Iona Nun Shows Hypocrisy Of Church When Dealing With Gambling

This past week, church groups all across the US have come out against Senator Harry Reid's online poker regulation bill. The senator is proposing regulations for online gambling that would protect millions of online players in the US from possible problem gambling.

While the church is offering up their negative take on the issue, one of their own finds herself in hot water thanks to gambling. Sister Marie Thornton, a nun who worked at Iona college in New York, has been accused of embezzling over $1 million from the school to fuel a gambling habit.

The nun, who if following church law, is supposed to denounce gambling, instead had an addiction to the activity. According to Iona basketball coach Jeff Rutland, Thornton had a reputation of visiting Atlantic City casinos on a regular basis, leading to her theft of $1.2 million.

The school itself had overlooked missing money until donors started to complain. Thornton is charged with sending made-up invoices to the school to pay expenses. The nun was in charge of the school's finances while she was employed at Iona from 1999 to 2009.

Church groups are always the first ones to come out in opposition to new gambling options and regulations in the US, but often, it is members of the church that are the worst gamblers. In several instances, church members have been caught in gambling schemes in which the person abused their authority to fuel gambling addictions.

Senator Reid's legislation would make it more difficult for problem gamblers to fall into deep gambling holes. The bill being proposed would use technology to ensure that spending limits are kept, something that currently does not exist in an unregulated market.

Iona officials claim they have recovered a large portion of the missing funds, and they have changed the oversight laws, much like what Senator Reid is trying to do within the online gambling industry.

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