|
Gambling
Addiction Suicides
Michigan
- A small-business owner, had just returned from a trip
to the Las Vegas Strip's MGM Grand Tuesday when he
allegedly killed his pregnant wife and three children
(under 7 years old) before turning the gun on himself.
In his Mich., home, police found a suicide note blaming
gambling addiction - and $225,000 in shredded casino
markers. His business was $500,000 in debt because he
withdrew the money to cover his gamblling.
Las Vegas Sun 11/22/00 Las Vegas Review-Journal
11/23/00
Atlantic
City - An 11-year-old Herndon girl died yesterday after
initially surviving the slayings of her mother and brother
and the suicide of her father, who authorities now say had
defrauded area banks of nearly $2 million and had $10
million in gambling and other debts.
Washington Post 8/6/98
LA
- On Thursday, another fight about gambling steeled
Jueliene Butler's determination to leave her husband, as
her children raced down the street on their bicycles and
tricycles. The two shots that resounded through the
neighborhood ended a tempestuous 26-year marriage between
Rodney and Jueliene Butler in a murder-suicide heard by
their 13-year-old daughter.
Times Picayune 5/8/98
IL
- Each turned on the ignition of their Olds Regency after
stretching a vacuum hose from the exhaust pipe into the
car's interior, climbing in and rolling up the windows.
Carol, 63, was the obsessive gambler. Disabled and saddled
with the monstrous debt she had created, Skip, 69 had
wanted to join her. Undone by a ravenous habit that cost
them $200,000, a house, a nest egg and two lives, it was
Carol who left a terse hint of the forest of guilt and
fear that had grown around them. Bexson and Carol Warriner
chose suicide as a last exit from gambling habits.
Los Angeles Times 6/22/97
ATLANTIC
CITY -- An unidentified man hanged himself under the
Boardwalk on Thursday, the third suicide outside a casino
in the last three months, police said.
The Associated Press 6/9/00
ATLANTIC
CITY -- A 50-year-old Ventnor man apparently committed
suicide Tuesday afternoon by jumping off the parking
garage of a casino, police said.
LAS VEGAS SUN 4/5/00
ATLANTIC
CITY, N.J. (AP) -- A German tourist jumped to his death
off a 10-story casino parking garage Wednesday in the
third such suicide in eight days.
The Associated Press 8/25/99
Atlantic
City - Ex-casino worker leaps to death from roof of Trump
Marina. He is the fifth person to jump from a casino here
and die since August 1999.
South Jersey Publishing CO 5/27/00
Atlantic
City - A bloodied body was found at the entrance to the
Sands Casino Hotel parking garage just before 8 a.m.
Investigators believe he fell two stories to his death but
don't know much more than that.
South Jersey Publishing 7/30/00
Atlantic
City - The 36-year-old Florida man leaped seven stories to
his death Tuesday after losing between $50,000 and $87,000
at Trump Plaza.
South Jersey Publishing Co. 8/19/99
CT
- He had developed a gambling habit over the past few
months that began on a trip to Las Vegas this summer.
Police believe he was driving home from Foxwoods Resort
Casino when, in desperation, he killed himself by hanging.
The Day Publishing 9/9/00
A
Long Island teen who had a "death wish" because
of a $6,000 World Series gambling debt used a $1.75 toy
gun to force cops to shoot and kill him, police said
yesterday.
New York Post 11/16/97
Detroit
- A gambler losing big dollars in the high-roller area of
the MotorCity Casino in Detroit pulled out a gun
Wednesday, shot himself in the head and died, police said.
He was playing double hands at $500 per hand, and lost
$10,000 that night.
Detroit Free Press 1/27/00
BILOXI,
Miss. -- Police are trying to determine what caused a
gambler down on his luck to shoot three people before
killing himself at a busy Gulf Coast casino.
ASSOCIATED PRESS 1/15/01
Miss
- In May 1996, Bay St. Louis, Miss., resident James
Shamburger, a casino regular, hanged himself with a dog
leash.
IL
- No one knows why Howard Russell took his life, but
authorities found he had taken more than $13,000 in
advances on his credit cards during an eight-hour gambling
spree on the riverboat.
Sun Times 7/28/97
IL
- Since casinos opened in Joliet five years ago, Will
County Coroner Patrick O'Neil said he has handled three
suicides involving people who had racked up debts on the
riverboats. But there are others, he said, such as the
Kankakee couple who killed themselves outside O'Neil's
jurisdiction.
Sun Times 7/28/97
IL
- 27-year-old Larry ruined his career, maxed out his
credit cards and finally killed himself after gambling
away his girlfriend's rent money.
TODAY 8/13/01
IL
- A gambler, Robert Jewell, threatened to spray gunfire in
an Elgin, Ill., casino, then returned home and shot
himself.
Los Angeles Times 6/22/97
IL
- Kate, 40, a gambling addict and mother of 2, committed
suicide by shooting herself in the head.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2/22/95
TAMPA
-- The night Hillsborough State Attorney Harry walked into
a darkened field carrying his gun, he already was mired
deep in gambling debt and facing an investigation. He
committed suicide.
