darkness. rebecca was 19 when she first started gambling, almost a decade ago. while making this documentary, we found so many women are reluctant to appear on camera to talk about their experiences of addiction, partly because of the stigma and shame. but rebecca is passionate about speaking out, to help others. i had my first son and i got post natal depression, and i rememberwinning ijust went on a gambling site and i won really big, and i never stopped. it was just continuous from there. i rememberjust getting scratch cards, winning, losing, opening more and more accounts online continuously. and yeah, before i knew it i was a gambling addict. i used to love online slots, you know online slots,
worked out to be about £30,000 in the space of three months. recent studies indicate that around the world, the number of women gambling is growing. and for those with addiction, is often done in secret. we seem to be sleepwalking, it feels like, towards a problem. elissa used to gamble regularly in pubs, on fruit machines and down at the bookies. but she has got out of hand when she started doing it online in her 30s. i think it started when i was quite young, so about nine year old or something like that. my mum had an i m not blaming my mum, obviously, she hated gambling but she had a caravan and we were always in the arcade, and at the time you could play on the slot machines, it didn t matter if you are aged, like 5p a spin it was. and she would give me pocket money every night, and i was putting it in them, like, i miust have been nine year old. i won £35, and i would give it to my mum to look after.
at home that s poorly. and they re saying to you, i want a cuddle, and you can t. .. sorry. when they first start they tend to have the doors close. harp is the manager of the centre. she has a background in psychotherapy and has worked with victims of trafficking and modern slavery, as well as people who have struggled with addiction. she and the other staff here support the women throughout their stay, which initially includes a complete detox from gambling. we limit access to phones, to the outside world, so all the stresses of the outside world is kind of gone. we limit access to money, we limit access to any kind of online services, so they can t gamble. and what that week does, is it allows everybody to kind of sit in reality like, this is who i am. very, very, very uncomfortable place for some people. the number of women seeking
a woman is going to be the one that manages the finances. women have such, in society, such a big role to play and actually, like, we are not really allowed to crumble because we are the caregivers. so what are the key differences between the way women and men gamble? dr venetia leonidaki is a consultant psychologist who works at the national problem gambling centre. so there are some distinct differences between female and male gamblers. one of the most well known differences is how quickly the gambling disorder can develop in women as compared to men. they may end up being exposed to gambling in their late 20s or early 30s according to the literature, and then within a few years, five years, they may end up developing a gambling problem. how about some of the other psychology behind women and gambling?
we look at trauma. whereas women go straight in with the impacts that gambling might have had on them, or how we have kind of got to gambling, and they want to understand that. and this is honestly the environment that allows them to do that safely. and this is one of the reasons women like rebecca had felt able to seek support. i don t think i ever would have come if there was males, just because i have had, i don t really. i am a bit funny with emotional connections with males, and just the fact that like, you are all women, you all feel so safe and secure, and actually as a woman, being a gambling addict is really hard. like, being a male gambling addict is, i guess is hard, but in society it is like, you are a woman a woman runs a house, a woman is going to be the one that manages the finances. women have such, in society, such a big role to play and actually, like, we are not really allowed to crumble because we are the caregivers.