Talks & Media work...

26/04/09 BBC Radio 4 comment on the new increase in stakes and prizes on fruit machines

16/12/2008 - Presentation and Q and A at Kings College School in Wimbledon with 150 pupils

04/11/2008 - Presentation and Q and A at Haileybury school Hertford with 200 pupils 

13/10/2008 - 3 presentations and Q and A at Warwick shool with 600 pupils 

06/10/2008 - presentation followed by Q and A at Harrow school London (300 pupils)

'Jake has a powerful story to tell which he delivers in a very measured manner. The judicious use of powerpoint is reinforced by his own experiences, which emphasises how easy it is to find oneself in a situation where one is out of one's depth very quickly. The audience listened attentively and the discussion groups afterwards were lively. Thank you and well done! I will be in touch to book dates for next year."

With all good wishes

Father James Power

06/05/2008 - 25 minute assembly for 150 upper sixth form students at Royal Grammar School, Guildford

Jimmy Pressley - Head of Sixth form said

Jake provided the perfect sixth form assembly: hard-hitting, personal and informative while avoiding the danger of preaching to, or patronising, the students.  His message was clear and yet was delivered in an accessible and humorous manner.  The applause at the end of the assembly and subsequent comments by the students highlighted the impact that Jake made on his audience.

 

11/03/08 - 4 x 40 minute talks at Forest School, Walthamstow, London

14/01/08 - Live Sky news interview, BBC news interview and Radio 5 live - reaction to Graham Calvert story who is suing the bookmakers

11/01/2008 Presentation and 'QandA' with 150 students at Kings College School in Wimbledon (London UK)

Peter Hatch, schoolteacher had this to say 

'Jake Brindell is an engaging and realistic speaker for the subject of gambling amongst teenagers. An ex-addicted gambler, who started whilst he himself was at school, he is fully aware of the pressures placed upon teenagers to take part in gambling and yield to peer pressure. He is willing to tailor his presentation to your needs. Additionally, he is very knowledgeable of the tricks used in the gambling industry to both make it an attractive pursuit and ensure that the industry is the real winner. We will definitely be engaging him again next year.'

Thanks once again,

19/09/07 BBC Radio Ulster interview

01/09/07 Radio 5 live interview about the new gambling act in the UK

28/8/07 Radio 5 1/2hr long debate about gambling

PRESENTED a 1/2 hour Documentary for channel 4 about my life and the effects a gambling 'addiction' has on tens of thousands of families and communities in Britain today - shown 20th July 2007
click here for media reactions - link to view on youtube coming soon

TV INTERVIEW for Channel 4 Dispatches in the run up to the announcement of where Britains first super casino is to be located. It has since been shelved by the new prime minister (did the documentary have anything to do with that decision?) - shown 20th january 2007
click here for production manager's comments - link to view on youtube coming soon

TV INTERVIEW for National Geographic channel (Dec 2006)- Hasn't been finished yet

WROTE 1200 word article for local paper 'The Insight City' - click here for article

 

The Sunday Telegraph 15/07/07

Pick of the day

The Insider: Britain's Gambling Addiction

Channel 4, 7.30pm, 20/07/07

A fascinating look inside the UK's gambling industry. Tonight's 'insider' is unarguably well-qualified to present this programme. Former gambling addict Jake Brindell squandered tens of thousands of pounds on his habit – and it's not hard to see how. Britain's bookies are concentrated in the poorest areas of the country, with 95 in inner-city Hackney alone. Despite local opposition, plans are afoot to open more. The UK is also the only country in the world which allows children to gamble – this is significant as young gamblers are much more likely to become addicted. In Brindell's persuasive view, the Gambling Act is doing little to curtail the ills of this national pastime. In fact, things are getting worse. There are now 24,000 casino-style gaming machines inside bookies (Brindell lost more than £40,000 on these alone) and the internet facilitates escalating gambling debts. But will any government step in when the gambling industry raises £2 billion in taxes each year?

