Hello, I’m James and I had a 12-year gambling addiction that destroyed my life.

It started with a single bet at the age of 16 after I was drawn in by relentless gambling advertising in football. At that susceptible age, I adored the game and believed what it told me, including when it told me to gamble.

This addiction took everything from me apart from my life and I’m far from alone. There are millions of people harmed by gambling in the UK and tragically so many people like me – particularly young men – attempt or contemplate suicide. Every single day someone in England takes their life due to gambling.

It’s saddening that addiction, harm and suicide stalk our national sport, while the game is plastered with gambling ads – there were 700 in one Premier League game last year.

I’m now in recovery and have set up The Big Step, a campaign to kick gambling ads out of football, part of Gambling with Lives, a charity set up by families bereaved by gambling-related suicide.

I want to thank everybody at Luton Town for giving us the opportunity today to raise awareness of gambling harms and the need for change. It means the world to me that this issue is being taken seriously by a club like yours.

Over the next week you may see some adverts for Safer Gambling Week, where a gambling industry making £14bn a year tells its users to use addictive products “safely”. But they won’t say that “safer gambling” starts with a safer gambling industry.  In its current form, with near-ubiquitous advertising peddling “free bets” and bonuses, many of them seen by children, this is simply not the case.

We support adults right to be able to bet if they want but there’s no justification for football to promote something that’s killing people and destroying families.

Luton were the first professional club to publicly reject gambling sponsors – true trailblazers! – and we couldn’t be more thankful.

The Hatters are one of 30 British and Irish clubs backing our campaign, a number growing thanks to support and pressure from fans. If you want to support our efforts then please visit www.the-bigstep.com and you can join nearly 70,000 others in signing our petition at www.change.org/EndGamblingAdsInFootball.

If you’re being harmed by gambling directly visit www.talkbanstop.com and the NHS Gambling Services. If you’re worried about a loved one then visit www.gamfam.org.uk.

Thank you and enjoy the match!