PLAYING YOUR WAY OUT OF WEDLOCK

SquareOne News

by Atholl Simpson

Online gambling and networking sites are causing more and more marriages to break up due to spouses amassing major debts or reuniting with long lost loved ones, according to top divorce lawyers.

“If the husband or partner is into gambling online, then it can suck them into a world where they don’t engage anymore,” said Peter Thomas, a divorce solicitor from The Law Practise. “And it can have a devastating effect.”

One recent case involved a city worker that had built up a debt of more than £100,000 over many years, using different online gambling sites to spread his debt. Once his partner found out, she filed for divorce using his dire financial circumstances as grounds to prove unreasonable behaviour on his behalf.

“Some people would rather spend time on the internet than spend time with their partner,” said Conrad Adams, divorce solicitor for Cumberland Ellis, told SquareOne. According to Mr Adams internet accessibility and the promise of instant gratification is what draws people to it. Most people can use it at home but also during their normal working day since most workplaces and companies are completely computerised. There is almost instant access to the web, allowing people to escape the real world for a virtual one in which they forget that normal rules apply.“Internet gives them an instant buzz that they don’t get in real life,” he said.

The number of divorce cases involving the internet has also been growing with the increasing popularity of online networking sites such as Friends Reunited or Facebook. Adams said they have helped partners get back in touch, either intentionally or by accident, with ex-girlfriends or old teenage flames. In many cases internet flirtation has led to an extra-marital affair and the subsequent break up of a marriage.

Thomas, from The Law Practise, told SquareOne he had even come across a case where a married man was engaged in a online relationship with another woman. His wife used the evidence on his hard drive to prove adultery and win her divorce plea.

“The internet can bring inclusion in social networking and in provision of knowledge,” said Hazel Wright, from The Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships in London, “but if misused by addictive personalities, it has a potential for huge damage to personal relationships.”

Despite these findings, both the solicitors and the help centre agreed that these are just new and modern ways to justify a divorce.They only highlight a problem that probably already existed within the relationship.