An online bingo pensioner who claims she has been swindled out of £9,000 is now offering a cash reward to help identify and convict those responsible. Complaints to the online gaming companies, her bank and the Police have fallen on deaf ears.


Rita Tapping, 63, from Whitley Wood Road, Reading, says that she turned to online bingo while caring for her sick husband. Since becoming aware of the discrepancies she has suffered a breakdown from the stress of trying to recover the money and was eventually unable to care for her husband and had to put him in a care home until he died just over a year ago.

After suffering from a stroke in 2007, Mrs Tapping, devoted herself to caring for her husband. She says she would put him to bed in the evening at 6pm and since she was unable to go out she would play bingo online. She claims that in April 2008 she discovered almost £9,000 had been gambled from her bank account without her knowledge. She claims that she only ever wagered amounts up to £20 at a time and thieves had made withdrawals from her bank account via her online bingo accounts.

Strangely, the crooks could not financially gain from such activities as any winnings were paid back to the acccount registered to the bingo account and there is no suggestion that they tried to add any other banks accounts to the bingo account. The villians did win around £3,000, leaving Mrs Tapping £6,000 out of pocket.

Mrs Tapping believes it may have been a local who took advantage that she was not using a secure network (e.g. no wireless password) during the months of April and May 2008.

“My only crime was I used an unprotected wireless router. I think somebody local picked up on that. They did not need to get into my account because I was already in it. They picked up on where I was and I believe they gambled for fun and kicks.”

Having filed a complaint to the Police and three online bingo companies she had registered accounts with, she decided to pursue the matter with her bank and in time the Financial Ombudsmen. All parties have ruled against her as there is insufficient evidence to suggest an act of fraud. She is now determined to clear her name and prove the £9,000 was taken fraudlently.

While it is not known when the amounts were wagered, most bingo sites do have limits on the amount you can deposit in any given period in time. It has been reported that Dream Bingo offered her £3,600 in relation to issue. Given that the villains won £3,000  which was paid back to her accounts, should she have not accepted this offer as at most she would have only been out of pocket by around £2,400. Let us not forget as well that she admits that each night when her husband was in bed she would play online with sums of up to £20. Assuiming she spent £20 per night for JUST TWO MONTHS she would have spent around £700.

Unfortunately on the advice of Natwest bank, who she has banked with for 47 years she didn't accept the offer from Dream Bingo. She claims the bank advised her not to accept the £3,600 because if she did the case could not longer be treated as fraud. After investigating the matter NatWest decided not to treat it as fraud anyway but by then Dream Bingo had withdrawn its offer.

Her husband suffered a further stroke soon after the decision in August 2008 and another stroke a few months later. Suffering from a breakdown herself, Mrs Tapping, claims she had put her husband into Jasmine House care home in Westcote Road, West Reading, because she could not cope. Regrettfully her husband had to spend the last few months of his life in a home.

“If I had been mentally strong enough and had not had this on my mind I would have had him at home, but I had to put him in a home. I had a total mental breakdown,” she said. “He was aware of it but there was nothing he could do. He was incontinent and paralysed. I used to go to the nursing home and he would just say, ‘I want to come home’.

“It was definitely a contributing factor in his death, definitely. He could see that I was stressed.

“I was so stressed I could not look after him. I had to have him put in a home. It was a very sad time in my life and he died still worrying about the money.”

Clearly while given the situation with her husband Mrs Tapping would certainly have been at one of the lower points in her life and in such times are we truly fully aware of our financial position? The likely scenario is that money wouldn't have been the main priority in her life. It is quite feasible as well if she spent £20 per night for the year she was looking after her husband that would amount to over £7,000 and there may not be a crime here. It is sad however that it got to this point. Legislation aimed at responsible gaming should protect indiviuals in these cases. On the other hand given that Mrs Tapping was at such a low point in her life and subsequently suffered a breakdown it wouldn't have been as difficult to have taken advantage of her if we accept there was a crime of fraud.

It seems in light of the recent press concerning the issue the bank is to reinvestigate the matter. A spokeswoman at NatWest has added: “We are keen to look into this matter for Rita Tapping, but have been unable to speak to her today. Once we have full details of the issue, which happened two years ago, we will be able to undertake a full investigation.”

Given that Dream Bingo were prepared to make an offer in relation to this and it was rejected as per the advice of the bank, they will hopefully take responsibility for this decision. Given recent reports into how banks deal with complaints I wouldn't be overly confident however. In additon it would be interesting to note whether any of the gaming companies involved have a list of the IP addresses that were used when taking part. Even here at Bingosupermarket, we have people and robots, that attempt to exploit and hack our site or leave spam on the pages every single day. We have the security to prevent it and periodically I review the log list of the IP addresses and block the culprits. In addition did anyone else have acces to the computer or login details to the account.

Rita added in relation to comments published on another site questioning whether it was an act of fraud. "What can I say to all you judgemental folk out there? I have tried everything to clear my name going as far as obtaining the IP numbers from which these fraudulent transactions were made.I believe they played the slots on these sites. I have not an addict and have not touched a Bingo site since this happened 2 years ago i am an honest and trustworthy person who does not live off the state.I worked hard for that £6000. I asked for my details to be printed as I am offering a reward for the arrest of the person responsible.I need to know how it was done. As for your thinking why would anybody do this with no financial gain this was the first question I put to Phil Lake who works for the police force.His reply was"you won't believe what sad,sick b*****ds are out there"The police are treating it as fraud. I really hope something like this never happens to you.I have lost money,my good name but most of all my beloved husband. Rita Tapping"