 

The Mail on Sunday 15/07/07

Must-see TV

The Insider
Channel 4, 7.30pm, 20/07/07

With the introduction of the Gambling Act, 2005, the Government stands to make an extra ten per cent in tax from the gaming industry, but Jake Brindell's sobering account of it's plans highlights how society's vulnerable are those most at risk from the devastating effects of gambling addiction. A reformed addict himself, Brindell labels his experience as 'a long, lonely, sad twisting nightmare', and argues that the new legislation's short-sightedness will lead to a greater exploitation of the young and those in poorer areas. His examples, such as the London borough of Hackney being home to 95 betting shops, makes this polemic convincing.

4 stars out of 5

News of The World 15/7/07

Pick of the Day

 

The Insider

Channel 4, 7.30pm, Documentary, 20/07/07

Ex gambling addict Jake Brindell argues that a relaxation of the law is turning occasional punters into betting junkies.

3 stars out of 3 – Outstanding

The Sunday Times 15/07/07

Critics' choice

Wanna bet?

The Insider (C4, 7.30pm), 20/07/07

Britain has never had a bigger gambling habit. Three out of four of us bet every week and last year we lost £9.5 billion having a flutter – a figure that is double what it was four years ago. Former addict Jake Brindell investigates why we are betting more, meets families devastated by the habit and attacks the government for liberalising Britain's already relaxed laws, claiming the Treasury is pocketing record sums from the industry while doing nothing to protect victims who are addicted to 'harmless' speculation.

The Observer 15/07/07

Pick of the Day

Channel 4, 7.30pm, 20/07/07

The Insider

Reformed gambling addict Jake Brindell argues that the government is increasing the opportunity to gamble and will be responsible for creating many more addicts with devastating effects for tens of thousands of families. The UK is the only country in the developed world which allows children to gamble, and young gamblers are three times more likely than adults to become addicted. A scandal.    

Radio Times 15/07/07

Today's Choices

Current Affairs

The Insider 7.30pm C4, 20/07/07

How much would you imagine we gamble, as a nation, every week? Tens of millions? A few hundred million maybe? Nope – it's one and a half billion pounds according to this film. Every week. That figure has almost doubled in the past five years; and the 2005 Gambling Act, which takes effect this autumn, will no doubt crank things up further.
Here, former gambling addict Jake Brindell uses his own grim experiences (at his lowest ebb, he lost £10,000 in an online poker binge) to mount a case for better social support for the 'problem gamblers' on whom, he argues, the industry depends for it's profits. Given that the government collects around £2 billion a year in taxes on the sector, you'd think that a small levy on gaming profits could be used, as it is in other countries, to help with the effects of gambling on families and businesses.

It's a thought-provoking programme, a simple, low-budget polemic that makes you shake your head in despair at times. For instance, did you know that children are legally allowed to use fruit machines at seaside arcades? it's how Brindell himself started on his downward spiral at the age of ten.

You end up feeling that if, as a society, we're encouraging people to get hooked on the buzz of gambling at such a tender age, we really are in trouble.

TV Guide 15/07/07

Pick of the Day

 

The Insider C4, 7.30pm, 250/07/07

Here's some shocking statistics for you. Three out of four Britons gamble every week, and we lose around nine-and-a-half billion pounds every year, a figure which has doubled in just four years. Reformed gambling addict Jake Brindell, who features in this episode, blames the government for the rise in addiction by increasing the opportunities to gamble – and after a 25-year addiction, he knows his subject.

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COCTAILS AND DREAMS

by Jake Brindell
Words 1209

What was that bar Tom Cruise wanted to open in Manhattan? – 'Cocktails and Dreams', that's the one, so when I first clapped eyes on Brighton in the summer of 2004 and saw the place was full of them, I had no choice, I had to come and live here. Two P45's later, my partner and I packed up the dirty midlands into two un-matching suitcases, waved goodbye to steel and coal and said hello to Leisure and Tourism.

'Come on sweetheart, it's all in the past, let's put it all behind us and start afresh'

Only my 25 year old gambling addiction had a different plan and I didn't realise what a powerful effect Brighton would have on it.

Bright flashing lights, promotions, advertising, music, a place to escape to. Brighton is an assault on the senses and bears all the hallmarks of a giant fruit machine. 'Strange' you might say, but not to a gambling addict. It makes perfect sense to me as this is where I have spent my entire life, in the middle of the action – addicted to the juice. Was I unconsciously drawn to Brighton to accelerate my downward spiral into the depths of a gambling addiction, or to bring forward my recovery? – I was going to find out.

