LISTEN | How childhood gambling habit destroyed one man’s life

What started as a game with a single one-rand coin at the age of 13 turned into a 32-year gambling addiction that cost *Raymond Phillips his marriage, his career, more than R1m and nearly his life.

Today, at 45, Phillips is unemployed, rebuilding his life after completing a gambling rehabilitation programme.

Having lost everything, including his wife through divorce, he is appealing for employment as he continues his recovery and shares his story to warn others about the dangers of gambling addiction.

“I lost everything I held dear to me. Gambling took my jobs, my money, my marriage and my family. It stripped me of everything I had worked for,” he said.

His addiction began in Cape Town, where he spent his afternoons playing Street Fighter and other arcade games at a neighbourhood spaza shop. Next to the arcade machines was an illegal gambling triple seven slot machine where children could insert 50-cent or R1 coins in the hope of winning more money.

“I used to play Street Fighter, but next to it was this gambling machine. I would watch people put in 50 cents and get a whole lot of coins back. As a child, that was exciting. I thought if I won money, I could just play more Street Fighter.”

He said there was no adult intervention in those machines despite him being only 13 years old. “The owners didn’t care because they were making money from us.”

Looking back, he said he did not realise he had become addicted. “I thought I was just having fun. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t stop,” said Phillips.

At first, you think you’re playing for fun, but eventually you’re chasing the feeling and chasing your losses

—  Raymond Phillips

Years later, counselling helped him understand what had happened. “At first, you think you’re playing for fun, but eventually you’re chasing the feeling and chasing your losses,” he explained.

However, gambling followed him even in his adulthood where he used his National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funds to graduate from gambling at small neighbourhood machines to playing slot machines.

After moving to Johannesburg, his gambling habit subsided briefly until a traumatic incident changed everything. In 2015, while travelling home from work by train, he was shot in the leg during a robbery.

While recovering, a colleague arranged transport with another employee who introduced him to online gambling, reigniting his gambling appetite. “He told me he had won R3,000 after gambling R300 online. He showed me how to register. He didn’t know my history. From that moment I was hooked again.”

This time, Phillips said, the addiction became far worse because gambling was available at any time through his cellphone. As his addiction deepened, he began gambling away his salary and hiding the truth from his family.

“I lied to my wife, I lied to my family, I lied to my colleagues. Addiction makes you lie because you’re ashamed,” he explained.

He also persuaded colleagues to contribute to a workplace stokvel, only to use the money to fund his gambling. “I had around R25,000 of other people’s money. I gambled it all away. I was so desperate that I quit my job just to cash out my pension so I could pay everyone back before they found out.”

After getting his pension payout, he paid his colleagues and gambled away the rest. Later, he received his lawsuit payout of R325,000 from the railway company for the injury he sustained when he was shot in the leg during the robbery. He used over 70% of the payout on gambling and lied to his wife, saying he had invested the money.

His wife reached a breaking point in 2020 when she was pregnant with their second child after he told her that the money he claimed to have saved up had been gambled and nothing remained.

His wife later divorced him.

Phillips only sought professional help in 2025. “I never believed in counselling. I was wrong. Counselling saved my life.”

After more than 30 years of addiction, Phillips completed rehabilitation and now volunteers to educate others about problem gambling. “I suffered in silence because I was too ashamed to ask for help. Nobody beats this addiction alone.”

He warns that children are especially vulnerable to gambling, particularly online, and hopes his story will stop others from making the same mistakes.

* Not his real name