Ellen Mulvey, from Cheshire, lost hundreds of thousands of pounds since she first started gambling in 2018. Although she signed up to Gamstop to prevent herself from accessing UK betting websites, she later turned to using unlicensed firms to place bets, which are not covered by the self-exclusion scheme.
In Mulvey’s suicide note from November, she admitted: “I have lied, I have an addiction. Thought I had sorted it but recently it got worse.”
Coroner Elizabeth Wheeler concluded that Mulvey’s gambling “went back many years”, and she had been struggling with “gambling issues, financial issues and issues with a previous relationship” at the time of her death.
Mulvey’s sister Katie Styring expressed hope that the story will help raise awareness of the “dangers of online gambling, and action should be taken to prevent other families going through the same heartbreak that we are”.