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Just read the article in the RP about this book that has just come out. It starts off with former cricketer Patrick Foster saying that on his first day in a bookies, he tried the FOBTs and won £72, and his life was "changed forever".
So I was anticipating this being another horror story about FOBTs.
But not sure that was the case, because we then learn that he won £35K on a football acca, and it sounds like he thought he could make a living from betting.
So flush from that success, he started increasing stakes.
It then presumably didn't work out and things came to a head in 2018 and he decided he was going to try and win big and dig himself out of a hole.
Was that on the fobts, or in a bumper in the last at Thurles, or on a football bet, or on a fav at Brough Park?
No, at the Cheltenham festival. His aim was to win from a starting point of £10K, half-a-million pounds.
He adds: "I literally gambled all day, every day, betting on everything, not just the festival, it was a total roller-coaster"
He won £58K on the Thursday, and decided to go all in order to reach his target, not on some random event, but on the Gold Cup favourite, Mighty Bite (and hence the title of his book). It finished second to Native River and "saw his world fall apart".
So while I don't dispute he had issues, this doesn't sound like someone who gambled away everything on anything he could bet on, such as the fobts.
The fact he targeted the Cheltenham festival and had a considered bet on the favourite for the Gold Cup, could suggest he was just someone who thought he could make the game pay but ended up losing everything.
So it begs the question, what if Mighty Bite had won and he'd collected the £250K or more?
A thin line between being a successful gambler and a gambling addict?
Whatever, he's got his book out, and is now a director of education for Epic Risk Management, "the leading gambling harm minimisation organisation". He is also an ambassador for the Minitridge Foundation, a charity "which uses sporting role models to empower young people".
So I was anticipating this being another horror story about FOBTs.
But not sure that was the case, because we then learn that he won £35K on a football acca, and it sounds like he thought he could make a living from betting.
So flush from that success, he started increasing stakes.
It then presumably didn't work out and things came to a head in 2018 and he decided he was going to try and win big and dig himself out of a hole.
Was that on the fobts, or in a bumper in the last at Thurles, or on a football bet, or on a fav at Brough Park?
No, at the Cheltenham festival. His aim was to win from a starting point of £10K, half-a-million pounds.
He adds: "I literally gambled all day, every day, betting on everything, not just the festival, it was a total roller-coaster"
He won £58K on the Thursday, and decided to go all in order to reach his target, not on some random event, but on the Gold Cup favourite, Mighty Bite (and hence the title of his book). It finished second to Native River and "saw his world fall apart".
So while I don't dispute he had issues, this doesn't sound like someone who gambled away everything on anything he could bet on, such as the fobts.
The fact he targeted the Cheltenham festival and had a considered bet on the favourite for the Gold Cup, could suggest he was just someone who thought he could make the game pay but ended up losing everything.
So it begs the question, what if Mighty Bite had won and he'd collected the £250K or more?
A thin line between being a successful gambler and a gambling addict?
Whatever, he's got his book out, and is now a director of education for Epic Risk Management, "the leading gambling harm minimisation organisation". He is also an ambassador for the Minitridge Foundation, a charity "which uses sporting role models to empower young people".
Show More
Maybe not quite all in, the article says he won £58K on the Thursday, then had £50K on Might Bite the next day. Doesn't say who the bet was with.
Might have to buy the book to find that out.
Might have to buy the book to find that out.
Sounds like it was on the internet, as he was working as a teacher at the time and apparently then went into class after piling the money on, and watched the Gold Cup on his laptop while the children were working.
Sounds like a load of old pony to me and more of an advertisement for his organisation.
... Yep, book released 8 MONTHS ago, nearly as fast as their results updates. 
ah, suppose then the article is being published now as it's "safer gambling week"
Just what I was thinking George…they are never far away at picking the right time….
Mind you if you calculate the cash that’s been punted over the years by each individual….and smoked…and boozed…scary..
Mind you if you calculate the cash that’s been punted over the years by each individual….and smoked…and boozed…scary..
Sounds more like Bigmart to me.
35k football acca then betting most of the bank on 1 horse.
