Woman Stole $680K, Blew It on Gambling App With No Payout

Heart of Vegas doesn't pay out real money
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 23, 2021 7:41 AM CST
Woman Stole $680K, Blew It on Gambling App With No Prizes
Stock image.   (Getty Images)

You've heard variations of this one before: A person steals money to fuel a gambling addiction. What's unusual in the case of Rachel Naomi Perri is that she blew the hundreds of thousands of dollars she admitted to stealing from her employer on a gambling app that doesn't pay out any money. Australia's ABC reports the Tasmanian woman appeared in court Monday on a slew of fraud charges, most tied to the money taken from the Tasmanian Veterinary Hospital over a 40-month period beginning in 2016. Crown prosecutor Simone Wilson said Perri was the only person who oversaw the vet's accounts and transferred money into bank accounts, credit cards, and personal loans in her name via what Gambling News reports amounted to 475 transactions.

Per Wilson, when confronted by police in late 2019, Perri admitted taking the money and spending it all on the Heart of Vegas app, which bills itself as featuring "real Vegas slot machines just like the ones you know and love." Players can purchase virtual coins with which to play the game, but "regardless of the terminology used, virtual items may never be redeemed for 'real world' money" the terms and conditions explained. "She couldn't explain why she was playing that game when there was no return," Wilson said of Perri. Her lawyer simply said the game's point was to "keep playing the game," and that she became so addicted she would play it upon waking and "set it up at night so it played in auto." She will be sentenced in December. (More gambling stories.)

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