Ellen Mulvey was fighting her gambling addiction behind closed doors. The managing director was using services to block access to accounts on licensed gambling sites and apps in a bid to save herself from the habit.
With an accomplished career in recruitment, the 44-year-old to the outside world was successful. She had moved from Cheshire to London at a young age and built a life and career in the financial sector.
But she kept the extent of her battle with gambling a secret from those around her and found other excuses for her spiralling financial struggles. Her sister said the ‘stigma and shame’ around the issue meant she felt could never truly admit the extent of her problems until it was tragically too late.
“I have lied… I have an addiction”
It was only after her death that the real scale of her troubles was revealed, as she penned a heartbreaking letter to her partner Deanne writing: “I have lied, I have an addiction. Thought I had sorted but recently it got worse.”
Ellen had a ‘long history’ of gambling, and had grappled with her addiction since around 2018. She was able to largely hide the scale of her problem from her loved ones who only learned the true horrors after she tragically took her own life.
She had begun using unlicensed sites which target and prey on the vulnerable. Platforms were advertising themselves as ‘not on GAMSTOP’, a specialist website which Ellen had used to self-exclude from her addiction. The provider gives people the tools to block themselves from gambling and ensures that UK-based gambling sites remove users from their services.
During an inquest into Ellen’s death last month, her family told the court that they believed Ellen first started gambling due to her interest in football and gambled for many years with licensed operators, before then signing up to use GAMSTOP.
Ellen Mulvey resorted to using unlicensed websites(Image: PA)
But Ellen began resorting to using unlicensed websites and, between 2018 and 2025, bank statements revealed that she ‘exhausted all funds available to her’, with her gambling-related transactions running up into the hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The inquest in Warrington heard that a ‘very simple’ Google search would flag up betting companies not registered with GAMSTOP.
Her family are now calling on the Government and the Gambling Commission for stricter regulations to prevent unlicensed websites targeting those with gambling addictions, asking: “How many more lives have to be lost before something changes?”
Ellen’s inquest marked the sixth since 2022 to record the contribution of gambling to a death.
“How many more lives have to be lost?”
The 44-year-old, from Macclesfield in Cheshire, tragically took her own life by taking an overdose of medication. It was concluded at the inquest that Ellen’s cause of death was suicide, but Area Coroner Elizabeth Wheeler found that Ellen met the criteria for Gambling Disorder and that gambling was a stressor which had contributed to her death.
GP and addictions expert Baroness Clare Gerada also told the hearing that Ellen had a ‘severe and longstanding gambling disorder’ which caused her death.
Ellen’s family told the court that they believed that Ellen’s addiction to gambling was the root cause of the deterioration in her mental health prior to her death. Her GP practise had equally been unaware of her problems with gambling.
Her partner Deanne and sister Katie described how her addiction was largely hidden from those closest to her, and was masked by other explanations for her mental state and financial difficulties. In the months leading up to her death, she had experienced increasing anxiety and hidden financial pressures, they told the court.
Her bereaved family and campaigners are now raising vital awareness about the risks posed by gambling, including by the ongoing ability of unlicensed online gambling operators to target individuals who are trying protect themselves from using the platforms. They are being supported by charity Gambling with Lives.
The Gambling Commission told the Manchester Evening News they are ‘stepping up action to protect British consumers’ from illegal online gambling sites’. Hundreds of thousands of sites have so far been reported or removed.
Ellen Mulvey took her own life as she battled her gambling addiction (Image: PA)
“Ellen had the biggest heart. She was kind, deeply empathetic, and always put others before herself,” Ellen’s partner Deanne Tomkins said following the conclusion of the inquest. “I truly believe she would still be here today if it wasn’t for the harm caused by gambling.
“She was a loving partner and an incredible stepmum to my four-year-old son. So patient, so playful, and just full of love. The memories she created with us will stay forever. But the reality is, she should still be here. She’s been taken from a young family who needed her, and who now have to grow up without her.
“Gambling does not define who Ellen was. It was something that took hold of her, because that is what it is designed to do. It made her feel like she had failed. It made her believe we were better off without her – which could not be further from the truth. That is the devastating reality of the harm caused by gambling and the psychological impact of gambling harm.
“No one is immune to addiction, especially to these dangerous highly addictive products, the individual is not to blame, it can affect anyone. This inquest has shown just how devastating gambling harm can be, and how deeply it affects a person’s mental health and the lives left behind.
“We feel so much more can be done to reduce the harm caused by gambling in the UK. We feel there needs to be a proper public health approach that better informs and protects everyone. We also want to see those experiencing harm being better supported, in a way that reduces stigma and shame, and promotes access to specialist gambling support.
“There are now professional standards in place for healthcare professionals and these need to be properly implemented. We are also deeply concerned about unregulated online gambling sites targeting those who have taken the steps to self-exclude, like Ellen.
