Might Bite: The Secret Life of a Gambling Addict Paperback – 15 February 2024

Encapsulates the lure of gambling and the devastating effects it can have, yet the strength of personal character with strong support to pull through.Tremendous turnaround after truly dark adversity.

What is particularly revealing about this tale is the sheer extent to which upper middle class people trade upon their social capital. The author is the product of an intact family and an elite private school education, and as a result was borne inexorably aloft, first into a lucrative career in insurance and then into a teaching job created for him on the basis of his familial contacts, even though he had at the time not so much as the benefit of a teaching qualification. The trust he enjoyed in both these positions and concomitant absence of supervision meant that he was able to abuse his employers‘ confidence in him to spend substantial amounts of time during the working day indulging his all-consuming passion for gambling. He placed bets while teaching lessons, even when these involved coaching sports. His persuasive demeanour meant that high-earning friends, colleagues, and even the wealthy parents of the children he taught were happy enough to lend him money without asking too many questions, while his parents more than once took out loans to cover his gambling debts. It must be a rarified world indeed where a casual acquaintance immediately transfers several thousand pounds into your bank account in response to an email request that furnishes only a vague explanation as to why the funds are needed! Thus he was endlessly cushioned by his wealthy background, prestigious social contacts and the ill-placed assumptions others made about his integrity, based purely on his social class. Not once did his card payment bounce, even when his accumulated debts had reached six figures, nor was he ever reprimanded for perusing his phone constantly during lessons he was teaching. Even after being caught out lying about damage he had caused to the school minibus and making requests for loans to tide him over in ever wider circles, he was still promoted to a role as Head of Year! One suspects that his rock bottom would have come calling a good deal sooner had he been a working class liar and conman, with fewer resources and zero social credit, as opposed to the member of an altogether more elite type of hustler.By the time it does, Foster has already won, and lost, a small fortune several times over, estimating that in twelve years he has placed bets worth around £4 million. But even after he had lost his job and the accommodation that went with it, his middle class credentials continued to come to the rescue. His parents stepped in to arrange rehab and jointly, with the Professional Cricket Association, to pay off £18,000 of his more urgent debts. The PCA also offered financial help with treatment and paid for further counselling once Foster had left rehab. Very few addicts have access to the level of support Foster enjoyed.That aside, this book makes a very important contribution to the body of literature concerning recovery from addiction, not least because a relatively small percentage of this addresses gambling specifically, as opposed to alcoholism and drug abuse. It is confessional but avoids born again proselytising; well-written, pretty graphic, at times shockingly so, and at all times spell-binding. Even as someone with zero interest in gambling, I learned a lot about the process by which a person who enjoys risk-taking becomes entrapped by the promise of easy money, particularly when this promise is occasionally spectacularly fulfilled. Above all, it offers hope to those still enslaved by their addiction and alerts others to the dangers of an activity they may well never have considered potentially addictive.

This account of a descent into a gambling addiction was horrifying and fascinating in equal portions. It's a very timely subject as gambling addictions are on the rise. Foster is to be praised for his honesty in this shocking true confessional type story which really lifts the lid on what is a very insidious addiction. Some of the horse-racing details weren't quite accurate, which slightly spoils the story for a true aficionado, but that didn't deter me from enjoying this book.

This is not the sort of book I buy and know nothing about gambling but read a review in the Times and was intrigued.I wasn’t very keen on the author to start with - he seemed young, rich, privileged, impressionable and basically a fool. Although I liked the structure of chronology, so you knew exactly when and where the action took place, I did not like the start, placed at 2018, on Slough station. It was obvious it was an attempt to create some tension, but since he is still alive, it doesn’t work. But more importantly, so early on, I felt no empathy with him or understanding of his condition which seemed entirely self imposed.The narrative then takes us back to 2005 or 6 and the very start of his troubles. He describes his life, his personality, his work, sport, family and ‘friends’ and the ease in which his addictive journey begins.It is truly shocking to see the hideous depths he fell to, his lying, scheming and stealing and the impossible position he finally found himself in. His total honesty, which must have been such a challenge in his social position, won me over completely and at the end chapter - March 2018 again, I went back and reread the first chapter (also March 2018) and found my understanding of gambling completely transformed, and to read that the author is now rehabilitated and devoting his work to helping others. I wish him well and courage to face the future. This is a truly uplifting book and highly recommended.I would like to have read more of a critique about the real criminals in this story - the betting shops and gambling companies making huge amounts of money on the backs of footballers, football clubs and about every other major sport in the world.

Patrick Foster's book is well written and tells a compelling story of the ruinous impact of gambling on his life and on others. The rehabilitation and recovery which he has achieved are commendable, as is his commitment to educating future generations about the risks associated with gambling. Although I disagree with some or many of the controls which he seeks to impose (individuals must still have the opportunity and freedom to make their own choices, in my opinion), this book is highly recommended.