It might work once in a blue moon for someone who then quits but carry on doing things like that and it's a certainty you go skint.
35k football acca then betting most of the bank on 1 horse.
It might work once in a blue moon for someone who then quits but carry on doing things like that and it's a certainty you go skint.
Just noticed that the article isn't behind the pay wall
https://www.racingpost.com/news/safer-gambling/i-went-from-10-to-putting-a-grand-or-more
-on-because-now-i-wanted-to-win-huge/584497
'I went from £10 to putting a grand or more on because now I wanted to win huge'
March 16, 2018. Gold Cup day. It's always a great occasion, always a great race, but that one seemed more special than most as Native River and Might Bite slugged it out in one of the most gruelling, compelling and thrilling contests to grace a Cheltenham Festival.
It was one of those epic 'remember where you were' sporting events that would live long in the memory, Native River getting up after the pair had gone stride for stride over three and a quarter pulsating miles.
Patrick Foster certainly remembers where he was when those special chasers crossed the line and a 70,000 crowd erupted, roaring their approval at the end of a remarkable race. But he wasn't cheering.
Foster knows exactly where he was that day, indeed that whole week, a week that would change his life; in fact, almost ended his life.
It's a story he has told in an astonishing book, Might Bite, a harrowing tale of the final moments of a gambler's descent to near destruction, but it's a tale that demands to be retold. And when it's told by Foster himself, it's humbling.
"I'd managed to get myself out of situations before but by March 2018 life had become pretty much unmanageable," says the 35-year-old former cricketer and gambling addict.
"I'd basically lived a double life for more than 12 years and it had become so hard to sustain, it was so exhausting. I knew I was going to get found out and it triggered an extraordinary set of circumstances when I basically thought my time was up."
The origins of this fall can be traced to university days, when Foster popped into a high street bookmaker for the first time. A first-year student at Durham dreaming of a career in cricket, he had been persuaded to go in by friends and, while they were placing their bets, the 19-year-old was drawn to the fixed-odds betting terminal.
"I didn't have a clue what was going on," he recalls. "It was an eye-opener to me.
"I watched this guy playing a FOBT, watched him punch it, kick it. He was playing roulette, feeding £20 notes into it for ten minutes, and I just thought 'I'll have a go at this'. I put £2 on green zero, it came in, I won £72, and I guess my life changed forever.
"Weirdly, I never got that feeling again, that feeling of your first win, although I would spend the best part of 13 years chasing that feeling. And there wasn't a day that went by over those 13 years when I didn't have a bet. I was absolutely hooked."
Foster had gone to Durham with a cricket career in mind. He was on Northamptonshire's books at the time and in one of his first matches for Durham MCCU, the promising fast bowler removed England batsman Jason Gallian and Australian star David Hussey.
Fiercely competitive, very driven, by his own admission he had an "addictive personality, was impulsive and compulsive". All creditable characteristics in someone aiming for sporting stardom – but when he was released from Durham's centre of excellence at the end of his first year those same personality traits would prove toxic as the gambling habit kicked in.
"That rejection really hit me," he says. "And that was when the gambling really stepped up. It was the closest thing I could find to replicating the buzz and rush of sport. I could get it on tap every day and that's where it started to become different."
And never was that more pronounced than after graduation when he moved to London to work as an insurance broker. Suddenly, with cash in his pocket amid a money-making culture, he effectively had a licence to bet on the grandest and most damaging scale.
"I became a lot more secretive," he recalls. "And then in December 2010 I won the best part of £35,000 on a football accumulator and that was a massive turning point. That gave me the feeling of invincibility.
"That said to me three things: one, I kidded myself I could make a fortune out of this – I could make it pay; two, I'd proved to myself I could win big so even if I went on a losing run it didn’t matter because a big win would follow; and three, I went from putting £10, £20, occasionally £50 on a horse to putting a grand and more on because now I'd tasted £35,000 and I wanted to win huge.
"And what I never appreciated was that winning big is when you are at your most vulnerable. Almost everyone I've met with a gambling addiction has had a big win at some point. That's when it started to get totally out of control."
