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Image of a ticket from the British version of the EuroMillions.

A gambling-addicted EuroMillions winner ends up in jail for defrauding his friends of thousands of euros

Reece Casey, 31, won more than 190,000 euros in the EuroMillions draw in 2019, an amount that he squandered on more bets as a result of his gambling addiction. It was from then on that he began to scam people he knew through an ad on Snapchat, up to a total of 25 people. This week, Reece Casey was sentenced to 12 months in prison after pleading guilty to fraud.

According to the British Daily Mail, Judge Stephen Earl handed down a sentence against Casey after his case was dealt with in a court in Newcastle (United Kingdom). There, prosecutor Katie Spence stated that the defendant defrauded nearly 40,000 euros from 25 people after announcing on Snapchat that he could get a 40% discount at the luxury clothing company Flannels because he had a friend working there.

From there, "a friend of the defendant responded to the offer and ordered various items. He also ordered items for other friends and family members," the prosecutor said, adding that the people who had been scammed had sent their money to Casey.

Among those who made those orders to Casey is a woman who sent more than 4,500 pounds (5,230 euros), while another of her victims bought items with the inheritance money she had received from her deceased mother.

Defense attorney Kelly Sherif justified during the trial that Casey had shown "extreme remorse" and that she was unaware there were so many victims, having only personally dealt with three.

According to Sherif, the defendant had a "lifestyle rooted in gambling" since he was 15 years old. However, everything got worse when in 2018 he won 58,000 pounds (67,400 euros) at the William Hill bookmaker, and a year later he pocketed 164,000 pounds (more than 190,000 euros) in the EuroMillions draw.

Despite these winnings, Casey "wasted" it all gambling having developed a gambling addiction, and it was from then on that he decided to start defrauding people.