From ludopath to save the gambling addicts: "I played face or cross if I asked for help or threw myself on the balcony"

• Society. "I stole my mother and became another; I will die being a ludopath."
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"The last time I played was 30 years ago. I had one coin left in my pocket. I don't understand why, because I never had money, I spent it all. I went out to the balcony of my house and threw the coin in the air. If it goes expensive "I ask for help. If a cross comes out, it kills me ... I was fed up. And I would have thrown myself so at ease. I weighed 55 kilos and measured 1.80. My wife had abandoned me, lost my job and my family. I had committed crimes to be able to continue playing. It was a complete chaos. And I wanted to die ... But I threw the coin and it was expensive. It is the last time that I have played and the only one that I have won ".

- Since when are you ex ludopath?

-I'm still a ludopath. I haven't played for 30 years, but I'm still a gambler. This is a disease for life . I am clear what I am. I am not proud of what I have been, but of what I am now.

What has been Francesc Perendreu is a dome , a gulf that came to earn half a million pesetas a month working as a gigolo in the Barcelona of the 70s and that was spent up to nine million on slot machines. That he didn't get hooked on bingo because when the classrooms were opened at four in the afternoon, he didn't have a hard time left. That he began to play with 19 years and that for another nine he descended to hell waiting for the three sevens in the same row, or the happy dollar symbols to come out of a damn time. And the case is that they never left.

What is today Francesc Perendreu is president of Acencas, the Catalan Association of Social Addictions, and the only former player who sits at the table of the Advisory Council for Responsible Gambling of the Ministry of Finance . He founded the first association of ludopaths of Catalonia and the second also. 25 years ago, he expanded his center to what he calls "social addictions", summarized in the collection of books that decorate his office, something like the complete vice bibliography: manuals on addiction to sex, drugs, to food, alcohol, internet shopping and, above all, the game, the last great epidemic.

The first time you play for the prize, but soon discover something much more important than money; that when you play, you don't think

The gambling market grew last year by 25% in Spain. Sports betting has increased, which has tripled since 2013, but also the expense in casinos and bingo halls, poker tournaments and lifelong machines. And it triggers, above all, the online gaming sector. Only last year, more than 17,349 million euros were played in our country, 30.5% more than in 2017 , according to the Annual Report of the General Directorate of the Game. In the first half of last year, players spent more money online than in the whole of 2016.

Today's gamblers no longer resemble Francesc. «I was a face-to-face player. I had to go to the bar, I had to show myself, they saw me and I saw how the money disappeared from my pockets. Now they play through this (and pick up the mobile phone like someone who wields a revolver at the bank door). Today they are invisible, they can play 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and nobody sees them ».

17 years ago, American psychologists Robert Breen and Mark Zimmerman warned that slot machines were the "cocaine of the game . " Today, experts say that, in reality, the slots were like cannabis. The real hard drug is the online game. The danger has multiplied.

"Today they play with plastic money, they don't see how the coins disappear and they think they control," says Francesc. «They bet and believe that they know so much about sport that they will win. I threw a coin and didn't control anything. Today the risk is infinitely greater although the fund is always the same ».

-What is the background? Why does a ludopath play?

-For fear of facing life, for fear of failure. The first time you play for the prize, but soon discover something much more important than money; That when you play, you don't think.

In the gotelé of its offices, located a few meters from the Sagrada Familia, hangs a picture with a black spiral like those spirals that light up to repel mosquitoes. At one end the spiral of the frame is split. "Right here I enter," he says. «When the spiral breaks».

At six in the afternoon there is group therapy at the headquarters of Acencas and one imagines a scene like those in the movies.

-Hi, my name is Kevin and I'm addicted.

-Hoooola, Keeeeevin.

-We love you, Keeeeevin.

Kevin will be called Sergi. Or Carles. Or Victor. Or Joan. (The names are fiction). In this movie six men sit in a circle, in office chairs next to an artificial Christmas tree that someone forgot to pick up in January. There are no donuts or jugs of coffee. Just a pack of chewing gum that rula. Everyone is addicted to the game, except one, addicted to alcohol and cocaine. «The mechanism is the same. What engages is disconnection, ”Francesc insists. "Nobody plays for money, just like nobody is an alcoholic because of the taste of alcohol . "

For about an hour the six men are sharing their particular tragedy interrupting each other but drawing without realizing a single portrait of the gambling:

«You start playing by chance. With the change, because your friends play ... Until one day you have the bad luck that you get the jackpot ».

"That day you spend 100 euros and you go home with 400. You leave the bar with a rush, but before you get home you spend it in the next three bars."

«The game is like a lover. When you have problems, you play. When you are happy, you play. If you are tense, you play. If you are desperate, you play ».

«There comes a time when winning or losing doesn't matter to you. Even if you win soon, you get angry because what you want is to keep playing ».

«And in the end you lose everything. Work, family, dignity. You lose everything for nothing, for a fantasy of success ».

