Founder of Humdingers Bakeries, Robert Hunningher, has told of his own struggle with gambling

A CHEF and cafe owner has spoken about the anti-social behaviour associated with bookmakers in Islington and his own recovery from compulsive gambling.

Founder of Humdingers Bakeries, Robert Hunningher, has four cafes in north London, including two in Highbury and Hornsey, and was awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Honours list in 2020 for setting up a food kitchen during the pandemic.

But this week Mr Hunningher told another part of his story – that of his struggle with gambling addiction and the destruction caused by bookmakers and electronic slot machines.

“They ruin people’s lives,” he said. “Once they’ve got you, you can lose everything.

“Gambling brings dishonesty and it brings pain. It affects people who have had really hard lives. When they’re gambling, it doesn’t hurt so much. In that moment when you’re doing it, you feel normal, but when it’s over you feel 10 times worse. And once they’ve got you, you can lose everything.”

As a child, Mr Hunningher’s nickname was “the moth”, because he was so drawn to bright lights. The first time he placed a bet he was 12 years old, on a ferry with his parents during the early days of their divorce.

“I just remember winning the £50 cash pot, running up to my dad, being so happy, buying something for my mum – it was amazing.

“But from that it led to more and more, and it just turned worse and worse and then it took me a long time to give up. It turned me into someone that I didn’t want to be. It is an awful disease that takes over people.”

Mr Hunningher credited his mother with giving him the support he needed to eventually quit – she took him to 90 Gamblers Anonymous (GA) meetings in 90 days, the recommended frequency of meetings for those who are starting out.

Constantly seeing bookmakers and slots shops made it “very difficult” in the early days of his recovery, and Mr Hunningher resorted to planning his routes to and from work to avoid gambling shops.

“I grew up knowing London through where all the fruit machine shops were – it was a horrible thing. It’s just everywhere.”

After 15 years without placing a bet, Mr Hunningher “broke out” following a family trauma during the pandemic.

It started with a lottery ticket, then a scratch card, and he went on to spend two years gambling again.

“As part of that, I have been homeless and without my children for the last four months,” he said.

Mr Hunningher is back in recovery now – his last bet was in January in a bookmakers in Caledonian Road, where he lost £1,200 in an hour.

“When you look in the mirror and don’t like who you see, I think that gives you the strength to change,” he said, adding that supportive friends and programmes like GA – which follows a similar 12-step programme to Alcoholics Anonymous – and GamCare have also helped him give up.

So too has the ability to self-exclude from gambling venues and websites.

One of Mr Hunningher’s four cafes, Humdingers Hornsey, is a few doors down from a William Hill that has been there since the 1990s, and where he sees vulnerable people, many of them drug users, going in and out on a daily basis.

“People are losing everything they have in there,” he said.

“They’re pacing around outside talking to themselves and you can hear them saying, ‘I’ve just done the electric money, how are we going to live?’

“People are regularly coming into the cafe trying to steal who have lost money from the bookmakers.

“I think it’s getting worse and worse every day.”

William Hill were invited to comment but had not responded by the time the Tribune went too print.