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A retired Premier League footballer that made his name as a professional for Newcastle United has revealed that he has had to file for bankruptcy following a career long gambling habit that consumed his income and resulted in the former footballer losing all of his career earnings over a number of years.
Keith Gillespie, who started his football career at Manchester United as a youth before finding recognition during his spells at Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers, earned as much as £14,000 per week while at the peak of his career.
Risk has never been something that Gillespie has feared throughout his life and following the release of his ‘How not to be a football millionaire’ book, the midfielder revealed that his life-long losses amount to more than £7 million, claiming that his addiction to gambling and bad investments were the main cause of his financial woes.
Sharing his story via his new book, Gillespie admitted that gambling came hand in hand with his footballing career, saying that his willingness to gamble came from a young age, starting when he was 16 and had just been made an apprentice for Manchester United.
Gillespie stated “I got involved in gambling pretty much straight away so most of my £46-a-week wages were spent at the bookies”.
After admitting that he was betting underage, the midfielder pointed out that his gambling obsession continued into his later years, revealing that at 19 years old he found himself spending more money at the bookies than he had spent before, saying that being alone in a hotel room meant that his gambling “spiralled out of control”.
With bookies available on almost all major high streets as well as the slow emergence of online gambling meant that accessibility of betting outlets was never too far away.
The former footballer spoke of how his life hit “a low point” as he embarked on a 48 hours gambling spree that saw him losing £47,000 in a single day which was followed up the second day with a further loss of £15,000 but it wasn’t until the media heard about the losses that he began to regret the gambling spree, saying that he found it “difficult” to explain everything to his mother and how he’d “blown money that she could only dream of” in a single 48 hour moment of madness.
As his career progressed he found himself receiving higher wages and it was the birth of online and telephone betting options that made the situation grow to the biggest low of his life, saying that as he was no longer handing money over at the point of betting, his addiction grew.
The vast availability of online betting platforms and more recently mobile slot machines means that Gillespie found his gambling spends were growing quickly and as a result he has been forced to file for bankruptcy.
Gillespie revealed that he is hoping to be able to heighten the awareness of gambling addiction and the way that it can ruin lives, sharing that at its worst he could call Ladbrokes and as soon as they heard his voice they were able to recognise his name and account number without the need to ask for it due to the frequency of bets he used to place.
