Jo O'Meara has confessed she became hooked on playing fruit machines at the height of her pop fame with S Club 7.
It was back in 1999 that singer Jo was catapulted to instant chart glory as member of the British group, with their debut single Bring It All Back keeping Madonna's Beautiful Stranger off the top spot. The band, which also featured Rachel Stevens and Bradley Macintosh, went onto score other number 1s with the likes of Never Had A Dream Come True and Have You Ever, before calling it a day in 2003.
After S Club folded, Jo, who went onto launch a solo career before appearing in the controversial series of Celebrity Big Brother, appeared as a guest on Thursday's Lorraine when she opened up on the extent of her gambling while she was in the limelight.
She told the presenter: "It became a bit of a thing. With the band, it was so busy and so hectic, I just used it as a bit of escapism to run away with myself for a little while.
“I got caught up in the flashing lights and getting the three sevens or leprechauns, or whatever it would be. It was just a bit too much fun.”
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When asked by Lorraine if her fellow band members knew about her addiction, she said: "Yeah, they did. When we used to travel around the county, it was like, ‘Where’s Jo?’ Everyone would know - ‘Oh, she’s on the fruit machines.’ But it was just what I did.”
Quizzed on if she recognised her habit was getting out of control, Jo explained: “I don’t think I ever did. When I look back I think, ‘I shouldn’t really have been doing that’, because what you learn as you get older is you never win.”
Jo went on to explain that her continuing to gamble wasn’t about money, but the excitement of playing the machines.
She revealed: “It was about beating the machine, getting the three sevens, the excitement of that was making me want to do it even more.
You never win… that’s why I’m here today, to highlight it because it’s everywhere.”
Talking about how easy it is to gamble with mobile phones and warning others about how easy it is to get hooked, Jo said, “It’s not real money is it? When you’re pressing a button, it’s so easy to fall into a very, very dark place… It could happen to anybody. I think there’s still a big stigma to it, where people associate gambling with a man sitting in a betting place or a poker table.
“It’s not the case at all. It’s happening a lot more than it has before. I wanted to reach out to people and say, ‘I’ve been there myself, I understand it, there’s no shame in picking the phone up and asking for help.’”
Finally, when asked how she managed to overcome her gambling issues, Jo told Lorraine: ‘I thought one day, ‘That’s it, I’m done.’ I haven’t looked at a machine once, but I understand it’s not like that for everybody. You do get caught up in it. But there’s help there.”
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