‘I was going to end up in a grave’: Female gambling addict reveals how she bet her life away

‘On my dad’s deathbed, I swore to him I would never have another bet, but I still went and did it,’ Lisa Walker tells Maya Oppenheim

Ms Walker’s gambling addiction got so bad she was forced to remortgage her house three times (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

“I started gambling when I was eight years old,” Lisa Walker tells The Independent. “My dad was a compulsive gambler. I quite quickly became very good at playing cards. I was gambling for 37 years.”

Now 48, Ms Walker, who lives in Essex, says she managed to keep her gambling relatively under control until things began to fall apart when she hit 30.

“I realised I was quite good at poker in my twenties and would go to local casinos in Southend,” Ms Walker says. “When I was 29, I got dealt a royal flush and won over £127,000 on one game of cards. It was the worst day of my life.”