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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Former San Diego Mayor Bet More Than $1 Billion as a Result of Gambling Addiction |
| 2013-02-16 |
| [NATION.TIME] As Maureen O'Connor stood in court Thursday somberly admitting over the course of years that she had bet a total of more than $1 billion in casinos due to her compulsive gambling, it was the sad culmination of an addiction that dismantled a vast fortune and left her broke and in failing health. The former mayor of San Diego -- and widow of millionaire Jack-in-the-Box restaurant chain founder Robert Peterson, who died in 1994 -- lost a total of $13 million to casinos, and confessed to taking $2.1 million from her husband's charitable foundation only to blow it on video poker. But it didn't end there. Court records show O'Connor liquidated her savings, sold a number of properties, auctioned her valuables and took out second and third mortgages on her home in La Jolla, Calif. -- all of it to only rack up extensive gambling debts. O'Connor, who served as mayor of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,'s second-largest city in the 1980s and '90s, pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." on Thursday to a charge of money laundering, striking a deal that allows her to try to pay the money back to the foundation and get treatment for gambling addiction. "I always intended to pay it back," she said of the money at a news conference following her hearing. "And I still intend to pay it back. In that period of time I lost my husband, three siblings, best friends." O'Connor, 66, suffered a stroke and had a brain tumor removed in 2011; she now lives with her twin sister, Mavourneen, and says she suffers memory loss and sometimes has trouble reading. She blames her gambling compulsion on the tumor. "There are two Maureens -- Maureen No. 1 and Maureen No. 2," O'Connor said at her presser. "Maureen No. 2 is the Maureen who did not know she had a tumor growing in her brain." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #12 I'll be she comps a lot of buffet prime rib and lobster. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-02-16 20:27 |
| #11 correct. She won more than $1 billion. She lost more. I guess she'll make up for it in volume |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-02-16 19:22 |
| #10 The 'bet more than $1 Billion' is, I think, somewhat deceptive. Suppose you have $15 Million in assets. For two years, you bet $1.5 Million per day, almost every day, and lose a net of $17k on average per day. After 700 days, you would have bet about $1,000,000,000. Your loss would be about $12,000,000. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2013-02-16 19:13 |
| #9 Maureen No. 2 better have a good pair of running sneakers. I hear there's some bruisers from Vegas who are looking for her - to settle a few debts. :-) |
| Posted by: Raider 2013-02-16 16:34 |
| #8 Seems like a qualifying resume for the White House position at OKs fed money for green projects Gambled a billion and only lost $13 million? She's overqualified. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-02-16 13:04 |
| #7 Knock over a liquor store for a couple of hundred bucks and you get five to ten in prison. Steal $2.1 million from a charity and get treatment for your addiction. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2013-02-16 12:43 |
| #6 Inoperable is the tumor of greed. She'll likely succumb to it. Just my guess. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-02-16 11:44 |
| #5 Blames the Gambling on the tumor, BULLSHIT, it's the huge win (If any) That gets them. I had a tumor (Now removed) and I don't Gamble, its a losing bet, I save my money. I have a brother, I think he gambles, My Mom's inheritance ($800 K) Is gone, yes he dipped into it (Illegally) and it's just vanished. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-02-16 11:42 |
| #4 Seems like a qualifying resume for the White House position at OKs fed money for green projects. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-02-16 11:33 |
| #3 the gambling was for nearly a decade before her tumor. STFU |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-02-16 10:52 |
| #2 "There are two Maureens -- Maureen No. 1 and Maureen No. 2,"
Both should be in jail. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-02-16 03:13 |
| #1 2 gets ya 5 Maureen 1 wins. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2013-02-16 01:59 |