Merson was a professional footballer winning two First
Division titles with Arsenal and was arguably one of the finest players of his
generation. But for all his football career and beyond, he was addicted to
alcohol, drugs, and gambling. His addictions, coupled with deep depression, led
him to thoughts of suicide 'I've come to realise that I'm powerless over
alcohol ... I'm an alcoholic. My drinking and gambling have left a lot of
wreckage.'I wanted to kill myself. I couldn't go on anymore. I couldn't see a
way out.'
Fortunately, he managed to face his demons, saying, 'One
day, I was walking home from the pub late on a Sunday evening, and I thought
I've had enough of feeling like this, every day of my life. I rang up
Alcoholics Anonymous the next day, and since then, I haven't had a drink.'
Merson estimates he lost over £7 million on gambling since
becoming addicted, playing cards as a teenager. He even took the deposit he and
his wife had saved for a new home and spent it on gambling. Although not
mentioned in the book, when Merson was asked by Cambridge and Imperial College
London researchers to have his brain hot-wired to one of their machines, it
went haywire when he felt tempted to have a bet. His brain was docile when
shown images of family life and beautiful natural scenery, and when shown dice throwing
or a roulette wheel, it went mad.
Merson's story is by no means unique, as one person a day
dies from a gambling-related suicide. It is estimated by the Gambling
Commission that there are over two million people in the UK who have a gambling
addiction. Most of these people run up large debts and are prone to depression;
some end up killing themselves.
While Merson is heavily critical of the gambling industry,
his book does not delve into the capitalist nature of the gambling industry.
The industry is one of the most predatory enterprises, predicated on the mantra
that the 'house' always wins. Merson's despair is felt by millions of people
like him, and the betting companies like Bet365 prey on this despair and make
millions out of it. It is no accident that Britain's highest-paid CEO has built
her fortune on online gambling. Recently Denise Coates made an obscene £265
million.
As Jean Shaoul writes, "Gambling revenues are
overwhelmingly based upon the exploitation of the poor as well as those on the
threshold of poverty, for whom the dream of winning provides a means of
escaping a world of constant nagging worry over how to make ends meet,
horrendous journeys to work and then being exploited in low-wage jobs by highly
paid bosses. General statistics for gambling, including online betting, show
that just under half the UK's population (48 per cent) participate. After this,
breakdowns focus on gender and age rather than income and social class.
However, betting shops are most likely to be found in Britain's poorest
communities, with the east London borough of Newham hosting 86 shops, including
18 on one high street, each with their permitted maximum of four fixed-odds
betting terminals (FOBTs) that can take £100 bets every 20 seconds. This
contrasts with 56 in the southwest London borough, which has a similar
population but is considerably wealthier.[1]
Merson does not sugarcoat this terrible period of his life,
and his book is an unflinchingly honest memoir of his battle with addiction. He
is now recovering, having not touched a drop of alcohol or gambled. But his biggest
problem is whether he could continue sober. In his own words, he says, "This
is it. This is the last chance saloon." I hope he makes it, not because I
am an Arsenal fan and Merson was one of a group of outstanding, talented
footballers, but because he is trying to survive.
Perhaps more importantly, Hooked has opened up a national
debate about addiction, depression and the damage they cause. As Shaoul states,
gambling is an unhealthy industry emphasises social inequality, acting as a
cash nexus, transforming everyone and everything into a commodity. Its growth is
another example of social decay, a parasitic enterprise that appeals to the worst
instincts: greed, individualism and indifference. Such diseased enterprises are
the norm today, with governments embracing gambling at the same time as profits
of the banks and other financial institutions have become ever more reliant on
forms of speculation, divorced from the creation of social wealth, such as
trading in currency futures."[2]
[1]
Britain’s highest paid CEO built fortune on online gambling- Jean Shaoul- https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/12/05/casi-d05.html
[2] Britain’s highest paid CEO built fortune on online gambling- Jean Shaoul- https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/12/05/casi-d05.html
