Autobiography

My name is Marilyn Lancelot and I am a recovering compulsive gambler. I visited my first casino in 1984 at the age of 53. For seven years, my boyfriend and I made the four-hour trek from Yuma, AZ to Laughlin, NV every weekend. I learned early on how to lie to my family and friends and how to sign my employers' name to company checks. I considered suicide and planned it so it would like an accident.

Then one day the auditors discovered my embezzling. Horrified, I watched seven police cars pull into my driveway to take me away in handcuffs. I lost my job, home, life savings, my retirement, and my freedom. I had progressed from a Mrs. Cleaver type housewife to a Ma Barker type criminal. The judge sentenced me to two years in prison and I'll be paying restitution to my former employer for many years.

Until the morning of my arrest, my family had no idea of my gambling addiction. I remembered a statement I heard in AA years ago: If I did not take care of my problem, society would. And society had. The closest GA meeting was in Phoenix so we moved there so I could attend GA. I told myself that if I got sentenced to prison, I would some day go back to Yuma and start a GA meeting.

I spent ten months in an Arizona State Prison where there were no GA meetings. I vowed that one day I would return to prison and start a GA meeting. After my release, I watched new women struggle at the regular GA meetings, unable to identify with the card playing, sports betting male gamblers. One day another gal and I started a women's meeting in my apartment and the women came and the women stayed. They felt comfortable at the women's group.

I returned to Yuma with GA friends and started a meeting there and also at the Perryville prison. With the help of GA sisters, I publish a Women Helping Women Newsletter on the Internet. I try to give back to GA what the program has given me. I retired at the age of 72 and I've worked part-time for several years after my retirement to re-pay my victim. I now have more than sixteen years of recovery, One Day at at a Time.
 

          Perryville Prison

 

Here is a picture of my family visiting me in prison.  I am on the far left, my son Graham is standing next to me with his arm around Damian. Chelsea is in front of Damian and Tyler is in front of me.  I was fortunate that my family members were regular visitors while I was incarcerated.

             10th Anniversary in GA

My family attending my 10th birthday in Gamblers Anonymous. From left to right; Kevin (Chelsea's friend), my daughter Juannie and her son Tyler, Brandon and his mom Chelsea, me, Damian standing behind Kathy, my son Gerry and his wife Sandy.

                   GA Holiday Party in 2006

GA Holiday Party in December 2006.  From left to right, Juannie, me, Bev and Kathy with Tyler standing behind us.  Had the most wonderful Saturday night with my family.  And the food was good and we all danced.

                    My dear friend Tommie

My friend Tommie who helped me care for my grandchildren and teach them the beauty and the dangers of  the desert.  We traveled with Damian and Chelsea to New England and California and throughout Arizona.

         

  Pictures of my flowers and patio.

  

This picture was taken at the Gamblers Anonymous 50th Anniversary in October 2007 in Los Angeles. There were 50 candles handed out to 50 GA members who had done something extra for the GA Program and I was fortunate to be chosen as one of the members to carry a candle.