Woman who lost £70,000 in an afternoon on slot machines urges others to get help

A hairdresser who lost £70,000 playing online slot machines in just one afternoon has urged other women to seek help with their gambling addictions after turning her own life around. Christine Tolaini, 39, has enjoyed gambling for as far back as she remembers, as a small child she loved playing on the 2p and 10p machines.

At the age of 21, she went to Las Vegas for the first time and realised she was more excited by gambling than her friends. And by the age of 22 she even had a time share hotel room in Sin City and visited it once a year so she could gamble.

Despite the thrill of casino gambling, the real addiction didn’t start until a decade later when she started online betting. In 2016 the hairdresser started to gamble away all her earnings and racked up hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of credit card debt.

She started her recovery at the age of 34 but relapsed twice as she was lured back in the world of gambling by free online bet offers. Christine said: “I can’t even describe the feeling of it, I was hopeless, I didn’t know how I was going to get out of it.

“At first it was just a fun thing I did at weekends. It seemed different when I had to withdraw physical cash, it was easier to control.”

Six years ago, Christine won £150 from a 10p free bet and was soon playing online slots and online bingo every night placing increasingly bigger bets until she reached breaking point. She lost one years’ worth of salary in an evening amounting to £45k.

The second time she relapsed in 2020, when she lost £70k in one afternoon rainbow riches. Speaking, as a new survey revealed that female gamblers are gambling more due to the cost of living crisis, she said: “I felt completely lost.

"I didn’t know what to do but I knew I needed help. I went to the doctors, and they didn’t know what to do with me.

“Eventually I found a gamblers anonymous group. Now I am happy to see more women are coming forward and speaking out, I don’t feel so alone with it anymore.”

But she revealed how a year and a half into her recovery, a gambling site deposited £400 into an account she had not closed for free to play with. On this occasion she managed to resist temptation.

But in 2020 another betting site deposited £150 into her account which she gambled and won £1,500 from. According to Christine, she didn't block off her accounts to 'leave the window open'- it is common for addicts to do this as they struggle to close their accounts completely.

This triggered a relapse and quickly she found herself back in the throes of a gambling problem. Christine continued: “For me gambling was a distraction from my emotional problems, it was a compulsion that made my brain calm down.

"I had to take time off- It put strain on all my relationships. I didn’t always think I would win, but there was some excitement in the risk factor, and I gambled when I was in a good mood too.”

Christine is thankful she has been able to be honest and open in her personal and professional life about her vice, but it hasn’t always been easy. It’s a very hidden problem but I wasn’t eating, and I wasn’t sleeping, I wasn’t concerned about looking after myself."

She now realises recovery isn’t something she can dip in and out of and is a constant process. She said: “I was losing such extreme amounts of money and I can’t believe the banks were allowing me to have this amount of credit cards.

“Someone should’ve been monitoring that I had eight credit cards and was losing that amount of money.”

“Betting companies lure people in with free bets and banning credit cards from betting sites isn’t enough as gamblers will always find a way.”

“The accessibility and advertising is making it worse, I want to make people aware of the help and support they can get.”

Christine is almost debt free now and is happier than ever thanks to all the support services, especially Gamblers Anonymous, she is training to become a Peer Aid support worker at Betknowmore to help other women in crisis. The charity GambleAware has launched a prevention campaign targeting women, to raise awareness of vital support available for those who may be struggling.

If you are worried about your gambling or that of a loved one, or are starting to lose track of time, spending more than you can afford, or hiding your gambling from others, please don’t hesitate to visit BeGambleAware.org for free confidential support, or call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133.