St. Petersburg Times 11/28/00
AZ - Harrah's Indian gambling director committed suicide
over a jackpot dispute.
The Associated Press 1/21/98
LA
- After a night of drinking at a Kenner casino Saturday
night, a Ponchatoula man, 21, apparently shot himself to
death in his car outside the gambling boat, police said.
Times Picayune 11/8/99
MO
- Mother committed suicide after secret, luckless trips to
Casino St. Charles.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch 3/3/96
Las
Vegas - Pierce was the second prominent actor to take his
life in a little more than a year. In March 1999, David
Strickland hanged himself at the Oasis Motel, 1731 Las
Vegas Blvd. South. Strickland was in the TV series
"Suddenly Susan."
Las Vegas Review-Journal 7/12/00
LAS
VEGAS (AP) - A 24-year-old Utah man scaled two security
barriers and jumped to his death from the observation deck
of the 1,149-foot Stratosphere Tower hotel-casino late
Wednesday, police said.
Las Vegas Sun 1/6/00
LAS
VEGAS (AP) -- The bullets fired by the family man and
Alabama Power employee struck three people he'd apparently
never met inside the 23-story hotel and casino, and
sparked a panic that didn't end until a dozen other people
were injured in the melee. McConnell then shot himself in
the head. A casino employee said he had been in the casino
before and was upset after losing at the slot machines.
Alabama Live 1/15/01
Las
Vegas - They have bank statements showing that Batdorf
drained his $17,000 Florida bank account in 11 days.
Between August and September he made $600 daily ATM
withdrawals as often as three times a day and maxed out
his credit cards that put him $72,000 in debt. A pawn shop
ticket with his name and thumbprint on it prove he hocked
the last of his things, among them the ceramic W.C. Fields
and Marx Brothers figurines his mom gave him for
Christmas. All activity stopped on his credit cards and
bank statements a little over two months later in Las
Vegas -- about the same time a man's body matching
Batdorf's description turned up in the desert, dead from a
.357-caliber gunshot wound in the head.
Las Vegas SUN 10/31/98
CA
- A compulsive gambler shot and killed himself in San
Diego. It was at least the second such suicide in that
city within the past few months, yet these events are
rarely reported and when they are, the connection with
gambling is often overlooked.
The Los Angeles Times 6/30/97
Iowa
- Where a 19-year-old college dropout, Jason Berg, shot
himself to death in June 1994, despairing over a budding
gambling habit.
Los Angeles Times 6/22/97
A
Long Island teen who had a "death wish" because
of a $6,000 World Series gambling debt used a $1.75 toy
gun to force cops to shoot and kill him, police said
yesterday.
New York Post 11/16/98
Pergament,
depressed over $6,000 in gambling debts, got himself shot
Friday night by threatening officers with what turned out
to be a toy gun, police said. They call it "suicide
by co" -- and say they've seen it before.
The Associated Press 11/17/97
My
father, a successful lawyer in Los Angeles, was also a
compulsive gambler, and he killed himself in 1976, shortly
after one of his many trips to Las Vegas.
WARD M. WINTON St. Paul, Dec. 16, 1997
SALEM,
Ore. - A Eugene woman who blames her brother's suicide on
the state lottery's video poker network filed a lawsuit
Tuesday that would constitutionally invalidate the
lottery.
The Register-Guard 7/25/01
RI
- Hours after Police Chief Thomas Moffatt was found dead
Nov. 20, apparently a suicide, in the basement of the
police station, four city officials were told of reports
that the chief had been borrowing money from subordinates
to pay gambling debts.
The Providence Journal 11/30/98
Miss.
- After two losing days at the Tunica gambling tables,
Ronnie Austin told his wife he was ready to leave. By the
time she caught up to him in the Horseshoe Casino parking
garage, the Cordova resident was dead from a 9 mm gunshot
wound to the chest, an apparent suicide captured on
security camera videotape.
The Commercial Appeal 3/17/98
Las
Vegas - Tillander became immersed in a gambling habit.
While no one knows the extent of Tillander's debts, his
inability to stop gambling left him unwilling to go on.
"His finances were getting out of control,"
Flatt says. "Gambling is a tough addiction because
when you confront someone about it, there is usually very
little evidence." authorities found Tillander's body
in his apartment. He had crafted the cyanide gas
concoction, stuck his head in a pup tent and taken in the
deadly fumes.
Las Vegas Review-Journal 11/16/98
CT
- A bank employee and father with a gambling habit, in
desperation, killed himself by hanging after leaving a
casino.
The Day Publishing Online 9/9/00
CT
- The body of 28-year-old John Diakos was found in a
casino parking lot after he committed suicide by ingesting
a mixture of drugs and cutting his arms.
The Day Publishing Online 9/9/00
CT
- 38-year-old woman of Stamford drowned herself by wading
into the Thames River after losing hundreds of dollars at
gambling the maximum amount allowed on her credit cards at
the casino.
The Day Publishing Online 9/9/00
|