Aston Villa legend Gabriel Agbonlahor has candidly spoken about his struggles with gambling addiction, revealing he would lose thousands playing online poker.
The former footballer made his Premier League debut for the club at just 19, a remarkable achievement albeit one that came with its own set of challenges off the pitch. With a sudden influx of money at such a young age, Agbonlahor quickly developed an addiction to poker.
"I really enjoyed bluffing and showing my cards at the table for banter," he confessed on the Ben Heath Podcast (via Birmingham Live). "Then someone said to me 'you know you can play online? ' I was like 'what?'
"Because we only trained until one o'clock back then under Martin O'Neill sometimes, I'm sitting there like 'I'm not gonna watch Last of the Summer Wine like my dad used to or boring TV. You like poker so let's have a go on the computer'."
Agbonlahor clarified that it wasn't the financial gain that drove him to gamble his wages, but rather the thrill it brought when he won. He explained: "I wasn't doing it for money, that's the silly thing. I was doing it for that buzz when you win a hand and just beat someone."
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However, that saw the stakes continually raised to a point where he was placing as much as five figures on a single hand. "The problem was the buzz wasn't enough at that time for playing a game of like £100," he admitted. "It was the big boy tables where you had to have £5,000 or £10k behind you. It was so easy to go 'another £10k'."
This consequently led to escalating emotions, particularly after suffering losses. "Because I'd be so angry I'd lost a hand, laptop thrown down the stairs off the bannister. Apple Mac into pieces," recalled the three-time England international, who is now 37 years old.
"I'd rip it open, then I'd message a friend, 'got a spare laptop?' Got my friend's big old laptop come round, 'how does this work?' Buy a new Apple Mac and then I was like 'this isn't good'. And some of the younger players at the club had problems as well because it's online, so easy."
For Agbonlahor, the issue was resolved with the birth of his first child, which gave him a much-needed reality check - one that he's grateful for now reflecting back on that time. "I had my son at 21 and stopped easy," he said. "Not played online since. I do in casinos but normal amounts. Because when you've got money in your hand you can see it, so you don't want to blow it as much.
"Having my son it was like 'this is their money you're blowing, if you carry on like this you're gonna lose everything you've earned for the last three years'. I was quite lucky that I got over that habit, that addiction young, so I still had an earning capacity for 10 years."
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