Ex-gambling addict helps young people via TikTok

Frank Rammeloo (54) lost more than half a million euros in his life through gambling. What once started with innocent fruit machines in a café, grew into an addiction that almost cost him his life. Now he warns young people about the dangers of gambling through his videos on TikTok. “It was really dark, but I don’t want others to make the same mistake.”

It all started with a fruit machine

Like many people, it started innocently for Frank. He was a teenager with a few bucks in his pocket, which he put in the fruit machines in café Dallinga in his native village of Sluiskil. 

He still remembers one of his first real gambling experiences well: a trip with his football team to England. “We were given 50 guilders from home. There were slot machines on the boat to England, and within one evening I had lost all my money. At the time I thought it was a one-time mistake. In retrospect, I should have stopped there.”

From card games to Las Vegas

The gambling nights kept piling up. Frank played card games for money with friends and increasingly took a chance in casinos in Knokke and Breda. The amounts became bigger, the tension higher. “At one point I had saved 6,000 guilders. I gambled it away in two evenings in Breda. It was as if I had completely lost control,” says Frank.

When he later started earning well as a mechanic, it became even more extreme. “I flew to Las Vegas, Macau, Saint-Tropez, everywhere where you could gamble. I acted like I was the king of the world. And yes, I sometimes won something, fifty thousand euros in one evening for example. But quitting? I couldn’t do that.”

Gambling advertisements and casinos everywhere on your phone

According to Frank, it was already difficult to stop in the past, but it is even more difficult these days. “In the past, you really had to go out to gamble. Now? The casino is just in your pocket,” he says, referring to the gambling apps that are available 24/7 on smartphones. And then there are the endless gambling commercials that you encounter everywhere. “You only have to start a video on YouTube, and the advertisements for BetCity and Holland Casino are flying around your ears.”

Frank lost thousands of euros while on the road for work. “During long journeys, I just let the gambling games on my phone continue. Once I lost 4,000 euros during a car journey from IJmuiden to Dordrecht. It felt like I was in a black tunnel with no exit.”

In search of happiness

The excitement and the quick money gave Frank a temporary feeling of happiness, but he now knows that it was an illusion. “When you win, you get such an incredible dopamine rush. You feel fantastic, but that feeling is short-lived. You want more and more, but that happiness cannot be found in normal life. That’s what makes it so dangerous.”

His addiction took a heavy toll. His marriage fell apart and he lost contact with his family. “At one point I had nothing left. I lived in a beautiful house in Middelburg, but inside I was empty.”

The low point: a train track and a broken man

The low point came last November. After a long drive, during which he lost 4000 euros on the way, Frank tried to win back the lost money at home. “I won it back, but as always I couldn’t stop. When I lost everything again, I hated myself so much that I decided to end it all.”

Frank drove to the track in his van and was determined to jump in front of a train. But no train came. “Luckily. I was completely lost, I kicked my mirrors and lights to pieces and eventually fell asleep in my van.”

When he woke up a few hours later, he didn’t know what to do. “I walked around in the Biesbosch for two days. Then I thought: I have to call my girlfriend and tell her everything.” Without a phone, he asked for help at a gas station. His girlfriend came right away and took him home. “She had every reason to leave me, but she stayed. That saved my life.”

Now he helps others via TikTok

Since then, his girlfriend has managed his money and he has stopped gambling. Via TikTok, Frank now warns others about the dangers of gambling. “Young people are so vulnerable, and gambling is everywhere these days. I always tell them: don’t think you have it under control yourself, because you don’t. Let someone else manage your money, that’s the only way.”

Social media algorithms make it difficult for Frank to leave his past behind. “I still see gambling ads every day, because those algorithms know that I’m a gambler. It’s really frustrating, but I fight it. Not just for myself, but for others too.”