Gambling harm isn’t just about losing money. It can affect how you feel.

Gambling addiction stories might be a bit gloomy, but knowing what compulsive behavior at the casino can do to your brain and life will help you in the long run. Once you get a better understanding of the consequences of addictive gambling behavior, you will learn to control your urges and play responsibly. Alexis Conran is definitely someone you don't want to be playing cards with. An expert poker player and a man thoroughly at home in a casino, Alexis enjoys t.

We know it can be hard but talking about it means you can start to feel better.

Here are some real life stories of people who opened up and talked about the harm they were experiencing and got the support they needed. Now they share their story with you.

Lachlan's story

“Once I started to open up to people, I was amazed with the amount of support I had.” – Lachlan describes how he was worried to tell people about his gambling because of their reactions but once he opened up he was amazed at the amount of support he got.

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Bayu's story

“I opened up to a friend about my gambling. The compassion and receptiveness she showed me ignited me to change.” Uni Student, Bayu, shares how talking helped him on the path to recovery.

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Mario's story

“I’m a lot happier. It was the best thing I ever did.” – Mario, eight years of not gambling on sport, now calls himself a proper tradie and business owner.

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Ken's story

“Find somebody you love, that you trust, and sit them down and tell them. I should’ve done it years ago.” Former Police Sergeant, Ken, describes how lucky he was to have a supportive family

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Lynda's story

“It was hard for me to tell him, but when I did, he was so supportive that it made it easy for me.” Lynda describes how supportive her eldest son was by holding her hand while she called Gambler’s Help.

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Lynda talks about her counselling experience

“The counsellors have your back and they made me feel worthy”. Lynda describes how seeing a counsellor helped keep her on track.

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Anna's story

'Having the support of others was essential and I wouldn’t have done it without them”. Anna lost 10 years of her life to the pokies and now shares her story of hope.

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Sunenna’s Story

“You’re not alone and help is available.” Sunenna says many people think their story is unique, but there are lots of people fighting similar battles.

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Chandana's story

“You don’t need to keep it to yourself.” Chandana was shocked to find out about her partner’s gambling. She says that without the help of others, she could never have rebounded so quickly.

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Lived Experience

Daniel

Comedian Daniel Connell lost around $100,000 to sports and race betting over six years before a gamble of a different kind changed his life.

Mario

Mario Bird found gambling at 16 and says it was a match made in heaven. Now, after a hard-won recovery, he wants young men, in particular, to know what it can do to your life.

Sunenna

Sunenna moved from Fiji to Australia to be with the ‘man of her dreams’. But after four months of marriage, her life started to unravel. Sharing her story to let others know they’re not alone has also helped her move on from her sorrow.

Nabil

Arabic counsellor Hoda Nahal helps people from Arabic-speaking backgrounds who are affected by gambling harm, as well as educates communities about the risks of gambling and the help services available.

Chandana

When my partner and I moved to Australia with our baby daughter, I saw it as a haven and a place for a fresh start. Little did I know the power of the gambling culture in our new home.

Anna

Gambling on the pokies was a solution that quickly became a problem for Anna Bardsley. A member of the Foundation’s Lived Experience Advisory Committee, Anna says storytelling plays a big part in her recovery from addiction.

Mat

Mat Crompton’s love for sport turned into an online sports betting compulsion that isolated him from friends and family and consumed his early 20s. His way out was to ask why: why was he gambling and what could life be like if he gave it up.

Ann

After nearly 30 years of a destructive pokies addiction, Ann has drawn the line, with support from her family and a group of ‘lovely, caring’ people to whom she’s bared her soul, but never met.

Brendan

Brendan Ivermee grew up surrounded by gambling and went on to develop his own destructive and secret gambling problem. Now, three years after being freed from prison, he’s on a mission to help others start over.

Ken

Teenage gambling seems a new problem. But Ken Wolfe got caught in a nightmare of debt and destruction 50 years ago. It lasted for decades. Now he’s reaching out to young blokes heading the same way.

Tony

Self-confessed fantasy football obsessive Tony Wilson laments the gamblification of his favourite pastime, and asks what effect it will have on all the kids with dream teams.

Shayne

Having freed himself from his own gambling nightmare, Lived Experience Advisory Committee member Shayne Rodgers is using the life-changing lessons he learnt to help others.

Bill

Having bet on horses since he was 17, Bill says winning streaks always end the same way: losing big. But his final winning streak ended when he was also stricken with grief. Today, helping others, he feels better than ever about himself.

Carolyn

Carolyn Crawford went to prison for stealing from her employer to support her pokies addiction, and now shares her story to encourage others to seek help for gambling harm earlier rather than later.

Fred

Fred Rubinstein, a member of the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation’s Lived Experience Advisory Committee, says it took stealing from his mum and her threat to call the police to force him to accept help for a gambling addiction.

Lynda

Lynda Genser’s pokies habit led to a criminal charge, but she quit with the support of her family and is now making a difference as a member of the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation’s Lived Experience Advisory Committee.

Shared Stories

Gambling harm podcast: Inspiring stories of hope and recovery

There are many ways to seek professional and anonymous help for your own, or your loved one's problems with gambling.

