Declan Lynch

One of the podcasts I listen to on a regular basis is Football Weeky. One of the regular guests is an Irish sports journalist called Barry Glendenning. He comes across as your typical loveable Irish rogue who likes to have a drink, a cigarette, and a bet. Despite these vices he is very vocal about the pernicious influence sports betting companies have and their constant advertising during sporting events. He is not alone in calling for gambling sponsorship in sports to be banned in the UK and Ireland in the same way that tobacco sponsorship is. During one of these podcast conversations about the subject he mentioned this book which tells the true story of Tony O'Reilly, a postman from Gorey who gambled 10m euros and lost it all. Obviously 10m is a lot and so he had to start stealing from his employers to fund his addiction. When he was finally caught he has stolen 1.7m euros with nothing so show for it.

I loved this book and read it in less than a day as it was so engaging. The story itself is crazy and it beggars belief that he managed to get away with his crime on scale he did despite numerous opportunities for An Post to catch him out. It is fair to say that gambling completely consumed his life and you get the sense that he was almost relieved to get caught. One heart breaking part comes early in the book when he has something like 8000 euros in debt and wins 9000 euros, enough to cover his debt and take his wife on holiday with the extra. He decides that he will call it quits and walk away from gambling. Unfortunately it is also the weekend of the Galway Festival and he just can't avoid the temptation and loses it all and then more very quickly. By the end of his gambling run he is betting on any sport, anywhere in the world for tens of thousands a go. At one point he manages to win 480,000 euros in four days and then gambles it away in the space of 12 hours. At no point does Paddy Power, the company he has his online betting account with ever look at how he is affording the huge amounts he wagers. They also never refuse a bet from him, even going to the extent of phoning him up and giving him a direct number for Paddy Power himself when the online system goes down so that he can place bets. Reading this book it is very clear that despite the gambling industry's claims that they have safeguarding for their customers, this is just lip service and all they care about is taking your money.

This is a superbly written book and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to people who may be interested in the subject.… (más)