Trying to beat the bookmakers can lead you into some very dark places. Debts can build up, friendships can break up. And as comedian Lloyd Griffith discovers in this compelling documentary – serious, not a comedy – it might even tempt you into betting against your own beloved football team.

Griffith has skin in the game for a couple of reasons. A few years ago he appeared in a Ladbrokes ad and came in for stick from friends for doing it. He also admits that he does like a flutter, so knows that feeling in the pit of the stomach when your number has or hasn't come up.

So he sets out to investigate further and attempts to turn £7500 into £1500 in four weeks. A lot of what he discovers is predictable. He meets people whose lives have been ruined by gambling. People who spent money faster than they could earn it. Online betting comes in for particular criticism because it makes it so easy to have a punt whenever you feel like it. And fruit machines in betting shops also eat your cash up.

Along the way he meets fellow stand-up John Robins who reveals that he was hooked on gambling as a teenager. Robins pulled himself out of it and feels it is such a serious subject he has never talked about it onstage. He says, chillingly, that there are so many more ways to gamble now via Apps etc that if he was 18 today he would have probably committed suicide.

As we follow Griffith the assumption is that of course you can't beat the bookies. And yet there is a twist. Amazingly there are ways thanks to modern technology. He meets a "courtsider" - someone who sits at obscure tennis matches and relays the result of points to someone elsewhere on a laptop faster than the umpire can register the point. If you have a quick enough wi-fi speed and nimble enough fingers you can actually get a bet on while already knowing the result. Of course, you have to keep opening new accounts as bookies spot you doing this and close accounts down, but incredibly it can be done – even by Griffith, after an unapologetically cack-handed start.

But this loophole is a brief thrill in a programme that shows how bad gambling can be for people. We see Griffith himself getting sucked into the emotion of a horse race or the final minutes of a football match. It can't be good for you mental or physical health.

Does Griffith double his money? Watch and find out. But maybe bear this in mind. They say you never meet a poor bookmaker.

Can You Beat The Bookies? is on iPlayer now here.