David Schwarz stopped gambling after 18 years, now he’s giving other addicts the help they need
David Schwarz has recovered from gambling addiction, now he’s facing the task of helping other AFL players do the same, warning ‘the minute their careers finish, these players fall off a cliff.’
In the back hall of a school in Caulfield, the recently retired AFL footballer, hooded and vulnerable, stood in front of 20 or so addicts and sobbed.
It was four weeks ago and a prolonged and debilitating gambling addiction had finally broken him.
He needed help. He desperately wanted help. After an extensive career earning millions of dollars the player had nothing to show for it.
Recovered gambling addict David Schwarz stood at the back of the room and saw himself in the former player.
“He stood up. I knew him and no one else knew who he was,’’ Schwarz said.
“He wasn’t recognisable because of what he was wearing. He told how he had been given a lot of opportunities in his life and had used gambling as a vehicle to normalise his life and he lost control of it.
“He left the game with his arse hanging out of his pants.
“More than that, yeah the money was gone, but emotionally he wasn’t in a great place. With addiction comes a lot of guilt and shame. He had been dealt a pretty good hand, he’d been given talent, given opportunities to earn pretty good money and most of it was gone.’’
Schwarz, who lost an estimated $4 million because of his gambling addiction, was taken aback by the similarities with himself.
“Yeah I was,’’ he said.
“I saw desperation, I saw a broken human being. I know who he is, obviously I followed his career and he’s a bloody proud individual. The great thing about gamblers anonymous or rehab, is they are safe places, you can talk without judgement.”.
Schwarz works three days a week for MyHab, a provider of drug & alcohol rehabilitation, addiction rehabilitation & recovery services.
He is completing certificates in drugs and alcohol rehabilitation, to accompany his gambling expertise.
It’s a long road from May 3, 2008, the day of Schwarz’s last bet. He’s just clocked over 18 years clean.
“I gambled from 14 to 32 which is 18 years and from 32 to 50 is 18 years,’’ he said.
“I’ve now been gambling-free for more than when I was gambling, which is a milestone.’’
Asked to help a mate called Mick at MyHab, Schwarz has dived in.
He’s spoken to hundreds of footballers over the duration and just this week was asked if he could talk to two current AFL players and a member of a coaching department.
His new clientele includes media and entertainment types, business people and mums, with drugs, alcohol and gambling addictions – and sometimes all three.
Sex addiction because of rampant drug use is also prevalent.
This day, he details people’s plights, not to shock readers, but to present the reality of lives hijacked by addiction and how they can be saved through the rehab program.
“We’ve got a guy who’s just been through and he was drinking four litres of vodka a day,’’ Schwarz said.
“Another bloke was drinking 300 stubbies a week, using 12 points of meth a week, $2500 of coke a week and was losing between $4000 and $8000 a week on the punt. He burnt through $1.2 million in three years.
“We’ve got a girl who just went through. She crashed her car, she blew .30 something, she was drinking nine litres of wine a day. She’d have a cask before lunch and then sit on four bottles for the rest of the day.’’
He said their stories had a similar theme.
“The addiction part is only 10 per cent of it all and this is what I’ve learnt in the past 12 months,’’ he says.
“It’s 30 per cent psycho, 30 per cent neuro and the big one is 30 per cent is emotional.
“Most people who come into the program have emotional issues because they’ve got trauma from previous experiences in their lives, like I had with my dad being murdered in front of me.
“Most people coming in are either abused, abandoned, had troubled childhoods, were bullied, overweight, they bring in caravans full of emotion and baggage and what we do is deal with that baggage.
“Getting off stuff is easy, we do the 28 days, and they walk out feeling almost invincible, but it’s the next 28 years, the after plan, their families, their siblings, anybody in their life is aware of how they are going to stay clean.’’
Schwarz is being guided by general manager and head of clinical services Sheryl Brett, who is 21 years clean of drugs and alcohol.
“She’s the backbone, she does a lot of counselling,’’ he said.
He says there’s an ‘’ influx of gambling right now that we haven’t seen before’’ and says the pandemic has elevated the issue.
“We’ve got guys who lose a couple of hundred bucks a week but that’s all the money they have, so they’re losing everything,’’ he said.
“I’ve got a business guy who has just been through who was losing $60,000 a week. After two weeks with us, he said ‘I can’t believe what I’ve been up to, my life has turned around’.
“The one thing gambling is you can hide it. You can’t smell it, you can’t see it, you don’t get the shakes with it, gambling is a really hidden addiction. If you’re an alcoholic, you can see it in their eyes, smell their breath, and with drugs you can just see it, but with gambling you can still be the same person.
“I recently reached out to (name withheld) who also recently retired from the AFL, I’ve reached out to managers when I know players who are in trouble.
“But with addiction, until they’re ready, until they hit their rock bottom, hit that emotional stage where they surrender, they don’t get better. When they do surrender, that’s when we get around them, get their families involved.’’
Schwarz approached the AFL in 2014 with a program to help problem gamblers but it was not taken up, with the league and the Players Association believing they had ample support networks for the players.
He believes the AFL could do more.
“I think they have a good education piece, but I think they could be more thorough,’’ he says. “I think right now the AFL has a great opportunity because gambling has exploded through and since Covid. The AFL can lead the way.
“Rather than players like the one I saw the other night, almost being in the foetal position after slipping through the cracks, don’t allow those cracks to open up.
“You only have to speak to people at footy clubs and they will tell you the kids are punting the whole time, I know from player managers it’s a massive concern
“I’ve dealt with Andrew Dillon and other people at the AFL, and they really care and they are really aware of it.
“I don’t need the AFL to sign off on a program, and I’m not doing this story because of that. But too many players are getting through the net post footy. The minute their careers finish, these players fall off a cliff.’’
Presented with a dwindling radio career, Schwarz embarked on this next phase of his working life, driven by a sense of care. He works three days a week, which includes, at times, him sleeping overnights at the rehab centre and taking care of the inpatients.
“It took me 12 years to pay off my debt and it was 12 years wasted,’’ he said.
“This may sound corny but when I was in trouble, I needed someone to pick me up and put me in the rowboat and get me to shore because I was paddling and I ended up getting help.
“And now I find myself back in the rowboat and I want to put as many in the rowboat as I can and get to the shore. It’s not just about the individual, it’s the families that have been obliterated, the friends they have obliterated when in fact they are one decision away from getting better.
“Look, if you’re trouble, put your hand up and ask for help and if you do that, you will get help.’’
More Coverage
Daicos: Perryman, premierships and the Copeland dynasty
Nick Daicos wrote another chapter into his family’s Collingwood legacy when he won his first Copeland Trophy. He speaks to GLENN MCFARLANE about his US plans, the Magpies’ recruiting and more.
AFLW: Ruthless Roos expose huge gulf in class against Dogs
North Melbourne mastered the wet conditions to continue its awe-inspiring AFLW run, storming passed Western Bulldogs with an emphatic victory.