Like many teenagers, Jonathan Peniket enjoyed buying random "packs" to form his team in the Fifa soccer video game.
But when her mother was diagnosed with cancer, her spending on these packages, or "booties", became - as she sees it - an addiction she could not control.
The House of Lords gambling committee calls for loot, which is not currently considered gambling, to be regulated urgently.
"I've loved video games since I was a kid. I remember waking up early on the weekends and going straight downstairs to play Fifa 05 with the sound turned off so I wouldn't wake my parents up," says Jonathan.
"I am now 21, I was lucky enough to have some of my closest friends online and I think video games can be fantastic for every child.
"I stress this before I say that I feel compelled to tell my story of how the" game of loot "led to one of the worst experiences of my life.
"In 2009, EA Sports launched the Ultimate Team game mode in its Fifa series. It is like a huge online football trading card game and users can then add these players to their teams.
"The best players give you an edge, and there is a virtual currency and a market in which these cards are exchanged. You can buy packages containing a random selection of cards.
'Gamble'
"I remember distinctly in 2012, when I asked my parents for the first time if I could use my money to buy packages, and my frustration when my father said the packages were" gambling "before agreeing.
"The idea that it was a game of chance seemed ridiculous to me at the time. I understood that the chances of" packing "my favorite players were low.
"I spent the money, opened my packages, got lucky a few times and tried to be positive, despite feeling a little disappointed." If I could only spend another £ 15 ... ", I thought.
"Four years followed to spend more and more money on packs of players - each time looking for that buzz that would only come occasionally.
"Over time, I was becoming more and more reserved about it. I would buy a voucher from a High Street store and hide it in my room, so my parents wouldn't find out how much I was spending.
"At the time, I had nothing else I would have preferred to spend my money on. I thought whenever this time it would be someone I was lucky in.
"When I was 17, I received my first debit card and suddenly the decision to spend money on the game became instantaneous, just a click of a button, without having to buy the coupons and the worry that my parents found them.
"2017 was the year that changed everything in my life. I was completing my final year in level A, with vague plans to go to university. In September, my mother was diagnosed with cancer.
"It was all about waiting until it was all a memory. Waiting until the day my mother's treatment ended, when I finished my exams and we could all enjoy normal life again.
"I looked for a way to do it. The buzz of opening packs offered me an escape.
'The money's gone'
"Any rational sense of moderation and the value of the money that my parents and grandparents had saved for my future began to subside. I felt as if I needed the money now to make it, and that in the coming years my self future would somehow understand.
"I was spending £ 30 at a time, then £ 40, then £ 50. When my card started blocking my transactions, I was throwing £ 80 into the game four or five times a night.
"A few weeks before my exams, after days of watching people open packages on YouTube while my parents thought I was reviewing the stairs, the time came when the money ran out.
"Money my parents and grandparents worked for, which was given to me as savings for my future. I had wiped out nearly £ 3,000.
"I accept responsibility for what happened. The decisions I made to spend that money were made by me. My parents were heartbroken when they discovered and read bank statements.
'Dependent on hum'
"Looking back at what happened, one of the things that strikes me is how my expenses went on without anyone in my family knowing.
"We had family rules with restrictions on playing times, so there was no lack of parental regulation and I often told my worried parents that I wasn't addicted to the video games themselves.
"Now I support it, but I was addicted to the buzz of the case when I bought the packages. I agree now with what my father said that made me so angry in 2012: video game packages and loot boxes [a general term for in-game purchases involving chance] they are a form of gambling.
"With the House of Lords gambling committee calling for purchases of random prizes like these to be urgently regulated by gambling laws, I want to do everything I can to educate and protect other people from my experience. .
"I owe it to my adolescent self and to others who regret having spent money in loot boxes, doing everything possible to put an end to what is a total exploitation".
EA's answer
Fifa's producers, EA Sports, deny any aspect of Fifa that constitutes gambling and agree with the Commission's assessment of gambling that loot is not gambling.
They say that Fifa Ultimate Team can be played without spending money and that purchases are entirely optional.
They continue to say that players' well-being is paramount - and all their games, including Fifa, have the ability to use the parental controls provided by the game platforms to limit or prohibit spending.
Fifa has been contacted for comment, but has not yet responded.
There will be more to this Nihal Arthanayake story BBC Radio 5 Live from 13:00 or later reach BBC Sounds.