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Gambling Related Suicide?!?
Internet gambling led to suicide
Helen Carter
Monday April 8, 2002
The Guardian
A council planning officer who became addicted to internet casino gambling following the death of his wife committed suicide after he amassed debts of more than £53,000.
Mario Opalka, 44, from Blackburn, Lancashire, began gambling on the internet after his wife, Eileen, died from lymph cancer in September 2000.
His son Jonathon, 20, yesterday called for government action against credit card companies after it emerged Mr Opalka had been given 19 cards with limits of up to £6,000.
The internet casinos were described as wicked by a coroner at Mr Opalka's inquest last week.
Initially he won $15,000 (£10,400) on a US casino website. When he continued to gamble he applied for more credit cards and built up huge debts.
In January this year his son found his father hanged.
Deputy coroner Carolyn Singleton described internet casinos as wicked and said they had taken advantage of a man who had been left vulnerable by traumatic events.
"This man nursed his wife through a horrible illness and subsequent death and found that extremely difficult to cope with," she said.
He had sought solace in alcohol and gambling.
Mr Opalka junior said the family was waiting to see if the US internet company would settle the debts owed to the credit card companies.
If not, he faces losing the family's three-bedroom terraced home.
"I will not rest until I find out why these credit card companies handed so much money out to my dad without realising he didn't have any in the first place," he said.
"It is an absolute disgrace that someone like my dad, who needed help, was just given an even bigger push towards taking his own life.
"I am calling on our MP, Jack Straw, to do something now before someone else has to go through the same fate."
Mr Opalka had taken time off work as a town hall planning officer with Darwen council as he surfed the net for casino websites - and he played them day and night.
A fortnight before his death, Mr Opalka revealed the full extent of his problem to his son, but by then his debt had grown to £53,000.
Jonathon contacted the casino by email and explained the situation. Initially it was sympathetic. But all it offered, he said, was $2,000.
"That knocked him sick," said Jonathon. "He had dug a hole so deep he couldn't see a way out. No matter what I said to him it didn't make him feel any better. We could have re-mortgaged the house and sorted it out that way but he wouldn't listen. I think he was ashamed."
Gamblers Anonymous said 375,000 people in the UK have a gambling problem. A
Helen Carter
Monday April 8, 2002
The Guardian
A council planning officer who became addicted to internet casino gambling following the death of his wife committed suicide after he amassed debts of more than £53,000.
Mario Opalka, 44, from Blackburn, Lancashire, began gambling on the internet after his wife, Eileen, died from lymph cancer in September 2000.
His son Jonathon, 20, yesterday called for government action against credit card companies after it emerged Mr Opalka had been given 19 cards with limits of up to £6,000.
The internet casinos were described as wicked by a coroner at Mr Opalka's inquest last week.
Initially he won $15,000 (£10,400) on a US casino website. When he continued to gamble he applied for more credit cards and built up huge debts.
In January this year his son found his father hanged.
Deputy coroner Carolyn Singleton described internet casinos as wicked and said they had taken advantage of a man who had been left vulnerable by traumatic events.
"This man nursed his wife through a horrible illness and subsequent death and found that extremely difficult to cope with," she said.
He had sought solace in alcohol and gambling.
Mr Opalka junior said the family was waiting to see if the US internet company would settle the debts owed to the credit card companies.
If not, he faces losing the family's three-bedroom terraced home.
"I will not rest until I find out why these credit card companies handed so much money out to my dad without realising he didn't have any in the first place," he said.
"It is an absolute disgrace that someone like my dad, who needed help, was just given an even bigger push towards taking his own life.
"I am calling on our MP, Jack Straw, to do something now before someone else has to go through the same fate."
Mr Opalka had taken time off work as a town hall planning officer with Darwen council as he surfed the net for casino websites - and he played them day and night.
A fortnight before his death, Mr Opalka revealed the full extent of his problem to his son, but by then his debt had grown to £53,000.
Jonathon contacted the casino by email and explained the situation. Initially it was sympathetic. But all it offered, he said, was $2,000.
"That knocked him sick," said Jonathon. "He had dug a hole so deep he couldn't see a way out. No matter what I said to him it didn't make him feel any better. We could have re-mortgaged the house and sorted it out that way but he wouldn't listen. I think he was ashamed."
Gamblers Anonymous said 375,000 people in the UK have a gambling problem. A