Son, 27, kills himself after £500 loss on bets machine dubbed "crack cocaine of gambling"

Ryan Myers took his own life after he lost thousands of pounds on the machine and now his family have launched a petition to ban them

Liverpool Echo / Myers family

Happier times: Tragic Ryan Myers, centre, with his dad John and brother Michael

A dad hopes his son’s ­tragic death can be a wake-up call on the “devastating ­impact” of fixed-odds betting ­terminals .

John Myers wants a crackdown after Ryan, 27, committed suicide over a secret

addiction that had cost him thousands.

He was laughing and joking on a family holiday just days earlier – but behind the facade he felt desperate and ashamed.

The carpenter had taken out a payday loan to fund his habit and eventually pleaded with ­some websites to ban him. On the day he ended his life, in May 2014, Ryan fed £500 into a machine.

John, 56, said: “To think he couldn’t tell us – that’s what hurts more than anything. The problem is the industry is taking over town centres and people’s lives.

“I hate FOBTs with a passion. They’re the crack cocaine of gambling, you can lose hundreds in minutes and people get hooked. They should cap how much you can spend.

“It’s disgusting there’s so many betting shops and free bets and ads with people winning and smiling. There are no ads on the devastating impact.”

Liverpool Echo / Myers family

Lost hope: Ryan, with fiancee Kiann,had racked up debts using gambling machines

Ryan, from Huyton, Merseyside, left a suicide note saying how much he loved his family and fiancée Kiann. He had transferred his last £300 to his dad’s account so he could pass it on to her.

John, a DHL supervisor based at Jaguar Land Rover, has now launched a petition urging tougher restrictions on betting adverts.

He said: “Just two days after our holiday, Ryan put a message on Facebook saying he was so sorry he had let people down and didn’t mean to break anyone’s heart.

“By the time we got to his house the police and ambulance were there. They would not let us go upstairs and eventually told us he was dead.

PA

Gamblers' lot: Calls are growing to restrict the stakes and prizes available on fixed-odds betting machines

“We just couldn’t understand but he had lost all his money again that day and felt he’d let everybody down. He probably couldn’t face telling Kiann and must have felt ashamed he couldn’t control it.

“We could have sorted it easily but he’d never done anything to be embarrassed of before.”

An inquest ruled Ryan took his own life. After his death, he was getting messages offering free bets as he had not gambled for a while.

A spokesman for the Association of British Bookmakers said: “We deeply sympathise with Mr Myers and his family for their tragic loss. The industry takes responsible gambling very ­seriously and we have introduced new measures to tackle problem gambling.
”