From stories dated Feb. 21 to Feb. 28:

• A self-described compulsive gambler, Arthur Bittner, attempted to rob a Colorado bank on Feb. 25. He entered the bank with a shotgun and handed a note to the teller, but lost his nerve and fled without collecting anything. Police soon found Bittner, complete with the gun and the hold-up note in his pocket.
• A Phoenix woman pleaded guilty on Feb. 25 to stealing nearly $15,000 worth of her father’s veteran’s benefits. Peggy Sue Salazar gambled the money away at a local casino.
• The former treasurer of a Boy Scout troop in Lodi, CA was arrested Feb. 23 on suspicion of embezzling at least $25,000 from the troop’s bank account. Cynthia “Cindy” Kay Castle reportedly blamed a gambling problem for her alleged crimes. The funds had been raised to send the imps to the Boy Scouts 100-year anniversary Jamboree in Virginia, a trip that’s now “out of the question,” according to scout master Chris Lee.
• James Alan Phipps, the former manager of a Sonic Drive-In in Florida, turned himself in to police on Feb. 23. He admitted stealing at least $13,000 in restaurant cash deposits, citing a gambling problem.
• Wisconsin lawyer Thomas H. Koch was charged on Feb. 22 with embezzling more than $2.4 million from a corporate client for whom he’d been recovering funds. Koch, 46, now in treatment for gambling addiction, told investigators he lost most of the stolen funds at the Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee.
• Diana Simon was sentenced on Feb. 22 to five years in prison for stealing more than $3.6 million from her then-employer, Kaneka Texas, a chemical manufacturer. The money funded gambling and other personal expenses. Simon, 50, will be prohibited from using gambling devices or visiting casinos when she enters supervised release in 2015.
• James P. Siblik pleaded guilty Feb. 22 to embezzling more than $100,000 from the Illinois townhome association of which he was president. Prosecutors would not disclose where the stolen funds went, but Siblik has previously faced judgments against him for passing bad checks worth at least $6,000 at the Empress Casino in Joliet.
• The former office manager of an Omaha, Nebraska restaurant was sentenced to prison for embezzling over $154,000 to feed a gambling habit and pay bills. Cynthia Jameson had worked at the establishment for 23 years.
• A Michigan woman, Susan Marie Berg, appeared in court on Feb. 24 to finalize the terms of her restitution. Berg has already served jail time for embezzling $237,698 from wards of the court (for whom she’d been serving as guardian and conservator). The stolen money fed a gambling habit. During her probation, Berg had to enter in-patient rehab and was prohibited from gambling.
• In West Virginia, Judith Lynn Romine pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement for stealing an $8,859 cash deposit from the 7-Eleven where she worked.  She took the money to a casino and lost most of it, then turned herself into her employer. She admitted in court that she has a gambling problem. Under a plea agreement, she can avoid prison if she remains in counseling, attends Gamblers Anonymous meetings, does not enter any casino or gamble for anything, and pays restitution and court costs.
• An Oklahoma woman, Carolyn Jane Chalepah, was ordered to pay $14,021 in restitution to her former employer, the Apache Tribe. Prosecutors say she used the stolen funds to gamble.
• A former restaurant manager in Edinburgh, Scotland admitted embezzling more than £10,000 to finance his gambling addiction. Benjamin Metcalf, 26, reportedly begged the police who arrested him to allow him to try winning back the money by playing blackjack one last time.
• Also in the UK, 21-year-old compulsive gambler Aaron Byrne pleaded guilty to stealing more than £10,000 from the bookmaker where he was employed.  Byrne stole the cash on Feb. 13, hopped a train to London, spent two days gambling and lost every shilling, then returned to Cambridge on the 15th and turned himself in to police.
• Also this week: A 48-year-old man jumped to his death from the fifth floor of the parking garage for the Muckleshoot Casino in Washington State. And the Norwich Bulletin ran a profile of compulsive gambler Lynda Gardner, who is now out of prison after serving 5 years of a 15-year sentence for stealing a six-figure sum from a friend. Gardner headquartered her addiction at Mohegan Sun, where she lived in a comped suite for one year, effectively gambling full-time. Mohegan Sun CEO Mitchell Etess told the Bulletin his shithole property takes “a lot of steps” to help addicts. Weirdly, although Gardner lived and was arrested at the joint he oversees, Etess said he’d never heard of her case.