Foster left London the following year and went home to his parents, determined to do the one thing that he implores anyone in his situation to do, and that's talk to someone. "But I couldn't do it," he says. "My biggest fear was letting them down. Finding the strength to reach out makes such a difference – but it's an easy thing to say, it's a bloody hard thing to do."
Among the many reasons he backed out of confiding in his parents was that he was about to start a teaching job in Oxford, a ray of hope in an otherwise bleak landscape. And for a while things were looking up.
But then came the holidays, the long days with nothing to do, and the gambling railcar was up and running again, careering towards the buffers with nothing to stop it. Which is an unfortunate metaphor given how this part of the story ended, in 2018, a few days after the curtain came down on the Cheltenham Festival.
"The school knew what was going on and my day of reckoning was arriving," he says. "I faced losing my job, my house, I faced a criminal conviction because I'd borrowed money, forged signatures, signed contracts, made up guarantors, all these things you do out of desperation. And I knew there was no way I could lie my way out of this.
"And, bizarrely, I thought the only way out was winning my way out. So I borrowed money from someone I had already borrowed off and during the festival I set upon trying to turn £10,000 into half a million in four days. I literally gambled all day, every day, betting on everything, not just the festival, it was a total roller-coaster.
"I won £58,000 on the Thursday afternoon but time was running out and I thought I could do only one thing. It had become a matter of life and death – win, and my life goes on, lose and, well . . ."
And so Foster, a man who at his peak had 76 different accounts, 65 in other people's names, and in one year alone on one of those accounts placed close to 28,000 bets, went for the big one. He piled £50,000 to win on Might Bite, went into class and, while the children sat there doing their work, he watched the Gold Cup unfold on his laptop and saw his world fall apart.
"It was the silence afterwards," Foster notes on seeing his one hope of perceived salvation beaten by four lengths. "It was eerie. It was as though the children knew."
Broke, indebted and knowing his teaching career would soon be over, days later Foster stood on the edge of the platform at Slough train station contemplating what he thought was his only solution.
"That was the point when, weirdly, something was going through my head that I had to tell someone. So I did. I told my brother. And he reacted as only he would and basically talked me down.
"It was the message I needed to hear and finally, finally, it made me put other people first. In those seconds my life had been saved. I knew I had to come clean, and I did, and the weight of the world felt like it had been lifted off my shoulders. Finally, I felt I could move forward, take a journey in the right direction."
It's a heartbreaking story but at least Foster, married now, 35 years old and with a baby boy just a few weeks old, can look forward. "I think I'm in recovery rather than recovered but every day that goes past I'm further away from a bet," he clarifies.
Now, more than four years into that recovery, Foster is director of education for Epic Risk Management, the leading gambling harm minimisation organisation. He is also an ambassador for the Mintridge Foundation, a charity which uses sporting role models to empower young people.
"I'm there," he adds, "to say I had these opportunities. I didn't make the most of them and this is what can happen."
And he loves nothing more than going into schools, sports clubs and companies and getting those messages across. "I always say if just one talk can make a difference and save someone from going through what happened to me, then it was a talk worth doing. Life is precious. I appreciate that perhaps more than many.
"I guess if I had one message, it would be that betting can be fun, but if it becomes anything other than that you need to do something about it there and then. Gambling is never a solution for a problem gambler, either financially or as a way of coping with how you are feeling.
"The impact it had on my mental health, the opportunities and time I lost, the relations it affected, were far worse than the money I lost."
https://www.racingpost.com/news/safer-gambling/i-went-from-10-to-putting-a-grand-or-more
-on-because-now-i-wanted-to-win-huge/584497
'I went from £10 to putting a grand or more on because now I wanted to win huge'
March 16, 2018. Gold Cup day. It's always a great occasion, always a great race, but that one seemed more special than most as Native River and Might Bite slugged it out in one of the most gruelling, compelling and thrilling contests to grace a Cheltenham Festival.
It was one of those epic 'remember where you were' sporting events that would live long in the memory, Native River getting up after the pair had gone stride for stride over three and a quarter pulsating miles.
Patrick Foster certainly remembers where he was when those special chasers crossed the line and a 70,000 crowd erupted, roaring their approval at the end of a remarkable race. But he wasn't cheering.
