GAMBLING ADDICT IN CANADA COULD BE SUICIDAL

Yoo Choi had a secret gambling addiction that led to her suicide, according to her husband Mark Dawson

VANCOUVER, B.C. – Canada - casinos need to do more to help addicted gamblers, says a man whose wife killed herself after running up more than a $100,000 in debt at a downtown Vancouver casino.
Yoo Choi was a second-generation Korean-Canadian from Camrose, Alta., who made her mark in Vancouver as the fun-loving owner of the once-popular Velvet Café on Broadway.

• But according to her husband Mark Dawson, Choi had a secret and compulsive gambling habit which she battled for years to kick.
• After eventually racking up $150,000 in debt, playing much of the time at Vancouver's Edgewater Casino, Choi registered herself in the casino's voluntary exclusion program.
• She got counselling as she struggled with her addiction, and her husband thought she was in the clear.
• Then on the night of June 16, she called him to apologize because she had started to gamble again, and then she disappeared. Twenty-six days later her body was found floating in Lynn Canyon on Vancouver's North Shore.

Dawson says he wishes he knew then that problem gamblers are twice as likely to commit suicide as other addicts.

Source: CBC