Woman commits suicide after gambling away hundreds of thousands of pounds

A 44-year-old gambler committed suicide after losing £10,000 in the weeks before her death, an inquest has confirmed.

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.”

Heartbreak

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”.

Dan Webster, an Associate Solicitor at Leigh Day, stated: “Ellen’s family, and others who we represent, are highly concerned that the steps being taken by the Gambling Commission are having no meaningful effect in protecting the public from these platforms.

“It is vital that urgent action is taken by the government and the Gambling Commission to tackle the individuals and entities which operate these platforms and to prevent the ongoing harm which they cause.”

Illegal sites

Last month, The Guardian revealed that illegal gambling sites are preying on those trying to quit gambling.

Unlicensed betting sites such as MyStake have been directing vulnerable gamblers to their websites through affiliate links telling people how to bypass GamStop. Even MyStake’s young CEO, shown in a photograph with footballer Ronaldinho, was exposed as an AI generated fake, designed to give the company a veneer of authenticity.

In 2025, the Gambling Commission was allocated an extra £26m over three years to root out illegal gambling sites.