SportExpressen reviews abuse of games in ice hockey

According to a report by the Karolinska Institute, four to five players on each elite team face gambling problems.

In recent years, addiction to sports games has gained several faces. Swedish star Nordin Gerzic has told about the gambling addiction that cost him his career and in handball, Varberg goalkeeper Viktor Bergström has spoken about his abuse.

Since the world of hockey it has been silent.

SportExpressen has been in contact with several elite players in Swedish hockey with gambling and gambling problems, but who after a while rejected the interviews. The shame has been too great.

But now a player chooses to break the silence.

You didn’t want to show externally that you had a bad time

Jakob Stöffling led Leksand’s J20 team this year, which was a favorite to become Swedish champion, before the crown pandemic ended the season. He is one of the main characters in the Rinkside series on SVT Play and now expects games at Hockeyallsvenskan with Vita Hästen for the back of 20 years.

Last season was the toughest. Several injuries kept him away from the ice during the fall, and at the same time, his parents separated.

– There are many thoughts and you do not go and speak openly, at least not. It was because you were sitting on a little thing and you didn’t want to show that you were having a bad time, he says.

Instead, Jacob turned to online gambling and gambling.

– When I was a little depressed, the game was there for a home in the afternoon.

– I sat and played for hours and I didn’t want to train or be in the hall, I wanted to go home and play. Then I sat down and played the lessons at school too.

“Hard to understand how strong it is”

If he’s going to describe it succinctly, that’s the only thing that comes to mind. And you do your best to access it.

“It may be a little difficult for someone who has not had an addiction to understand how strong he is,” says Jakob.

Did the game affect your hockey?

– Above all, I didn’t think hockey was that much fun. I thought the games were more fun, that was the most fun there was. He really wasn’t attending training or games, he was in doubt. I thought about yesterday’s betting and what I would do tonight, instead of thinking about hockey and the same thing at school, I thought about things like that.

Growing up in Falun, he moved to Leksand to attend the city’s hockey gym, and during outings with the team, Jakob started playing.

– You have a poker table at the back of the bus, so when there are long road trips, you generally sit back and play against each other. There really wasn’t much at stake, it was more to pass the time.

After a while, the poker table on the bus was replaced by online gaming sites. And that’s where Jacob’s interpretation would quickly intensify.

– When I was playing on the bus, there were some who also played online. So you also wanted to try it and you spent time like that. I started playing a little more when I got home in the afternoon, after training, etc., because it looked like fun, says the 20-year-old.

Games were almost the only thing we talked about

A report by the Karolinska Institute in 2017 shows that elite male athletes and gym students are at greater risk of abuse than the average population.

According to the report, an average of four to five players on each man’s elite team in ice hockey, soccer, floorball and basketball sports are considered to have big problems with abuse of the game.

Jakob Stöffling is one of those who has chosen to speak openly about his addiction.

– I don’t think it’s strange to talk about these things. Most people carry or have been involved in something that is difficult. Talking openly about my problems helps me, but it also helps others.

How common is it that you talk about games in hockey?

– There are many games circulating around the sport of hockey in general. There will also be a lot of talk about games in the locker room. If you go to a team match, the odds will appear on the jumbotron, there are games here and there, even at home there are advertisements for hellish games on TV.

– They will talk a lot about it, when we were at most, it was almost the only thing we talked about. “I made this bet and yesterday I won this, so here he played.”

Because Jacob was not alone in enjoying playing. But he always felt the need to play more.

– Most people probably managed to go home and fall asleep and feel like it’s over for today. But I could not. If you won there, you drove online, you always wanted to win more. And if you lost, you wanted to get your money back. This is where it works, he says, and tells how the gameplay went beyond his social life:

– When some team members wrote that they would hang out and cook together, I didn’t want to join because I was drawn to the game. Whatever you want to play. It was just for me just to play with and I didn’t do other things. Hockey training and the school you need to be in, but on top of that, I just wanted to go home and play.

He got help from his teacher

The turn came when a teacher pushed Jacob into social service, even though he was reluctant first.

– I didn’t want to go there, because you don’t even realize you have a problem.

– Now in hindsight I think it’s as nice and pleasant as possible. I can’t really thank you in words. You don’t know otherwise if it had escalated further, you probably would have because you yourself don’t understand that you said you don’t have a problem when you’re inside it.

For ten weeks he went and spoke to his contact person on the social network, and that made a difference.

– At first you were a little nervous and you felt that you really didn’t belong there. I didn’t say that the first few times, I didn’t want to completely open up to a random person. But he knew his job and made me open up, and that helped.

Could you talk to your friends about it then?

I have great friends. They supported me when I went to social networks and had some questions about what it was like. When they were interested, there was nothing shameful to talk about, but they wanted me to go there for my own good.

– When I got there I blocked all the gaming sites and there were several of them who also banned support and for their own good, says Jacob.

I didn’t want to worry mom and dad

But it was a while before he told us about his problems for his family.

– Obviously, they knew I was playing, but they didn’t know how much money. They found out at some point when I made enough money at first, and when you earn a lot you want to earn more. You become blind to money, you don’t know how much money is worth.

– I kept information on how much I really played, I didn’t want to worry mom and dad.

Eventually, the family also found out about Jacob’s gambling addiction and he describes it as getting closer to each other.

– It took a few times because you are a little nervous and there is no call you want to answer. But it was still nice to have that said. At first they were a little disappointed, then they just wanted to help.

– Now we are more open between us. We didn’t have that relationship before we could talk to each other about things like that, but now we can.

He re-entered the game again

Getting out of something you like to do and depend on is difficult. On the outbound trips, Jakob left the poker table and headed for the front of the bus, and the hours on the roads lasted twice as long. Sometimes he slid back too.

– But it is very important that you are honest with your contact so that you can get help. When I backed away, I was able to speak to my teammates as well. To talk and get out of her backpack a little, she suddenly feels better and I managed to get away a little more. And now I’ve been free of games for quite some time, he says.

Testing at Social Service showed that Jacob was in the highest risk area, but that he had not been able to play for the really big money. Today he is glad that he received help so early.

– What is positive now in retrospect is that it did not intensify, that I did not waste all my savings. But for the salary and money I get, I was playing with too high sums. It was too much.

They told us that we should reduce the game

When the season begins, Jakob Stöffling does so as a senior player in Allsvenskan Hockey. And he does it with ambition. openly talking about the problems some hockey players struggle with.

– Last season, some boys from team A came down and talked to others who played a lot. They told us that we should cut it back and that they had a little fun themselves, played too much and that it could lead to bad things. We admire them and it goes without saying that we do what they do, he says and continues:

– And if we continue with it and can speak openly about such things, it will spread even further.