Foster knows exactly where he was that day, indeed that whole week, a week that would change his life; in fact, almost ended his life.
It's a story he has told in an astonishing book, Might Bite, a harrowing tale of the final moments of a gambler's descent to near destruction, but it's a tale that demands to be retold. And when it's told by Foster himself, it's humbling.
"I'd managed to get myself out of situations before but by March 2018 life had become pretty much unmanageable," says the 35-year-old former cricketer and gambling addict.
"I'd basically lived a double life for more than 12 years and it had become so hard to sustain, it was so exhausting. I knew I was going to get found out and it triggered an extraordinary set of circumstances when I basically thought my time was up."
The origins of this fall can be traced to university days, when Foster popped into a high street bookmaker for the first time. A first-year student at Durham dreaming of a career in cricket, he had been persuaded to go in by friends and, while they were placing their bets, the 19-year-old was drawn to the fixed-odds betting terminal.
"I didn't have a clue what was going on," he recalls. "It was an eye-opener to me.
"I watched this guy playing a FOBT, watched him punch it, kick it. He was playing roulette, feeding £20 notes into it for ten minutes, and I just thought 'I'll have a go at this'. I put £2 on green zero, it came in, I won £72, and I guess my life changed forever.
"Weirdly, I never got that feeling again, that feeling of your first win, although I would spend the best part of 13 years chasing that feeling. And there wasn't a day that went by over those 13 years when I didn't have a bet. I was absolutely hooked."
Foster had gone to Durham with a cricket career in mind. He was on Northamptonshire's books at the time and in one of his first matches for Durham MCCU, the promising fast bowler removed England batsman Jason Gallian and Australian star David Hussey.
Fiercely competitive, very driven, by his own admission he had an "addictive personality, was impulsive and compulsive". All creditable characteristics in someone aiming for sporting stardom – but when he was released from Durham's centre of excellence at the end of his first year those same personality traits would prove toxic as the gambling habit kicked in.
"That rejection really hit me," he says. "And that was when the gambling really stepped up. It was the closest thing I could find to replicating the buzz and rush of sport. I could get it on tap every day and that's where it started to become different."
And never was that more pronounced than after graduation when he moved to London to work as an insurance broker. Suddenly, with cash in his pocket amid a money-making culture, he effectively had a licence to bet on the grandest and most damaging scale.
"I became a lot more secretive," he recalls. "And then in December 2010 I won the best part of £35,000 on a football accumulator and that was a massive turning point. That gave me the feeling of invincibility.
"That said to me three things: one, I kidded myself I could make a fortune out of this – I could make it pay; two, I'd proved to myself I could win big so even if I went on a losing run it didn’t matter because a big win would follow; and three, I went from putting £10, £20, occasionally £50 on a horse to putting a grand and more on because now I'd tasted £35,000 and I wanted to win huge.
"And what I never appreciated was that winning big is when you are at your most vulnerable. Almost everyone I've met with a gambling addiction has had a big win at some point. That's when it started to get totally out of control."
Foster left London the following year and went home to his parents, determined to do the one thing that he implores anyone in his situation to do, and that's talk to someone. "But I couldn't do it," he says. "My biggest fear was letting them down. Finding the strength to reach out makes such a difference – but it's an easy thing to say, it's a bloody hard thing to do."
Among the many reasons he backed out of confiding in his parents was that he was about to start a teaching job in Oxford, a ray of hope in an otherwise bleak landscape. And for a while things were looking up.
But then came the holidays, the long days with nothing to do, and the gambling railcar was up and running again, careering towards the buffers with nothing to stop it. Which is an unfortunate metaphor given how this part of the story ended, in 2018, a few days after the curtain came down on the Cheltenham Festival.
"The school knew what was going on and my day of reckoning was arriving," he says. "I faced losing my job, my house, I faced a criminal conviction because I'd borrowed money, forged signatures, signed contracts, made up guarantors, all these things you do out of desperation. And I knew there was no way I could lie my way out of this.
