Can someone please check my speech?

I wanted to make it an analogy, and mix in some facts - and it has to have some relation to NZ.

Just any way i could make it better, or just some proof reading or anything really!!! THANKYOU!

Jeff is 24 years old. He lives what appears to be a normal life - rents his own apartment, pays his own bills, works a normal job, but his friends and family know he has a problem. A problem which he has been exposed to all his life, in films, books, on TV, the internet, and in the streets. It started as a run of luck, an easy way out, an escape from his mundane life. He could finally afford that new TV he’d been saving up for, that new computer he used to only be able to dream of before. But for this small taste of the good life, he would have to pay a much bigger price when his luck ran out and the reality of his problem hit home. Like 60,000 other adults in New Zealand, Jeff is a problem gambler.

Jeff’s feels the urge to continuously gamble despite the harmful or negative consequences that his actions might have on himself, his family, or his friends. His gambling has begun to consume more money and time than he can afford, affecting his entire life – physically, emotionally, and financially. He has been a problem gambler for the past 4 years, but his problem begun far before then. In his early teens, he along with roughly 8% of teenagers in New Zealand started the innocent act of free internet gambling – safe, and consequence free, or so he thought. What Jeff didn’t realise is that this innocent act had instigated a far, far greater problem. Internet gambling led to Lotto tickets, Lotto tickets led to betting on sporting events, betting on sporting events led to slot machines (pokies), and eventually leading to the casino.

When Jeff was 17, soon after he got his first job, he started betting on the horse races and hit a run of luck, won big a couple of times, turned $1,000 into $12,000 - easy money. He was living the good life, until his ego got the better of him. His luck had run out. Quickly, and very surely, little by little, the gambling industry regained their losses, and before Jeff knew it, he had lost it all. Not only the $12,000 he had won, but his entire savings, all of it. Contributing to the $1.9 billion lost to gambling by kiwis across New Zealand each year. He had lost all hope. He withdrew money from the bank which he didn’t have, stole from his family and friends, or borrowed money with concocted stories to hide his gambling losses, and feed his ever-growing addiction. He would spend entire nights on the pokies in SkyCity Casino, gambling away money he didn’t have. Everything that he had was gone. Simple.

He tried to control his betting but his stakes increased, depression soon set in and it became apparent that he was addicted to gambling, alcohol and smoking as well, although he would not admit it. He started showing up to work late, and hung-over, consequently, causing him to lose the one good thing left in his life, his job. Without a source of income, he could no longer afford to keep up the rent for his apartment, and soon found himself without a place to live – forced out onto the streets.

Jeff had to make a decision, a decision about his 6 year addiction. He’d tried in the past to quit, but never seriously made an effort, but this time it was different. He combed his hair, put on his best suit and polished his shoes. He wanted to make sure he looked the part for the moment he turned his life around. He entered his beloved SkyCity Casino and requested self-exclusion from the Casino – a process by which he banned himself from the Casino. It was a small step, but nonetheless, a step in the right direction.

It has now been 6 years since Jeff confronted his gambling problem. He still gambles from time to time – no longer compulsive but not yet fully cured. He has a new apartment in town, a new job, and has been saving to pay off the debt from his addiction. Even though he has worked hard for all these years, he still has a large debt to pay off– a daily reminder of what he had turned himself into. But now, he is confronted with an even greater challenge – SkyCity Casino has just been given the green-light to open 500 new pokie machines, his favourite. All the late nights, slouched in front of the captivity of this spinning wonder, all the big wins, the luck he’d had, the easy way out, the escape from his mundane life – all came running back to him. He was falling back into the abyss of compulsive gambling.