A young mother from Grimsby has issued a stark warning after a seemingly harmless free £5 online bingo bet plunged her into a gambling addiction that cost her more than £4,000.
From a free bet to a life-changing win
Molly Clipsham, 26, had never gambled before 2021 when a friend suggested she sign up to an online bingo site using a referral code to claim a free £5 bet. After losing her first game, she tried again. On her second ever bingo game, she won a staggering £1,397.60. "That's when it all started," Molly said. "It was like a switch went off in my head."
The supermarket manager began playing regularly, starting with small £5 or £10 deposits each weekend. The initial thrill soon evolved into a dangerous pattern. After about a year, she moved from bingo to online casino slots, chasing the same high.
The spiral into a 'dark hole'
Molly began to view gambling as a source of income, using significant wins to fund lavish trips, including a holiday to Disney World in Florida with her fiancé, Michael Kirwin. However, the pursuit of big wins made her "greedy." She admits to sometimes spending £100 in just 15 minutes while playing online slots.
"I was in the bath once and spent £100 in a quarter of an hour," she recalled. "If I put that money on and I lost it, I'd try and get it back. I put more and more on, chasing my tail. It was the rush of it."
She stopped gambling completely during her pregnancy, but after her son, Hudson, was born in August, she fell into what she describes as a "dark hole" again. She would gamble during his nap times, leading to feelings of immense guilt for not focusing on her newborn.
The £4,000 wake-up call and recovery
The turning point came when Molly checked her lifetime deposits on the gambling sites. The total exceeded £4,000 over four years. Confronted by this sum, she opened up to her family and sought support online.
"I feel massive guilt," Molly stated. "All the money that I've put on since I had my little boy could've gone towards him and his future." She has since quit gambling and uses thoughts of her son to fight the urge when it arises.
Molly is now sharing her story on platforms like TikTok, where she has found a community of women in similar situations. She challenges the stereotype of gambling as a "men's game," noting that the social chat rooms in online bingo can be a particular gateway for women.
She also criticises the "manipulative" nature of gambling advertisements, which she says pop up even when watching children's movies, offering incentives like free spins.
The Gambling Commission states that strict rules govern gambling ads, enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), to protect vulnerable people. New rules from 19 January will ban certain types of combined bonus offers and limit wagering requirements.
An ASA spokesperson confirmed their robust rules require gambling ads to be responsible and not target vulnerable audiences, with updated guidelines applying a stricter "strong appeal" test to protect under-18s.