"And, bizarrely, I thought the only way out was winning my way out. So I borrowed money from someone I had already borrowed off and during the festival I set upon trying to turn £10,000 into half a million in four days. I literally gambled all day, every day, betting on everything, not just the festival, it was a total roller-coaster.
"I won £58,000 on the Thursday afternoon but time was running out and I thought I could do only one thing. It had become a matter of life and death – win, and my life goes on, lose and, well . . ."
And so Foster, a man who at his peak had 76 different accounts, 65 in other people's names, and in one year alone on one of those accounts placed close to 28,000 bets, went for the big one. He piled £50,000 to win on Might Bite, went into class and, while the children sat there doing their work, he watched the Gold Cup unfold on his laptop and saw his world fall apart.
"It was the silence afterwards," Foster notes on seeing his one hope of perceived salvation beaten by four lengths. "It was eerie. It was as though the children knew."
Broke, indebted and knowing his teaching career would soon be over, days later Foster stood on the edge of the platform at Slough train station contemplating what he thought was his only solution.
"That was the point when, weirdly, something was going through my head that I had to tell someone. So I did. I told my brother. And he reacted as only he would and basically talked me down.
"It was the message I needed to hear and finally, finally, it made me put other people first. In those seconds my life had been saved. I knew I had to come clean, and I did, and the weight of the world felt like it had been lifted off my shoulders. Finally, I felt I could move forward, take a journey in the right direction."
It's a heartbreaking story but at least Foster, married now, 35 years old and with a baby boy just a few weeks old, can look forward. "I think I'm in recovery rather than recovered but every day that goes past I'm further away from a bet," he clarifies.
Now, more than four years into that recovery, Foster is director of education for Epic Risk Management, the leading gambling harm minimisation organisation. He is also an ambassador for the Mintridge Foundation, a charity which uses sporting role models to empower young people.
"I'm there," he adds, "to say I had these opportunities. I didn't make the most of them and this is what can happen."
And he loves nothing more than going into schools, sports clubs and companies and getting those messages across. "I always say if just one talk can make a difference and save someone from going through what happened to me, then it was a talk worth doing. Life is precious. I appreciate that perhaps more than many.
"I guess if I had one message, it would be that betting can be fun, but if it becomes anything other than that you need to do something about it there and then. Gambling is never a solution for a problem gambler, either financially or as a way of coping with how you are feeling.
"The impact it had on my mental health, the opportunities and time I lost, the relations it affected, were far worse than the money I lost."
So it begs the question, what if Mighty Bite had won and he'd collected the £250K or more?
Who knows ....I was lucky enough to win a similar amount last November 30th.
I still gamble , I love the buzz , and have for over 40 years.
I gave myself a 'war chest' to play with , the majority is invested.
I have no desire to up the stakes and am probably losing the same amount I was before , which is fine .....because you never know the next bet could be the one .....or two.....
Who knows ....I was lucky enough to win a similar amount last November 30th.
I still gamble , I love the buzz , and have for over 40 years.
I gave myself a 'war chest' to play with , the majority is invested.
I have no desire to up the stakes and am probably losing the same amount I was before , which is fine .....because you never know the next bet could be the one .....or two.....
sixtwosix, I presume you were doing your 'Luckys' for reasonably small stakes and hoping to one day hit the jackpot, which is what happened.
When this article starts off it talks about fobts, but then what comes across is not someone just betting on anything for a 'fix', and as he headline says in his own words:
'I went from £10 to putting a grand or more on because now I wanted to win huge'
When this article starts off it talks about fobts, but then what comes across is not someone just betting on anything for a 'fix', and as he headline says in his own words:
'I went from £10 to putting a grand or more on because now I wanted to win huge'
Cheers George, I might get the book if there are some positive reviews. At the end of the day he clearly had it in him to be a gambling addict and it was waiting to happen. The Might Bite bet is just a side shown, it was clear on Thursday how bad the ground was going to be on Friday and it was no certainty with Native River in the race. These books often have a race with circumstances like that and how the hell did he win 58k on the Thu as the results were tricky to find except for Laurina who was odds on?
