There was a regular customer there who was a genuine nice guy. He seemed to have everything - he had a beautiful wife and lovely kid, he was fit and healthy and had his own business running a garage. But he had no idea how to gamble, and he was bitten by the bug so bad he could not separate the act of gambling from emotion.

One day his demon manifested itself in such an extreme form I had to take drastic action: It was a Saturday morning and he was in doing the Hackney and Crayford morning BAGs meetings. And doing quite well. In fact he pretty much cleared out my morning float and then some. Eventually, about 12.30pm, he had hit the bottom of my till and I couldn't pay him anymorey. Knowing he played football on Saturday afternoon I offered to keep hold of his slip for safe keeping and pay him out at the end of the day. That way - this being before night and Sunday racing - he would have at least a day of peace with cash not burning a hole in his pocket.

Off he went, but it wasn't long before the demon was back and begging for succour. That afternoon he rang three friends and begged them to persuade me to cash his money so they could bet for him. He even rang me up himself at half-time and begged me to put a bet on for him. I said no. But he was back in the shop an hour later - still in his football kit - and he spent an hour giving me back all his winning.

I wish there was a happy end to the story, but there isn't. He left my shop that afternoon, went home, put a suit on and went to the casinos in West Kensington and lost even more money. His wife and little kid went without money for the last time and left, his garage went to pot in a pile of gambling debts - and that's the last I heard of him.

Good intentions

Throughout his fall - and it happened in the months after that story happened - one all-encompassing factor was staring me in the face: this poor man is not gambling he is just unhappy and is using betting to fill a void.

Let me just say now: if you see any symptoms of addiction in your attitude to gambling - lying, self-deceipt, cutting your budget of essentials to feed your gambling habit, stealing, mood swings - then this is not the website for you. You need to click on the Gamble Aware button at the bottom of the page and get some help. If you become addicted, gambling is the most serious of addictions, it is not to be taken lightly.. get help.

His behaviour was not how people should be reacting to in this highly-business orientated environment. He was being overly EMOTIONAL about the process of investing his money in something for possible reward. Would you, I thought, go into a bank and open a savings account because you like the colour of their sign, or invest in a company because you fancy the company's head of human resources. Probably not.

During the course of this website I want to address the issues surrounding how people view gambling, what they intend to get out of it, how they approach each bet, the strategies they adopt and, of course, help you make money out of your betting.