Column: Tribal casinos can identify gambling addicts

Monday, December 7, 2009  

"A news story last month about the latest person around here accused of embezzling to feed a casino habit prompted a lot of reader response, most of it harsh and unsparingly critical of the woman charged with stealing $294,000 from a Ledyard condominium association.

One person commenting on theday.com, though, had a more sympathetic view, saying she, too, had stolen to accommodate a gambling addiction and knows how hard it can be to resist the call of the slots.

I tracked this reader down to ask about her gambling and perhaps learn a little more about what Superior Court Judge Susan B. Handy, back in 2001, called an "epidemic on our hands," long before the number of gambling related embezzlements here really began to soar.

It turns out the reader was also caught embezzling, stealing from a doctor's office in Rhode Island where she had been employed for seven years.

"I was humiliated because the people I worked for were wonderful to me," she said. "They thought it was personal, and it wasn't. My thoughts were that I wanted to die, because of the embarrassment.

"It has caused a deep depression in my life, because of the guilt and shame I feel."

The doctor she worked for fired her on the spot when he discovered the embezzlement (she was caught on camera) but agreed not to prosecute, provided she pay back all the money she stole, about $10,000, with interest."

Get the Story:
David Collins: Embezzling gambler: 'I couldn't control it.' (The New London Day 12/60