Frequently Asked Questions About Someone Else's Gambling
Gambling harm can affect not only the person who gambles but also their loved ones. If someone else’s gambling is impacting your life, you are not alone.
Many people feel unsure or overwhelmed in these situations. Understanding gambling harm can help you take steps to protect yourself and support your loved one.
This FAQ provides clear answers to common questions and explains how to access help.
FAQs
The stigma surrounding gambling may leave you with a lot of questions and assumptions about your loved one’s gambling. Learning more about gambling harm can help break down those stigmas and stereotypes and help you to connect with and understand your loved one.
Though you may trust your loved one, it’s important to take safety precautions to protect yourself, your finances, and your family.
Sometimes gambling may impact an individual even when they’re not the one doing the gambling. We’re here to support anyone impacted by gambling, including family members, partners, friends, colleagues, and other loved ones or connections.
We offer some advice about what to do if someone else’s gambling is impacting you.
You can contact Gambling Help any time to speak to a counsellor or schedule an appointment.
It’s free, confidential, and available 24/7.
Call 1800 858 858
Counselling can help individuals
- Work through problems caused by someone else’s gambling
- Make decisions about their relationship with the person who is gambling
- Protect themselves and their family or children when someone else is gambling
- Get referrals to relevant resources such as financial counselling, peer support groups, family and relationship counselling, legal aid, and financial services
85.5% of Gambling Help clients reported a positive outcome.
Data from Gambling Help clients in 2024 reveals that 85.5% of clients had a positive outcome after receiving gambling counselling.
Clients reported improvement in their feelings about:
- Gambling
- Family and close relationships
- Connection and community
- How you use your time
- Money
- Physical health
- Emotional wellbeing
- Sense of identity
About 30% of clients who access Gambling Help are family members and friends of individuals who gamble.
Your mental health, finances, and relationships can be impacted by someone else’s gambling.
Gambling Help can assist with:
- Self-care
- Education about gambling
- Relationship issues
- Communication skills and tactics
- Emotional support
- Strategies to for financial safety
- Referrals to protect family income, assets, and finances
- Referrals for legal aid
- Referrals for other types of counselling, such as relationship or family counselling
- Resources and help for domestic and family violence, including financial abuse
- Making important decisions about your relationship with the person who is gambling.
We can help you:
- Protect yourself and keep your family safe
- Exercise the right to financial and emotional safety
- Identify what trust looks and feels like and learn how to rebuild trust
- Set healthy boundaries in your relationship with the person who gambles
- Recognise emotional responses that may have been denied or minimised
- Manage stress – including causes of stress and healthy stress management.
Firstly, the solution to gambling isn’t always to stop gambling. This person may not even want to give up gambling. It also depends on the risk or severity of gambling harm. If stopping gambling is not an option, you may want to support them to gamble safer or encourage them to think about change.
There are a few steps you can take to encourage someone who gambles to think about change:
- Talk to them about your concerns. Family, partners, and friends can be significant in motivating loved ones to change their gambling and to seek help. Talk to them about your worries, let them know you care, and address how you’re being affected. Here are our tips on how to talk to someone about gambling harm (link).
- Suggest alternate activities. For example, if you and your mates always hang out in venues with gaming rooms, suggest spending time somewhere else. Alternate activities might include spending time in nature, going camping, having a night in, hosting a potluck dinner, doing group activities like escape rooms, watching live music, playing sport, or going to the gym together.
- Let them know about Gambling Help. Gambling counsellors can support people in changing their gambling, stopping gambling, and working through problems caused by gambling. Free, 24/7, confidential support is available.
- Encourage them to use self-help strategies. Often, people prefer to try self-help before they’re ready to seek counselling. Here are some self-help strategies to gamble safer or stop gambling (link).
- Share ways to practise safer gambling. If your loved one doesn’t want to stop gambling, safer gambling can help protect them from gambling harm. Here are some ways to gamble safer (link).
- Accept that they may not want to change. Your loved one may not see their gambling as a “problem” and therefore might not be willing to make changes or seek support.
- Look after yourself. It’s natural that you want to help your loved one, but it’s important to keep yourself safe, too.
Gambling Help also provides free, 24/7, confidential support to those impacted by someone else’s gambling.
Call 1800 858 858
Learn more about staying safe and protecting your finances
A person might change, reduce, or stop their gambling when they realise for themselves that it’s become harmful or a “problem.”
Researchers spoke to a group of individuals experiencing gambling harm. They asked “How long did it take to start using self-help change strategies once you realised that gambling was harmful?”
23% said they started using self-help strategies in one year.
20% said it took more than 10 years to start using self-help strategies.
Everyone is different. There’s no established timeline for how long it takes for people to start thinking about change.
Reducing, changing, or quitting gambling can be incredibly difficult for some individuals.
People often have mixed feelings about their gambling. “Stopping gambling” can be scary. It might feel like admitting defeat or giving up. They may not see a problem with their gambling. Perhaps they don’t want to quit.
Gambling excites people with incentives like entertainment, excitement, distraction, a social opportunity, and the possibility of a win. While it may be harmful, people may feel the benefits or possibilities outweigh the negative impacts.
It can be upsetting when a loved one doesn’t want to change something that is harming them, impacting you, or affecting your relationship.
If someone else’s gambling is affecting you, it’s important to seek out support through services like Gambling Help, to stay connected with friends, and to stay safe.
When a loved one, especially a partner or family member, is experiencing gambling harm, it’s important to keep you and your family or children safe.
Protecting yourself can include lots of different actions, including protecting your finances, attending counselling, and knowing what support is available.
- 1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732
- DVConnect Womensline: 1800 811 811
- DVConnect Mensline: 1800 600 636
- Sexual Assault Helpline: 1800 010 120
- Kids Help Line: 1800 55 1800
- Lifeline: 13 11 14
- Gambling Helpline: 1800 858 858
If you believe you or your children are in immediate danger, please call 000.
Talking to a family member, partner, or friend about gambling can feel awkward – it’s a very sensitive topic.
We offer some advice on how to start the conversation.
Learn more about talking to your loved one about gambling
