Wives beg bookies: Give back our husbands' squandered cash
By Alana Fearon
Wives beg bookies: Give back our husbands' squandered cash
Betting causing families to miss car and home repayments
Roulette table
Bookies are being swamped with heartbreaking emails from women begging for them to refund money their gambling partners have squandered.
The unprecedented situation has become worse in the past year as cash-strapped families struggle to put food on the table.
And with nowhere else to turn, the desperate wives of gambling addicts have started emailing bookmakers’ head offices begging for their money back.
Many of these women – often on the brink of a breakdown – have been pouring out their hearts in emotional emails claiming they’ve been left with nothing because of their husband or partner’s secret gambling.
One woman who contacted the Irish Daily Mirror said she was left devastated after realising her husband had “lost everything” – and emailed a leading bookie to beg for the money back.
She revealed: “I didn’t know it had become so bad, then I realise we couldn’t make the mortgage or car payment and I didn’t know where to turn.
“It’s not the bookie’s fault but I was desperate, I was angry and out of desperation I just sent an email pleading for the money back.”
Heartbreaking pleas from women have included stories about husbands taking their children’s Holy Communion and birthday money, gambling away the family holiday fund and squandering so much money that they can’t afford to put food on the table or petrol in the car.
And the most disturbing aspect of the crippling addiction is that gamblers can keep their problem secret until it’s too late.
Fiona Weldon, clinical director of the Dublin-based rehab charity the Rutland Centre previously said:
“Like any addiction, it’s a chronic and relapsing condition with no known cure.
"It’s very challenging for anyone coming out of recovery, because they need to take measures like disabling the internet on their phone.
“It is also an addiction that people can hide for longer periods, even years. But when it is found out, it usually all blows up and can destroy a family unit. In the worst cases, a family home may need to be sold to pay for all the gambling debts.”
With many Irish people facing unprecedented debt because of relentless tax hikes, benefits reductions and rising unemployment, terrifying stories have emerged of gambling addicts running up debts as high as €500,000.
The problem is fuelled by more and more of us looking for a quick-fix to our financial woes – but the situation spirals out of control when gamblers get addicted trying to win back their losses.
According to the latest statistics, there are some 40,000 gambling addicts in Ireland.
But frighteningly less than 1 per cent of those who need help actually receive it.
It’s estimated that we gamble more than €5 billion a year, the equivalent of €10,000 a minute.
Just last month it was revealed that a third of all top GAA players who seek counselling are troubled by gambling problems.
Senior Gaelic Players’ Association official Sean Potts said: “We’ve had 100 inter-county players go through our counselling service and a third of them are gambling related.
“It is worrying and we believe, like in anything, it is about education and getting to them before problems arise.”
Armagh’s 2002 All-Ireland winning hero Oisin McConville previously opened up about his chronic gambling addiction that saw him rack up €100,000 debts.
And while gambling addiction was traditionally a male-dominated illness, more and more Irish women are falling victim to the epidemic.
And the surge in popularity of online betting is being blamed for the frightening
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