Carolyn Crawford was 64 when she was sent to prison. Before that, she had never even had a parking fine.
But an addiction to the lights and sounds of pokies rooms drove her to lie and steal.
Over several years, Ms Crawford pilfered $400,000 from her employer to feed her addiction.
She told her family she was visiting friends, when she was sitting alone in front of a machine, gambling her life away.
Carolyn Crawford now performs as part of Three Sides of the Coin, which tells the tales of people with gambling addiction. (ABC News: Patrick Rocca)
“I was a very good liar,” she said.
“How many times a week can you go grocery shopping? How many friends can you have?”
She said she would sit in a ‘mindless’ state, pushing the buttons.
“Nobody knew…
