We all love online casino, bingo and betting, right? That’s why we’re here, after all, to enjoy it and have some safe fun. However, when we’re playing, we must never, EVER forget that these activities, while awesome in small doses, are incredibly addictive, and that we must exercise our self-control and seek help when we realize we’re no longer able to. If we don’t, then we risk harming ourselves and our family. Earlier we reported that the creator of NYPD Blue spent his fortune feeding an addiction to betting. Now, it seems like even bingo – the most innocent out of all online gambling activities – has claimed a victim.
According to The Falkirk Herald, Margaret Henderson (61) was placed in charge of taking care of her 94-year-old mother’s finances after the latter was diagnosed with dementia. Henderson’s responsibilities were to pay her mother’s taxes and bills, but she decided to get a little bit creative with her future inheritance. Soon enough, the Falkirk Council social services started noticing that rather peculiar payments were being made from the elder’s account – payments which didn’t seem like they belonged to a 94-year-old woman suffering from dementia. Case in point – over £5000 were being deposited to bingo sites over a two-year period. The police were quickly alerted, and after a brief investigation into the matter Henderson was arrested.
Henderson herself admitted that she was a compulsive gambler and that she lost all of the money, which she was court ordered to return after pleading guilty to her crime. According to the woman, she suffers from agoraphobia (fear of situations that could potentially cause anxiety), which left her housebound for prolonged periods of time, and that gradually led to the addiction to bingo. “For some reason she saw an outlet in the internet and became addicted to online gambling and online bingo in particular. She used the money she took from her mother’s account to rack up some serious losses,” said Siobhan Monks, procurator fiscal depute.
Henderson is no longer in charge of her mother’s finances, but she still sees her every day. Sheriff John Mundy placed Henderson on a community payback order with the condition she complete 150 hours of unpaid work within six months. So all in all, the situation was resolved relatively peacefully – the elder Mrs. Henderson will receive her money back, and her daughter will be able to curb her addiction before it snowballs into something even worse. Not all cases of addiction can be solved that easy, though. In fact, most of them keep getting worse, spiraling out of control until it’s too late to help anyone involved. If you feel like you’re suffering from gambling addiction, please contact the respective organization in your area as soon as possible.