Walking amongst the penny arcades on the Palace pier opened up a flood of childhood memories, back to when I first started gambling all those years ago, aged 10. We used to go to the seaside every summer in Hunstanton, never heard of it? well if you bend over and look behind yourself into a mirror, there it is. It didn't matter to me though, I fell in love with it, my first holiday romance, well not it, them. The fruit machines in the arcades. Now that I didn't play them anymore I could see all of todays kids getting just as excited as I used to. I'd love to pull them to one side and tell them what I've been through, but this is not the place to do it.

Strolling around the streets and shops I had never seen so many bookmakers or casinos in one place before. The triggers inside my head were going of like a pin ball machine that was playing with 6 steel balls at the same time. It was like all the progress I had made vanished at the end of the A23. This Mecca of entertainment was like a giant syringe and I gladly injected the juice it was offering into my veins. I felt a new surge of energy possess me. The gambling monster within me was back and it was so much stronger than before.

Unfortunately for us, my partner got work first when we moved down, which left me trawling the city looking for 'Cocktails and Dreams' venues after yet another fruitless job interview. Dressed sharp in a suit and feeling like James Bond I sought solace once again in the arms of the casinos. Promises of royal flushes and a glamorous clientele from the adverts outside reeled me in every time, and once inside the bright flashing lights and beautiful women croupiers with tops lower than a snakes belly would always keep my full attention.

I hit an incredible running streak and won about £25,000 in one month. All my superstitious beliefs had returned and once again I believed I had magical powers where gambling was concerned, but the house odds and drink made sure I gave it all back, plus a whole lot more.

One night in particular I recall losing £15,000 in less than two hours and when you consider I am in unskilled labour, this is the earth. However, I wasn't alone in perpetrating this crime, I had a partner, a slick operator with all the high tech gadgets at their disposal and a fool-proof manual as to how the addict's mind works – the casino management. They kept sending round a beautiful waitress who kept providing me with free double Jack Daniels. I was the only one receiving this special attention because I had £15,000 of their money and they wanted it back. Anywhere else on the planet when you have a madman running between four roulette tables, drunk as a skunk, and being plied with more free alcohol, swearing into the air as he moves, I would have been asked to leave, but not in 'Cocktails and Dreams'.

I would like to say in their defence though, that they did try and promote responsible gambling by barring me after I had trashed their roulette wheel because I lost it all.

Today I would like to thank my secret partner for playing that part because it demonstrated to me in a big way that no matter how much money I would win – I would always lose it in the end.

I have now entered a new phase in my recovery and I no longer get the urges that I used to when I walk around town. It's just as well, because Brighton already has 4 casinos and yet the council have granted planning permission for two more on the front, on the ground floors of the Hilton and the Thistle, as well as applying to the government for permission to open another one. It seems like more 'Cocktails and Dreams' venues are on their way, or should that be 'Gambling and Nightmares?'

I must state though, that I am not against gambling and I do think it should be an individual choice. If someone can enjoy gambling as a social activity, as many can, then good for them. However, for a small percentage of people it turns into a way of life, a destructive way of life, for them and those around them. They become so confused by the messages the gambling industry and the government pump out, that before they know what is happening they can be massively in debt, lose their home and family and seriously contemplate suicide as a way out.

As for me, since I moved down here, as well as gambling at the beginning, I have been busy researching this phenomenon of problem gambling and looking at what lay behind it. I have uncovered many gems of information about addictions, the industry and myself, and I share all these on a website I have developed called www.wanttostopgambling.com. The main thrust is to offer help to other problem gamblers in the form of a free help-guide that I have written (about 1 hour read) that can be downloaded online. It is receiving rave reviews from around the world and makes me immensely proud of the fantastic progress I have made. However, I do not take anything for granted and I always take it one day at a time. I currently have not gambled for a considerable length of time and I attribute this to all the work I have done on beating this 'addiction'. It is like a realignment of the planets has taken place and I feel like a new dawn has broken.

I now get far more satisfaction out of helping myself further and helping other problem gamblers, than I ever did when I was chasing money all the time that was no longer mine.

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