I had an ante post double on Might Bit to win the KG and GC that season that would have won me over 3k, absolutely gutted when the weather stepped in and turned the Cheltenham straight into a quagmire ideally suiting Native River, but it was pretty obvious on Thu that the ground was going to be atrocious.
I had an ante post double on Might Bit to win the KG and GC that season that would have won me over 3k, absolutely gutted when the weather stepped in and turned the Cheltenham straight into a quagmire ideally suiting Native River, but it was pretty obvious on Thu that the ground was going to be atrocious.
One day 626 we'll be billionaires!
As i've always said with betting on the GGs it's the mental stimulus that's important and the challenge of the never ending puzzle.
As i've always said with betting on the GGs it's the mental stimulus that's important and the challenge of the never ending puzzle.
....
Going from Fruit machines to The Gold Cup......sounds like a person who needs to stop gambling full stop.................
I was in a bookies last week .....and one of their staff was feeding a fruit machine ......hard to believe bearing in mind what they must witness every day.........
Storm Alert, it's a good question, what did he win the £58K on (and how much did he stake to win it)?
Did he just get lucky, or was he a reasonably clued-up racing punter who had a good day, who happened to then have a strong fancy for Might Bite?
I'm going to presume he didn't win the £58k on FOBTs.
Did he just get lucky, or was he a reasonably clued-up racing punter who had a good day, who happened to then have a strong fancy for Might Bite?
I'm going to presume he didn't win the £58k on FOBTs.
If you go onto Amazon, you can use "Look Inside" to read more of it .
Just over an hour to conclude:
Newmarket 19th Oct GOOD
13:20 7f Nov Stks / 12 run 6 newcomers
13:55 7f Nov Stks / 10 run 7 newcomers
14:25 7f Nov Stks 10 run 3 newcomers (Get Stuck In 25-1 ?)
15:00 1m2f Mdn Stks 10 run 1 newcmer (Royal Deeside 25-1 -7L V Mildyjama 13-2 -4.75L V Midnight Lion 5-1)
15:35 1m2f Nursery 6 run /
16:10 1m Hcap 10 run Midheaven 25-1 > 66-1 (22 Jun effort)
16:45 1m Nov Stks / 11 run 5 newcomers
17:20 7f Nursery / 11 run (top 5 in market)
2 bets for me gl ....
Newmarket 19th Oct GOOD
13:20 7f Nov Stks / 12 run 6 newcomers
13:55 7f Nov Stks / 10 run 7 newcomers
14:25 7f Nov Stks 10 run 3 newcomers (Get Stuck In 25-1 ?)
15:00 1m2f Mdn Stks 10 run 1 newcmer (Royal Deeside 25-1 -7L V Mildyjama 13-2 -4.75L V Midnight Lion 5-1)
15:35 1m2f Nursery 6 run /
16:10 1m Hcap 10 run Midheaven 25-1 > 66-1 (22 Jun effort)
16:45 1m Nov Stks / 11 run 5 newcomers
17:20 7f Nursery / 11 run (top 5 in market)
2 bets for me gl ....
You're either a good gambler or a poor one. Less to do with addiction than many think. I understand Barney Curley went to Cheltenham's 3 days in 1971 with a few hundred and left with 50k. Did he have a gambling problem ?
And if you're going to have your full tank on one avoid a hound like Might Bite.
50k bet on the gold cup whilst teaching a class...that's a corker 
Barney Curley appears to have had a gambling problem at certain stages of his life, apparently running up huge losses with the bookies, and hence the need for the Yellow Sam coup in 1975. A hustler and chancer; admired of course for keeping his money once he had pulled off the coup and raffled off a country house for an alleged million profit (it was only worth about 200k).
Seems to have eked out a new, profitable career from being a loser. I can't wait for the Zelensky story!
Gambling is bad, Mkay...you shouldn't gamble because gambling is bad, Mkay. If you Gamble you're bad person, Mkay.
I read the article yesterday and out of curiosity looked to see how much it was on amazon. Read a very lengthy review on there which suggested the author was "privileged" and this would help to explain the large bets. Clearly the £2 FOBT bet was not really the trigger. Seemingly lost £12m over the years but funded by family and friends and being allowed to borrow. Also seemingly well paid jobs through nepotism. As I say, this is merely the gist of the reviewer on Amazon.
