Mum’s 20p spin ended in ‘horrific’ gambling habit with £65k debt

A mother who started online gambling with 20p saw her debts spiral to £65,000 in just over a year.

Emma McLeod’s gambling habit nearly caused her to lose her home, almost resulted in her son being removed from nursery when she stole his childcare payments, and placed a “big burden” on her parents.

Now, after being in recovery for six years, the 41-year-old works with Blackpool’s Empowerment charity helping problem gamblers.

‘Horrific’

Speaking to the BBC, McLeod explained: “It started with a 20p bingo book, then £10 every other day and within four to six weeks it was hundreds of pounds every day. I got into £65,000 of debt in 14 months. It was horrific.”

“I used to do the banking at the pharmacy where I worked and would occasionally not do it properly and borrow money from the banking and then put it back a few weeks later.”

The mother reflected on how she was also “missing out” on family life: after taking her son to bed, for example, she “couldn’t wait to get back down and start gambling”.

“I thought I was protecting him but I was losing out on a whole load of time with him”.

Thousands

She continued: “I closed all of my gambling sites down but I didn’t actually ban myself, so I ended up back on them. One night I won £19,000. At that point I was still £30,000 in debt. Back then, when you withdrew money it would keep it in holding for 24 hours and you could change your mind within that window.

“My £19,000 lasted me 11 hours. The whole lot was just gone.”

Despite several attempts to stop gambling, she continued to buy scratch cards for almost three years, before finally getting on top of her habit.

Now, the 41-year-old said her experience not only “gives us more resilience” to help those she works with, but it “makes us not want to go back to gambling even more too”.

Action

Last week, politicians and campaigners called for Government action to reduce gambling-related harm.

The 2025 Peers for Gambling Reform Summit brought together those with lived experience of problem gambling, affected others, researchers and psychologists to share their testimonies of how damaging gambling is to both individuals and society.

The event was hosted by Lord Foster of Bath, and featured a variety of guests, from football commentator Clive Tyldesley and actor and presenter Alexis Conran, to former Conservative Leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Labour backbencher Dawn Butler.