![]() "But then my daughter Vicki committed suicide, and it was all different." But there was no desire, no itch – not for years." She stops and clasps her hands. And it was vaguely fun, and quite relaxing. "Very, very occasionally, if I was at the pub, I'd play $20. And for the next eight years, really, I had nothing to do with them." She thinks back. I was the only person who mentioned the possibility of addiction." She shakes her head. "The way I describe it is, I have nothing left to leave my children. ![]() I had massive credit card debts" – more than $30,000 – "that I'm still paying off." Even now, she looks astounded at what she's saying. "It's very hard to put a figure on it," she says. ![]() It sounds ridiculous, but for almost a decade from 2006, she gambled untold – and unknown, even to her – amounts of money. What is completely unexpected is how, while she was still active in politics, looking calm and competent and wearing her pearls, she was also addicted to poker machines. She's also a retired politician, with three terms as a Victorian Labor MP to her name. You expect her to be a keen rose gardener, or a local historian, or a quilter. Carolyn Hirsh, at 78, has blue eyes and grey hair and looks like one of those understated older women you see in smart suburbs: single strand of pearls, softly draped pale-blue jacket, subtle make-up.
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