Gambling addiction cost San Diego mayor $1 billion

$1 billion in wins at a casino may sound like a jackpot – but not if the losses total $1.13 billion.

Former San Diego mayor Maureen O’Connor became so addicted to gambling that she stole $2.1 million from her late husband’s charity to feed her habit.

Now, the former mayor and council member is living in poverty and being forced to pay back the money she took from her deceased husband’s R.P. Foundation – a nonprofit organization that provides money to numerous other charities. Having suffered $13 million in total losses during a decade-long video poker spree, O’Connor hardly has the funds to return the ‘borrowed’ cash. The woman has already sold her $2.5 million property and borrowed money from friends, most of which was used to gamble.

“I always intended to pay it back,” she told reporters at a news conference. “And I still intend to pay it back.”

The 66-year-old retiree’s fortune has plummeted in the years since she was San Diego’s first female mayor from 1986 to 1992. She once had an estimated $40 to $50 million in her bank account, which she inherited from her now-deceased husband, Jack in the Box founder Robert O. Peterson.

more here: http://rt.com/usa/news/gambling-mayor-money-oconnor-330/