, he attended the Podané ruce Society in Brno, where they helped him with therapies. After some time, at the sessions of the players under the guidance of the therapist, the client became a peer consultant, i.e. a person with his own experience. “I can empathize with clients’ problems and name specific situations that happen to them in certain phases of treatment, but also during the addiction itself. I believe that my experiences can help them to realize some things and perhaps move on. If I could help one person from addiction, I would be happy for it,” announces Jirka, who has been “clean” for seven years and has almost paid off his debts.

According to the Podané ruce Company, clients have more trust in peer consultants precisely because of their past experience, and they are often important motivating factors for them – in fact, living proof that even a seemingly hopeless situation can have a tolerable solution. Recently, the company has also expanded telephone assistance (see box). In South Moravia, almost 1,200 people spoke of it last year, which was the third highest number within the republic.

“Psychological and therapeutic services have generally been overwhelmed by the interest of clients for the last two or three years, but the capacities are insufficient. This is not related to gaming, but to the mental health of society. It should also be said that there are no more pathological players, it is a relatively constant number. But the more people talk about the problem, the more people with problems dare to contact a service and look for help. And that’s a good thing,” says the professional director of Podaných roku Lukáš Carlos Hrubý.