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UK Championship 2016: Mark King talks about gambling addiction and recovery
- Updated: November 25, 2016
Mark King once sold a snooker table for £1,000 and gambled the money away immediately
Mark King’s gambling addiction had briefly got the better of him.
The Essex snooker pro was in a Bulgarian casino in 2012 and his guilty chip was going into overdrive. His body then joined his mind in ganging up on him.
“I only spent about £30, but I was in there sweating because I knew I was doing wrong,” King told BBC Sport a few days after winning the Northern Ireland Open, the first ranking title of his 25-year career.
“The reason I lapsed that time was because I stopped going to my Gamblers Anonymous meetings for six months.”
Gamblers Anonymous was and remains King’s salvation. The 42-year-old first went in 1998, but it was five years later that he started going “seriously” – as he puts it. And he has barely looked back since.
“I have had three or four lapses, but it’s been silly things like putting a pound in the fruit machine,” he said.
The experience in Bulgaria taught him “a massive lesson”.
“I know if I want to carry on not gambling, I have to go to my meetings,” added King.
‘I was lying to my wife’ King has won almost £1.4m in prize money since his professional debut in 1991
At the height of his addiction, King was betting on all sorts – horses, dogs, card games, it did not matter. His addiction was all-encompassing and it would not be tiny sums either – he could and did lose thousands of pounds in minutes.
He once sold a snooker table for £1,000 and blew the money immediately. And he would chase his losses with disastrous effect. That was why he realised the man staring back at him in the mirror needed to change.
King’s marriage to Sally was also becoming increasingly …
