Tracy had a good job and enjoyed luxury holidays and expensive cars. Then the 52-year-old lost her family, marriage and home to a pernicious addiction – and now says: Get help before things spiral out of control

When Tracy Page’s gambling addiction was too much to endure, he decided to take his own life. Relationships with their children were broken, his marriage was over, his beautiful house was gone; Expensive cars and Caribbean holidays remained in the past and their debts increased. There was no other place to fall.

‘I’m tired – that’s the only way to describe it,’ he says. ‘And not only physically; I was mentally exhausted. I felt I couldn’t get any more. I was going to the doctor while I was running and I knew what to do because I was creating too much medicine. I got a serious overdose. ‘

Fortunately, the Page, now 52, survived, but his ordeal wasn’t over. In the following years, he says that he will get worse-gambling habit, with a TV and social media marketing threshold for women he finds dangerously attractive.

“I started to notice six or seven years ago and made the gambling look normal – even fun, or he says. ‘Ads are bright and colorful. During the evening, every other ad appeared for online bingo and nests. Soaps, the highest time programs and the basin would come before the basin, and friendly faces like Heather Graham and Paddy McGuinness would tell you how much you could have fun.

They were there during the day Loose women or This morning. Obviously, mothers at home with children who want to escape at home.

‘The women in the ads looked beautiful and happy, and the message seemed to be harmless and social. There were no ends on my phone: free turns on online casino slot machines, extra credit-“If you put this amount of money and win, we will give you 100 percent bonus,” he said.

After all, Page did not win. He went bankrupt in 2017 and then again at the end of 2024. ‘I lent50 .000 £.’

This former medical company manager from Droitwich, Worcestershire, is an increasing number of women in the UK who is defined as problematic gamblers. According to the gambling commission that controls the sector, now 37 percent of all problematic gamblers are women. And in an alarming way, research has found that the rate of dependence between women has increased.

Campaigns and gambling addiction charity institutions argue that this is due to great growth in advertising and online casinos, which deliberately target women. The 2023 survey of Gambleaware for women’s gambling habits found that about 2.4 million women were damaged by their gambling or someone else.

He warned: ‘Gambling addicts were disproportionately male, while the number of women looking for treatment from 1,134 to 2020-21 in 2015-16 in the last five years has doubled.’ Although these numbers may seem relatively small, only a small part of gambling addicts want to treat a very large iceberg.

“The increase in online casinos and sexist marketing has certainly led to an increase in women’s gambling, Rosal said Rosalind Baker-Frarmpton, clinical director of Gordon Moody, a gambling assistant organization Gordon Moody.

‘Historically, gambling was seen as a male entertainment because betting shops were a very male place. Women did not want to enter them. The perception was that gamblers were a certain species: white men who love to hang around in their 40s or 50s betting shops.

“ They tended to bet on horse races or other sports where there was a judicial and skill element. However, more women were attracted by playing the game of gambling at home with slot machines or bingo numbers at home, gambling and online casinos. ‘

The quick gambling industry, which is fast to realize the possibilities, created games for women in online casinos and then for casino for women. Pink Casino, Ladies Nite and Queenplay (all perfect legal), usually happy, smiling women, such as confetti, such as falling cash, websites, glowing balls, fluffy images and pink abundance.

Page was one of the women who thought it justified the gambling habit and made it a little harmless entertainment. Since the emergence of online casinos, Dabbled, but it has made the arrival a lot easier to play games – and made them lose money much faster.

Heather Graham was the face of Foxy Bingo

“ I would go to Bingo with my sister ‘he says. At that time, it was a social night. But then online Bingo came – my favorites were Jackpotjoy and Foxy Bingo – that has always provided you with bingo and gambling. ‘

Jackpotjoy, the most gambling of the page, did not answer. Foxy Bingo, ‘Player security is our biggest priority. We are determined to introduce the game responsible to all our customers through open messaging, solid safer gambling vehicles and continuous support. We offer features such as deposit limits, reality controls and self -exclusion options. Our marketing efforts will be socially responsible and are designed to comply with all relevant marketing regulations. ‘

The page continues: ‘I had a series of unsuccessful relationships and divorce – I was using it as a coping mechanism of online gambling. He helped to prevent all of this. All I want is [secure and happy] Marriage like my grandmother and my mother and my father, but that didn’t happen for me. This made me feel like failure. I used to use gambling, so I didn’t have to think about it or anything else.

“ I might have had a hard day or feel a little low, then I would see all these ads for gambling and made it look fun. You are bombed with them, and suddenly all your senses interact and you think, “Oh, that’s gonna cheer me up for a while.” An escape from real life. You don’t have to go anywhere or socialize with other people. Something you can do alone and secretly. ‘

Page started betting on online slot machine games, just 10p per spin and £ 600 times to start. ‘This once, working for the next big win, I bet 20P, 50p, 2 £ and I increased my bets’. “ “ `To go out with my friends or to interact with anyone except my colleagues came to the point of excuses.

“ I usually wasolated more on my laptop and in the evenings and gambling more. There were times I spent more than 30 hours in Trot games. I would gamble my wages as soon as they got them. It can be £ 10 or 1,000 £ one night.

‘After losing, I would lie to my family about making extra bills, so they would borrow me money. Then I got bank loans, advance loans and maximized my credit cards. I owed it a lot. It took me only six months to be completely addicted and too much problems. ‘

According to the Gambleaware report, Page is not alone in any way. “For women in our research, such marketing strategies did not emerge as a driver to start gambling, but he wanted women to continue, more often gambling or diversifying new gambling products,” he says.

The betting and game council, representing the arranged betting and gambling industry, says that 22.5 million people per month do this without negative repercussions of gambling and overwhelming majority. He adds: ‘All gambling marketing is subject to strict rules set by the Advertising Standards Authority and Gambling Commission and is further strengthened by the industry code for socially responsible advertising. These rules include open prohibitions to address children or vulnerable groups, to use misleading claims, or to portray gambling as a solution to financial or personal challenges. ‘

Barbara Windsor and Paddy McGuinness in an ad for Jackpotjoy

Page’s story has a happy end. Last year, after the intervention of three adult daughter, Wolverhampton was accepted for a six-week free settlement course in a clinic, managed by the Gordon Moody aid organization in West Midlands, the first female treatment center of the species in the United Kingdom, probably the world.

“My daughters may have received a lot of ink in 2021, but they wouldn’t notice how bad it was, or he says. “ When we finally started talking about it, I felt a great relief. ‘

He spent a ‘technology detox’ with a page, personal, group and art therapy without accessing his phone.

“You get a deduction time to reflect things, and you break the mask you wear for six weeks, and let the wall you build around you fall, or he says. Discovering who you are without gambling is eye -catching and you learn a lot about yourself and why you are taking over.

“ I have survived gambling since October 2024, I am almost debtless and much more optimistic about my future. I had almost no relationship with my daughters, but now it’s great. Every day we talk on the phone or on FaceTime.

“ I have two grandchildren aged three and five, but I never bought the gifts I wanted because of my financial situation and I felt bad about it. I wasn’t often there, and even I used to gamble on my phone. But now I understand that the quality time together is the most valuable gift we can give. I won’t let anything in the world endanger it. ‘

The page now believes that the positive role in life is to warn that gambling is not fun. “If there is someone outside in my story, please get help,” he says, ‘Before things get out of control.’

Visit for more information gambleaware.org or gordonmoody.org.uk

Statistics from Gordon Moody, Gambling Commission, HMRC