A Case Of Bingo Addiction

[Mickie31]

A 63 year old lady has been jailed for 10 months for stealing almost £80,000 from her law firm employer's. She stole the money to help fund her gambling addiction. Suzanne Orton from Bournemouth was married to a solicitor when she admitted 4 charges of theft between 4th February 2005 and 17th February 2006. The lady didn't have problems with online bingo it was visiting the local bingo hall and playing the fruit machines. The lady found it stress relieving to gamble. The article goes on to say that the lady was spending up to £500 a night. Aside from the £80,000 she stole from her firm there was £100,000 that she used of her own money to fund her gambling addiction. Unfortunately she obviously never won. It just goes to show us that when playing bingo we must be very careful not to get addicted. I think bingo is alright if you go with the mind set that if you win it is a bonus but, if you don't then it is the name of the game. It is when you risk everything to try and win that it becomes a problem. I don't know why but, I feel sorry for this lady she shouldn't have done what she did but, she was obviously desperate.

I have reworded this article, but just to let you know it was reported in the Bournemouth Echo on Friday 23rd May 2008.

[mollyL]

Such a sad, sad, story! One can only guess what were the underlying problems that drove this poor lady.

[tater03]

That has to be an addiction. I mean I would never think to steal money to go play bingo and I enjoy the game immensely. I do agree that going and having the right mind set would help.

[justontime]

Slot machine addiction is more common than you would think and it can wreck peoples lives, the problem is that it is very hard to get any help to deal with it. In my work I have come across a number of people with this problem and they have some very sad stories. I think there should be much tighter rules on where they can be placed. The low payout kind are put in all sorts of places and they are far too tempting to vulnerable people.

[tater03]

I can see how they can be addicting but I just hate to see all the money being used when I am trying to win that I am lucky in that the urge to walk a way is worse.

[justontime]

Unfortunately if someone becomes addicted that sort of reasoning no longer impacts on him/her. Even the size of the payout doesn't seem to matter, they will still feed their money into a low pay out machine.

[tater03]

That's true when you are addicted you don't have that reasoning anymore. I think that this would be a hard addiction to break.

[Green-Moo]

But the lady wasn't really addicted to Bingo, was she? She was playing slot machines in a Bingo hall. And you can't really complain about slot machines being sited in a Bingo hall. Bingo itself is gambling after all!

[justontime]

Originally Posted by Green-Moo

But the lady wasn't really addicted to Bingo, was she? She was playing slot machines in a Bingo hall. And you can't really complain about slot machines being sited in a Bingo hall. Bingo itself is gambling after all!

It seems fair enough that they are in a bingo hall, but we have a problem with machines being in all sorts of random places, bus station café, our local take away, motorway service stations and now they seem to be popping up on the high street too. You are right she was addicted to slot machines, not bingo.

[mollyL]

I'm wondering what exactly would be the treatment for a gambling addiction. Counseling, of course; could it help in a rehab-like setting like in drinks and drugs? Could those addictions be treated side-by-side in the same setting?