WHEN Peter Shilton used to disappear into rooms to use his phone, his wife Steph suspected that he was messaging another woman. It was only after she discovered that the number he was calling belonged to a well-known gambling firm, that she realised her husband was hiding something else entirely.

What began as a hobby sparked by an interest in horse racing had, over the course of Peter Shilton’s illustrious career, morphed into a secret which cost him much of the wealth he accumulated as the number one goalkeeper in the world.

With Steph’s help, Peter Shilton has been able to overcome his much-publicised gambling problems and they have since made it their life’s work to ensure others do not have to endure the struggles they went through.

Steph Shilton revealed that following the couple’s appearance on This Morning in 2021, she received a message from a 34-year-old man who was on the brink of taking his own life, but was sufficiently moved by their story to instead text his mum for help.

Now they want to do the same for others. At Wembley Stadium this week, the couple launched their new charity Shiltons’ Silverlining aimed at helping people who have suffered by drawing on their own lived experience.

The Shiltons were joined by many of their supporters, including Colchester-based solicitors Fisher Jones Greenwood who have donated £10,000 to cover the legal work required to set up the charity, plus members of the FA and the NHS Primary Care National Gambling Service.

Among the ambassadors for the charity are Shilton’s former World Cup team-mates — Gary Lineker, Terry Butcher and Paul Parker — as well as former England cricket captain Graham Gooch.

Thanks to Shilton’s campaigning, the Premier League will no longer allow clubs to use gambling firms as their front of shirt sponsor from August, but this ban will not extend to other forms of sponsorship, including branding on sleeves. It is estimated that shirt sponsorship amounts to just 10 per cent of exposure to betting during the average football match.

The APPG is now calling for a decisive reduction in gambling-based advertising in sport, particularly where children can be targeted. The aim is for a whistle-to-whistle ban beginning five minutes before the match starts and lasting until five minutes after it ends.

Research by the Gambling Harm Hub at Bristol University found that during the opening round of fixtures in the 2023/24 Premier League season, viewers were exposed to 11,000 gambling messages across the six matches played.

As a response to the negative media coverage generated by the reporting of these figures, the Premier League, EFL and Women’s Super League set up a code of conduct regulating gambling-related agreements in football, which was co-signed by the Betting and Gaming Council.

The key principles were based around protecting children and vulnerable groups by limiting reach and increasing responsible messaging. Despite this, at the start of the following season the number of betting promotions had almost tripled to 29,000 before falling away slightly once the regulations had time to have an effect, to 27,400 on the equivalent day of this season.

The Gambling Harm Hub wants gambling advertisements in Britain to be controlled by legislation monitoring the number of betting ads which appear during sporting events. So far, regulations only deal with the contents of messaging, rather than the volume.

They claim the prevalence of gambling advertisements during football associates the excitement of watching the game with the thrill of betting in people’s minds. Neuropsychological research shows that when these ads are replayed at other times, it stimulates the same sense of excitement, normalising gambling. Added to that, the increasing use of data-driven advertising on the internet and social media is aiming gambling messages at vulnerable people, such as those already in debt.

The APPG believes the root cause of most gambling problems begin with debt, with people starting to bet to find a way out of it, ultimately spiralling into addiction. To that end, Shiltons’ Silverlining has entered a partnership with Britain’s leading debt charity, StepChange, to offer those already struggling with financial difficulties another path.

Steph’s daughter Missy, a qualified accountant, will head the Money Hub team at Shiltons’ Silverlining, opening up conversations with those who reach out and providing the expertise and links to help recovering gamblers deal with their debt, which will reduce the temptation to bet in the future.

To complete the family’s commitment to the charity, Missy’s daughter Summer will work as a youth ambassador speaking to those in colleges about the dangers of gambling to excess and the cycle of addiction that it can instigate. The Shiltons stressed that they are not opposed to gambling itself, but to the relentless advertising that surrounds it.

Statistics indicate that 10 per cent of all suicides are linked to gambling harm. A qualified professional in supporting families suffering from addiction with 27 years’ experience of working within the NHS, Steph Shilton spoke of how her own marriage suffered due to it. In recovery, she found it hard to trust Peter as he often earned large sums of money on the after-dinner circuit while away from their Essex home.

Peter understood her concerns and opened up his life to his wife, frequently face-timing her to prove he was not gambling and giving her access to his bank accounts. Now, as co-founders of Shiltons’ Silverlining, they hope they can give other families the help and guidance required to offer them a second chance.