Kathleen Pasch says she always intended to pay back the money she is accused of taking during her time as treasurer of the Black Creek Rescue Service.
But that didn’t happen, authorities said.
The 60-year-old woman is charged with stealing more than $100,000 from the service to support her gambling addiction, according to a criminal complaint filed last month in Outagamie County.
Pasch isn’t the first person with access to company funds to face charges for taking money to finance a gambling habit. And she won’t be the last, said Rose Blozinski, executive director of the Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling.
“There are certainly more than there used to be in the past,” Blozinski said. “Over the years, we’re seeing them happen more and more.”
A few years ago, there were thefts in the $500,000 range, and a number of gambling-fueled embezzlements in the $10,000 to $20,000 range crippled some smaller organizations in the Fox Valley and beyond.
They gamble for fun and then it becomes a problem. They intend to pay it back, but they get deeper in, and they fall behind.
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