I bought this book - I'm about 2 thirds through it.
It's well written, and I believe it is a true story mostly, as it tells of a rampant addiction forming and in action. Like many gambling addicts he didn't really start gambling until a slightly later age (University and after that) - many of us will have started much earlier I'm sure.
It's ok as a lesson about gambling, but basically doesn't say much other than 'don't be a crazy mad gambler' IMO. If he had controlled his staking he would have been fine - staking is usually the biggest issue in problem gambling.
I personally think its nothing to do with priviledge - he ended up trying pay back payday loans, and problem gambling can happen to a millionaire.
I don't like preachy books that say 'don't gamble' as the message and so far it's not really that - though may be in latter sections when I get there.
It's a fair read for anyone interested though, from what I've read so far.
It's well written, and I believe it is a true story mostly, as it tells of a rampant addiction forming and in action. Like many gambling addicts he didn't really start gambling until a slightly later age (University and after that) - many of us will have started much earlier I'm sure.
It's ok as a lesson about gambling, but basically doesn't say much other than 'don't be a crazy mad gambler' IMO. If he had controlled his staking he would have been fine - staking is usually the biggest issue in problem gambling.
I personally think its nothing to do with priviledge - he ended up trying pay back payday loans, and problem gambling can happen to a millionaire.
I don't like preachy books that say 'don't gamble' as the message and so far it's not really that - though may be in latter sections when I get there.
It's a fair read for anyone interested though, from what I've read so far.
... Look on the brightside, you could have bought the the Patrick Veitch book, currently hanging
up in my toilet. !!
up in my toilet. !!
That Patrick Veitch book is garbage, it was given to me as a Christmas present and I struggled through it a few years ago. The first part covering going into hiding to evade the criminal he later testified against was ok. The later part was basically a journal totting up exponential winnings and like many other racing books from the 70/80's. Like those books many of the races seemed cherry picked to contain a brilliantly handicapped horse (but only with hindsight) and in particular the suggestion that picking winners involved staying up night after night studying form but the journal indicated a lot of the big bets were on unraced 2yo's 
Why bother with the book when all you need for car crash gambling is all on here 24/7?
Just over an hour to conclude:
Newmarket 19th Oct GOOD
13:20 7f Nov Stks / 12 run 6 newcomers
13:55 7f Nov Stks / 10 run 7 newcomers
14:25 7f Nov Stks 10 run 3 newcomers (Get Stuck In 4th 25-1 > 22-1 ?)
15:00 1m2f Mdn Stks 10 run 1 newcomer (Royal Deeside 4th 25-1 > 22-1 -7L V Mildyjama 8th 13-2 -4.75L V Midnight Lion 5th 5-1 > 10-3)
15:35 1m2f Nursery 6 run /
16:10 1m Hcap 10 run Midheaven 7th 25-1 > 66-1 > 80-1 > 40-1 (22 Jun effort)
16:45 1m Nov Stks / 11 run 5 newcomers
17:20 7f Nursery / 11 run (top 5 in market)
2 bets for me gl ....
Waste of an hour I'll never get back
Newmarket 19th Oct GOOD
13:20 7f Nov Stks / 12 run 6 newcomers
13:55 7f Nov Stks / 10 run 7 newcomers
14:25 7f Nov Stks 10 run 3 newcomers (Get Stuck In
4th 25-1 > 22-1 ?) 15:00 1m2f Mdn Stks 10 run 1 newcomer (Royal Deeside 4th 25-1 > 22-1 -7L V Mildyjama 8th 13-2 -4.75L V Midnight Lion 5th 5-1 > 10-3)
15:35 1m2f Nursery 6 run /
16:10 1m Hcap 10 run Midheaven
7th 25-1 > 66-1 > 80-1 > 40-1 (22 Jun effort)16:45 1m Nov Stks / 11 run 5 newcomers
17:20 7f Nursery / 11 run (top 5 in market)
2 bets for me gl ....
Waste of an hour I'll never get back
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