Gambling addict who lost £70K in ONE AFTERNOON and had Vegas timeshare urges others to get help
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A hairdresser who lost a staggering £70,000 in one afternoon is urging women to seek help with gambling addiction after her own slot machine nightmare wrecked her life.
Christine Tolaini, 39, a hairdresser from Wembley, London, has loved gambling for as long as she can remember – as a small child she loved to play on the 2p and 10p machines in arcades.
At the age of 21, she went to Las Vegas for the first time and realized that she was more excited about gambling than her friends.
In fact, by the time she was 22, Christine had a timeshare hotel room in Las Vegas and visited them once a year so she could feed her gambling addiction.
Christine plays the slot machines in Las Vegas, known as the gambling capital of the world. In her twenties, the Wembley hairdresser had her own timeshare in a hotel room in the American city so she could indulge her love of slot machines.
The 39-year-old hairdresser has since changed her life, but during the darkest days of her addiction, she lost £70,000 in just one afternoon playing online slots
Despite the thrill of casinos, the real addiction didn’t start until ten years later, when the barber started gambling online.
In 2016, Christine started gambling away all her earnings and amassed hundreds of thousands of pounds in credit card debt.
Realizing she had a serious problem, she had started recovering from her addiction at the age of 34, but relapsed twice when she was lured back into the world of gambling by free online betting.
Like many addictions, the hairdresser described her habit as “something fun she did on the weekend” — until it got out of hand.
Hairdresser is ‘happier than ever’ after breaking out of gambling habit after several relapses – but claims sites can ‘lure people in’
After 18 years of misery, Christine finally sought help and is now urging other women to do the same after falling back into bad habits when accounts she hadn’t closed deposited hundreds of pounds into her online gambling accounts
Christine said, ‘I can’t even describe the feeling of it, I was hopeless, I didn’t know how to get out.
“At first it was just a fun thing I did on the weekends.
“It seemed different when I had to withdraw physical money, it was easier to control.”
Six years ago Christine won £150 on a 10 cent free bet and soon she was playing online slots and online bingo every night, placing bigger and bigger bets until she hit the breaking point.
Christine kept some of her accounts open during her recovery as a ‘safety net’ in case she felt the urge to gamble, but they eventually led to her relapse and she has now closed her accounts for good.
She lost an annual salary in one night, at a cost of £45k.
The second time she had a relapse was in 2020 when she lost £70k in one afternoon playing an online slot machine.
When a new study found that female gambling is becoming more common 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.
Seeing the GP didn’t help Christine as she claims they ‘didn’t know what to do with her’ when she collapsed and told them she had a gambling problem – and credits GA (Gamblers Anonymous) for supporting her recovery
“I went to the doctors and they didn’t know what to do with me. Finally I found an anonymous gambling group.
“Now I’m glad more women are coming forward and speaking out, I don’t feel so alone anymore.”
Christne revealed how a year and a half after her recovery, a gambling site deposited £400 into an account she hadn’t closed.
On this occasion, she managed to resist the temptation, rather than backslide.
But in 2020, another gambling site deposited £150 into her account, which decided to use – eventually winning £1,500.
According to Christine, she didn’t block her accounts to “leave the window open” — a common strategy for many addicts, many struggling to close their accounts completely.
The openness of these accounts caused a third relapse and she soon found herself in the throes of a gambling problem again.
Christine said, “Gambling for me was a distraction from my emotional problems, it was a compulsion that calmed my brain.
‘I had to take time off. It strained all my relationships.
“I didn’t always think I was going to win, but there was some excitement in the risk factor, and I also gambled when I was in a good mood.”
The 39-year-old is grateful to have been honest and open about her vice in her personal and professional life, but it hasn’t always been easy.
She admitted: “It’s a very hidden problem, but I didn’t eat, and I didn’t sleep, I wasn’t worried about taking care of myself.”
The 39-year-old now realizes that recovery after 18 years isn’t something she can dip in and out of, but it’s a constant process.
She said: ‘I lost such extreme amounts of money and I can’t believe the banks let me have this number of credit cards.
“Someone should have checked that I had eight credit cards and was losing that amount.”
Reports show that more women are starting to gamble online due to the cost of living crisis as the promise of winning big appeals to those struggling with money
“Betting companies lure people in with free bets and banning credit cards from gambling sites is not enough, because gamblers will always find a way.”
‘The accessibility and advertising make it worse, I want to make people aware of the help and support they can get.’
Now nearly debt free, Christine is happier than ever after gaining access to support services, especially Gamblers Anonymous, and is currently training to become a Peer Aid supporter at BetKnowMore to help other women in crisis.