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Anne Wark is a good mother and loving partner to Dan, but
she is also an addicted gambler who stole from her employer to
feed her addiction. Anne’s problems started when she began winning large sums of money and began to think she was in control of the machine. In 1997, a single mother with three children, she took a break and went to Niagara Falls for the weekend. She walked into the casino, gambled $25 and walked out with $1,500. Subsequent trips had similar results. Anne lived in Sarnia and worked as an accounting clerk from 1991 to 2000. In the midst of her winning streak, Dan came into Anne’s life, and he also liked to gamble. Dan found a job in Windsor and they began going to Casino Windsor. Whenever Dan was not out of town with his job, Anne went to Windsor to visit him, and that meant a trip to the casino. "On one trip I went into the high roller area and put a $100 bill into the $5 slots and won $3,000. That started it." The casino became their social life and they enjoyed the free concert tickets, meals and an invitation to the New Years Eve party in 2000. "On one occasion, I walked away with $10,000 and I was in the building a total of 25 minutes. "I kept it in my hand all the way home." The next time she went, still on the high, still thinking she could win, she lost. This was the beginning of the nightmare. Out of ready playing money, she theorized a bigger bankroll would give her a bigger chance to win, resulting in draining their personal savings account and the start of taking money from her employer. "Honestly, in my mind I wasn’t stealing, I was just borrowing it because numerous times before I had always put the money back. But as I kept losing the last three to four months were a blur," said Wark. "I would walk into the casino on the highest high, sure that this would be the visit that would make everything better, and leave at the lowest of lows when that didn’t happen." "I didn’t know what to do, I couldn’t stop and I didn’t know how to tell Dan." She left and drove home in a daze knowing she could not go on like this and felt she had two options. One was to tell Dan, the other was suicide. She finally called a gambling helpline and the woman who answered suggested she tell someone. Now! "I kept thinking about Dan. I knew I had to tell him," Wark said. My family was so important to me." They went for a drive and interspersed with uncontrollable crying, the words came tumbling out. Without raising his voice Dan took her hand and said, "We’ll get through this." They decided to call Anne’s employer and arrange a meeting to disclose the details of the missing money. "He was kind but I knew this was the beginning of the worst nightmare of my life." Anne was subsequently fired from her job. Dan took her to Gambler’s Anonymous and there found out about Problem Gambling Services in Windsor. Anne went through the program with her counsellor and worked hard at regaining control of her life and the trust of her family. In the back of her mind was also the uncertainty of what was going to happen. Two and a half years later in March, 2003 two police officers came to their store and arrested her. That dark cloud that had been hanging over her for so long was lifted a little. She knew this had to be dealt with before life could go on. While awaiting her sentence, Anne began speaking about her addiction to warn other women how easy it is to get hooked. "The first time I spoke to a group I was so nervous and I wasn’t sure I could do it. But once I got started the words just came and I felt so good about it afterwards," said Wark. "If just one family doesn’t have to go through what my family did, it is worth it. There is life after gambling and I now understand myself so much better." Anne said she worries about women who don’t have a Dan, or family to support them. Anne has slowly taken charge of her life. "This place (Problem Gambling Services) is unbelievable, I can’t sing its praises enough," said Wark. "Without them and my family I don’t even want to imagine where I would be today. The combination of all of them most definitely saved my life." "I have watched every member of my family struggle over the last three years because of my gambling addiction. My older children quit school for a year to work and save money to go back. I have watched Dan work two jobs to help get us back on track. I have had to say ‘no’ to simple things my youngest would want that we could not afford. I have missed the friends I left behind who I never got to say goodbye. I will have to live with that guilt and the hurt I caused so many for the rest of my life." Printed with permission |