“That should not be possible, and this is an issue that needs to be a priority for those in positions to act. How many more lives have to be lost before something changes?”
Calls for ‘urgent action’ to tackle unlicensed sites
Ellen’s sister, Katie Styring, described her as the ‘kindest, most compassionate person’ who ‘gave everything to the people she loved’. She added: “Due to the stigma and shame put on those experiencing gambling harm, that they are somehow to blame, Ellen felt unable to tell her family about the extent of her gambling or how deeply it was affecting her.
“For Ellen, working in a senior director role in financial services would only have added to this. We would like Ellen’s story to shine a light on how dangerous and devesting gambling can be, to help break down the shame and stigma and prevent others losing their lives.
“Hearing the evidence at the inquest has been devastating, but it has also helped us to understand the extent of what Ellen was facing. Ellen developed a Gambling Disorder not because of any flaw in her character but because gambling products are designed to be addicted and to extract as much profit as possible, regardless of the harm.
“We hope that Ellen’s story will raise awareness of Gambling Disorder and the dangers of online gambling and that action should be taken to prevent other families going through the same heartbreak we are.”
Concerns have been raised about the regulation of illegal gambling sites(Image: sevenoaks chronicle)
Leigh Day solicitor Dan Webster, who represented the family, added: “This is a deeply tragic case which highlights the devastating harm that gambling can cause, even to individuals like Ellen who otherwise live happy, healthy and successful lives and are able to hide their gambling problems from loved ones.
“The coroner’s Conclusion adds to the growing recognition of gambling as a factor which frequently contributes to self-inflicted deaths and illustrates the urgent need for action at a regulatory level to protect the public from gambling harm.
“This is the second inquest in the space of four months at which concerns have been raised about the ease of access to unlicensed gambling platforms for individuals who have self-excluded via GAMSTOP and the direct targeting of these individuals by platforms marketing themselves as ‘not on GAMSTOP’.
“Ellen’s family, and others who we represent, are highly concerned that the steps being taken by the Gambling Commission are having no meaningful effect in protecting the public from these platforms. It is vital that urgent action is taken by the Government and the Gambling Commission to tackle the individuals and entities which operate these platforms and to prevent the ongoing harm which they cause.”
“We recognise there is more work to do”
GAMSTOP offered their condolences to Ellen’s family. The operator works with the likes of Meta to report illegal advertising and has welcomed over 600,000 users who have registered for self-exclusion. A spokesperson added: “It is disgraceful that unscrupulous, unregulated operators are trying to entice the most vulnerable individuals to start gambling again.
“We are in regular contact with the Gambling Commission’s intelligence and enforcement team, and we have seen encouraging progress, with hundreds of thousands of URLs to unlicensed sites removed and more than 1,100 websites disrupted or geo blocked.
“We recognise that there is more work to do to remove all advertising of casinos bypassing GAMSTOP and from preventing the advertising in the first place, but it is important we keep the issue in perspective. Since its inception in 2018, more than 600,000 users have registered for self- exclusion and GAMSTOP is effective in blocking access to all UK licensed sites.
“However, we recommend users also use blocking software to prevent access to unlicensed sites, as we know unscrupulous operators target vulnerable consumers”.
The Manchester Evening News contacted the Gambling Commission, who said between April last year and March ’26, 741 cease and desists had been issued to advertisers and operators, with almost 400,000 URLs reported and a quarter of a million removed so far as part of the crackdown.
Unlicensed websites are being cracked down on(Image: PA)
A Gambling Commission spokesperson said: “We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Ellen Mulvey, and our thoughts are with her family and friends at this difficult time. We have a robust regulatory framework in place which requires licensed operators to identify signs of gambling-related harm and to take appropriate action to protect consumers.
“We’re stepping up action to protect British consumers from illegal online gambling through one of the largest anti-illegal market operations anywhere in the world.
“Between April 2025 and March 2026, we have issued 741 Cease and Desists to advertisers and operators; reported 397,527 URLs to various search engines and seen 266,667 URLs removed as a result so far; referred 1068 websites to the search engines for delisting and disrupted 1134 websites so that they have either been taken down or geo-blocked.
“We’re also working with registrars and hosts to suspend domains and increasingly getting illegal sites to implement geo-blocking so they cannot be accessed from Great Britain.
“This is one of the most effective tools we’ve seen for reducing customer traffic alongside registrar blocks. In addition, we’re expanding takedowns on social platforms, investing in specialist software to monitor and test purchase illegal services, sharing intelligence internationally and developing new tactics to target aggressive marketing, payment flows and VPN-resistant access.
“This activity focuses on reducing the visibility of unlicensed operators we believe are targeting consumers in Great Britain at scale and supports our wider work to disrupt the illegal markets supply chain.
“We also welcome the Government’s recent Budget commitment to support efforts to tackle illegal gambling. The investment of £26 million over the next three years will enable the Commission to build on and enhance its work to disrupt illegal operators and protect consumers.”