Treating the individual, the addiction & the family
Jan 12, 2015
His first experiences of gambling occurred when he was a child living in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh. "My dad used to send me to the bookies on a Saturday to put a bet on a horse," remembers Oisin. "He'd only have one bet a week, so he had no problem with gambling himself; he didn't even take a drink."
This was at the height of the Troubles, and every day Oisin would walk past the British Army barracks to catch the bus to school in Newry. "There was plenty of shooting and sniper fire," he says. "There would have been an element of fear at this time; the police and the soldiers were intimidating. So you could get involved in that, or you could do what I did, and throw yourself into sport."
Oisin went on to become an exceptionally skilled player and was part of the Armagh team that won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship against Kerry in 2002; he was 27 at the time. That he could put in such a world-class performance was something of a miracle, given that by then he was almost drowning in debt.
Read more: How the St Vincent de Paul helped save a family torn apart by husband's gambling
Having been exposed to the betting world as a youngster, he began to dabble himself. He explains: "In those days, the 'betting office' was a smoke-filled room at the back of a pub with a dog sleeping by the fire. But there'd always be a couple of high rollers, and they represented what I thought was a route to easy money."
Joy Orpen