Crystal Palace star Andros Townsend speaks openly about struggles with gambling and reveals he once lost

Andros Townsend has candidly spoken about once having a gambling addiction which resulted in him losing £46,000 in a single night.

Townsend, the Crystal Palace winger, was on loan at Birmingham when he lost the staggering amount after placing a bet on just one match.

His actions eventually led to him being fined by the Football Association in June 2013 and he was suspended for four months for breaching betting regulations.

Having struggled to break into the Tottenham squad under Harry Redknapp, a series of loan moves would follow for Townsend, including spells at Ipswich, Watford and Millwall, before he made his full debut for Spurs in 2011.

He moved on loan to St Andrew’s in 2012 and admits his addictive personality led to him downloading a betting app – and he ended up losing the money on the eve of their Championship play-off semi-final with Blackpool.

Townsend, 28, wrote on The Players’ Tribune: “I don’t drink. I don’t do drugs. I don’t think I’ve ever been inside a nightclub in my life. And yet I still managed to lose 46 grand with just one tap on my phone.

“I didn’t even have to leave my room. I’m probably the only lad in history to lose £46,000 lying in bed on a Wednesday night in Blackpool. This is not a golden boy story. Let’s make that clear straight away.

“You didn’t click on a fairytale, I’m sorry to tell you. I don’t like talking about myself too much, so I’m not telling this story for the whole world.

“I’m telling it for the people out there who have had their knocks – for those who have been misunderstood, depressed, lost, and especially the ones who have battled addiction.”

Townsend was 10 when his half-brother Kurtis died in a car crash and admitted ‘the pain has been with me my whole life’ before he highlighted the roller coaster of emotions he had in the early part of his professional career.

Now a key player at under Roy Hodgson at Palace, Townsend admits the loan spells took their toll and boredom hardly helped.

Townsend added: “I went on loan to five more clubs before I got back home to Spurs, and I think that’s where the trouble really started.

“I can remember exactly where I was when I had my first bet. I was bored in a random hotel room the night before a match, and I saw an ad on the telly for an app with a free bet.

“I downloaded the app and had a little bet to pass the time. Within a few months, I was out of control.

“I just kept losing. I kept trying to dig myself out of the hole. Then, in the blink of an eye, I’m completely addicted.”

“I remember when I was at Birmingham, it was the night before our play-off semi-final game. I was lying in bed, trying to get my rest,” he said.

“This was the biggest match of our season, and I couldn’t fall asleep. I kept checking my phone, placing more bets. That night, I lost £46,000 on a single match.”

After Townsend hit ‘rock bottom’, he revealed he didn’t stop until he was caught by the FA.

But he added: “I went to get counselling for my gambling addiction. And that not only saved my football career, it also probably saved me as a human being.”