#Guerin

Dual addiction to cocaine and online gambling is now "the big issue in Ireland" and is devastating lives, a leading addiction counsellor has said. Michael Guerin has seen an eight-fold increase in women seeking treatment for gambling addiction in just four years in the Cuan Mhuire addiction treatment centre while there has been a 20-fold increase…

The country's only dedicated residential treatment centre for gambling addicts has seen unprecedented numbers seeking admission. uan Mhuire, which runs a residential programme exclusively catering for gambling addicts, said the Covid epidemic and online gambling have combined to create a toxic phenomenon sweeping through the country. Michael…

When I was a lad of tender summers, there was a mysterious shop in town bearing the legend'Turf Accountant'. An accountant, I knew, counted money. So, I concluded, what went on behind the closed door and tinted window of the turf accountant was the totting up of how much money the local farmers made through extracting turf from the brown bogs out…

Stewart Kenny is a lifelong fan of gambling. He made one of his first bets on Richard Nixon resigning in 1974, and he's enjoyed a bet ever since - so much so that he made a career, one spanning four decades, in the betting industry. In 1988, he was one of the founders of Paddy Power. But now the 69-year-old sees things very differently. Ireland, he…

An addiction treatment centre in Co Limerick is dealing with what a senior counsellor describes as a "frightening" increase in problems created by online gambling during the pandemic. Michael Guerin, who works at Cuan Mhuire in Bruree, said: "Online gambling has taken off to new levels during the pandemic. It was always there, creating problems for…