«Then you just want it to end. You think: I hope they catch me . But you don't ask for help until you hit bottom. Until you get caught and someone forces you to come ».

«We think we are big men and we are not real men. When you get to therapy it is because you no longer know yourself.

It's the day you spend 1,800 euros in one hour. When 50,000 fly in one day. When they give you 5 in the morning in front of the computer. The day your wife thought you had a secret son or when at home they thought you spent it all on whores. The day you bought a thermomix and your family saw such a gap in the bill that they thought you had relapsed again.

-What is the most dramatic case you have ever known?

-A came a man who had bet on his wife.

Francesc's six patients are men. All respond to the profile type. 87% of the players in Spain are men, the majority (39.4%) men between 26 and 35 years . Those who got hooked on slots or bingo are older and lower middle class. Those who play online have more money and are younger and younger.

Rafa (we'll call him Rafa) is 21 years old and started playing when he was barely of age. First in a recreation room, then from your phone. He got hooked on an online casino and ended up betting on every day of the League. When his parents took him to talk to Francesc, he had already lost almost 15,000 euros.

«If you win, you feel that you are the best in the world. 'I've done it, I've done it myself.' When you lose, you are the worst ... But in a while you think you can recover it, that you will be the best again. You think one day the bell will ring and you will get rich, ”he says . “There are people who listen to music to escape or drive fast to feel other emotions. I replaced the emptiness of happiness betting ».

The number of active users to the game online in 2017 (last reference of the Ministry of Finance) was almost 1.4 million and the average expenditure, 32 euros a month, 7.39 a week. Marketing and sponsorship campaigns have tripled in the last five years and in parallel the number of bookmakers that open in stores throughout Spain increases.

There are already more than 3,000 establishments. The formula is always similar. They open in the most economically depressed areas of each city. The doors are tinted like the windows of a minister's car and there are no windows inside, so one ends up losing track of time. Inside there is usually much cheaper food and drink than in the corner bar. Sandwiches and puppies at one euro, drinks at four euros . "Because you like to play big," says a sign at the door. «Because in emotion you always win». "Because you trust you."

Only in Madrid, the number of game rooms has doubled in the last five years and in the poorest districts the increase reaches 500%.

The game is like a lover. When you have problems, you play. When you are happy, you play. If you are tense, you play. If you are desperate, you play

"A street game machine, any one, is a company with four partners," Francesc Perendreu explains as if he were a school teacher. «The first is the owner of the premises, which takes 50%. The second, the machine operator, who takes another 50%. The third partner is the Administration, which sucks everyone. And the fourth you know who he is ... The player is the only one who fills, the one who makes the others win but never withdraws their dividends. He always puts them back so that others keep winning. This is the game ... And the online game works the same, but without the bar ».

-How does this climbing stop?

-You have to regulate the sector because banning it is useless. There are also food addicts and we don't ban the markets . Or sex addicts ... Banning the game would only generate a more dangerous black market . In Spain there are prevention campaigns for tobacco or alcohol because health costs are very high. But what is the cost of gambling for the Administration? If the main employer of the game in Spain is the Government ... What needs to be done is to prevent this from being hahaha and regulate a business that catches more kids every day. No one can tell you 'play, play, play, win, win, win' because it is false. Not win.

While that regulation arrives, about 46,000 players have registered in the General Register of Access to Game Interdictions, the list of addicts who voluntarily request that they be prohibited from playing. Last year the highs grew 40%. 53.9% of new registrants were between 18 and 35 years old.

-Francesc, have you ever played again?

-I bought a tenth of the Lottery at Christmas and it doesn't touch me in the fucking life.

- And have you been afraid to relapse?

-Not now. But I have had it. When I had not played for a year and a half, I went to dance with my wife one night. Suddenly a conga sounded and it was the same music from the machines I played. I turned at once . I was so scared that I decided to take the step to help others.

Are you a compulsive player?

Drop down

Most compulsive players will answer 'yes' to at least seven of the following questions

• Have you ever stopped working due to the game?
• Has the game caused your family life to be unhappy?
• Has your reputation been affected by the game?
• Have you ever felt regrets after playing?
• Have you ever played to pay off your debts?
• After losing, have you returned to play to recover the lost?
• Do you play often until the money runs out?
• After winning, did you have the impulse to play again to win more?
• Have you ever borrowed money to continue playing?
• Have you sold any property to finance the game?
• Do you have trouble using the game money for normal expenses?
• Have you neglected your family's welfare for the game?
• Have you ever played longer than expected?
• Have you ever played to escape everyday problems?
• Have you committed any illegal act to finance the game?
• Have you planned any illegal acts to finance the game?
• Have you had trouble sleeping because of the game?
• Do the discussions make you want to play more?
• Have you ever celebrated good news with hours of play?
• Have you ever thought that self-destruction is a consequence of the game?

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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