If you need immediate help, please call Gambler's Help on 1800 858 858 or Gambler's Help Youthline on 1800 262 376 (from within Australia only). This service operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is free and confidential.

In order to get beyond the statistics and provide a more personal and individual picture of this issue, we have created this section to feature the stories of individuals who have been affected by problem gambling. People who have sought treatment for gambling addition have countless stories of heartbreak, financial devastation, support, reinvention, and recovery. As you read these stories, you will be reminded that problem gambling affects not only the gambler, but also their family members, friends, colleagues and employers; treatment providers; advocates; and many others.

Send us your story! Go to Contact Us and tell us about your successes and challenges. Photos are welcome!

Treatment Works

The good news about gambling addiction is that treatment is effective, and recovery is real and attainable. Northstar Problem Gambling Alliance has gathered a few accounts. A few of them are listed below.

Voices of Recovery

Jim’s Story

When I was about 10, I remember sensing that something was wrong. I went upstairs and heard my dad screaming and crying into the phone. I heard him saying, “I paid you. I paid you. You’re not getting another penny out of me!” I remember his distress vividly, and it was devastating to me to see my dad in that way. Later, I learned he was talking to a loan shark because of financial problems brought about by gambling. Read more to find out how Jim’s family dealt with this struggle and what he suggests for other people who are experiencing gambling addiction.

Ann’s Story

Once I became hooked, it became my life. Gambling became my main source of entertainment. It was the only thing that I cared about. I’d cheat, steal and otherwise do whatever it took to get money. Read more to see what Ann learned about how to overcome gambling addiction.

Eddie’s Story

It was late in the evening on July 16, 2002, and outside the Mystic Lake Casino Eddie and several friends waited anxiously for the clock to strike midnight. Eddie had already watched many of his friends celebrate their eighteenth birthdays at the casino, and he was excited that his day had finally come. Read more about what happened to Eddie and if he is still gambling today.

Christine’s Story

Within six months after the big win, I realized I bit off more than I could chew. I had given back all the money, and more. I kept chasing that feeling of the huge win. […] In 2004, I started a business that quickly had financial success. I had so much money that I thought I’d never run out. But eventually I couldn’t even come up with postage to ship a package. I started selling stolen goods to cover my losses and eventually ended up in prison on a mail fraud charge. Read more about why Christine is candid about her addiction and how her life is today.

The Meyer Family Shares Their Story to Raise Awareness About Gambling Addiction and its Consequences

Kim Meyer and her five children live in a small Long Island community, in the home where she and her high school sweetheart/husband Scott built a full and happy life together over the last 27 years. They co-funded a business, Scott coached the kids’ sports teams, and both were involved in their community, schools and church. Scott is now serving a 4½ – 13-year prison sentence for grand larceny and forgery, for using clients’ funds to chase more than $500,000 in gambling losses.

With New York state recently legalizing online gambling and preparing to build several new casinos in 2017, Kim has decided to go public with their private nightmare, to help raise awareness about gambling addiction and reduce the stigma that persists – lessons she and her family learned through painful personal experience.

Kim’s daughters created this video to raise awareness and let their dad know how much they love and support him.

Read more about the Meyer family’s story here.

Gambling Addiction True Stories Youtube

More Voices of Problem Gambling

• After 2 semesters in college, I am wondering where all my money has gone. I would tell myself time and time again to stop betting, whether it be online poker, blackjack, or sports bets. A few days later I would always be back placing more bets and telling myself that if I lose this time I would be done forever. I’d win big a couple times, but only to increase my betting size and lose it all days later, and still bet more money. The highs were nice, but the lows were horrible. After losing everything in my checking account I began taking money out of my savings account thinking that I was one big win away from winning it all back. I knew I had a gambling problem, but as long as I wasn’t going into debt I tricked myself into thinking that it was okay. I ran myself into a 721 dollar debt on my credit card. There really was no further in debt I could go because the card had a limit of 1000. After being off great financially 9 months ago, I am now completely broke. It really is shameful to think that after I calculated it all up, I had lost about 7000 dollars in savings due to gambling. It still makes me sick just thinking about it. I finally told my parents that I had been losing a moderate amount of money in gambling, even though I could never tell them how much I actually lost. I told them I had lost 3000,and that even shocked them a lot. I haven’t gambled for a month, even though I have been tempted to do so many times with money from my job. I let my gambling go from betting around 50 dollars weekly on online-poker to betting 300 dollars 2-3 times a week on any sports game I could find. I hope I never gamble again.

• Hi I’m 12 years old and have three sisters. And well my dad is addicted to gambling. My mom and dad have been fighting ever since he started his problem which is about three years ago and now it scares me to think that they might get a divorce. Well finally after talking everything out my dad has agreed to find some help so I decided to help them find some help.
• Imagine that your own 11 year old daughter approaches you and says “Dad, I want to talk to you please”. You say, “Sure honey, what is it?” She then asks your other 8 year old daughter and your 4 year old son to leave her room so she can plead with you to stop gambling. Imagine that you see her tears and then you tell her that nothing causing her to cry would be worth doing again; yet you go and do it over and over again. Have you not, at that stage, lost your human side out to a formidable foe?!
• After three years of my gambling addiction, I lost the family that I was blessed to have. My beautiful wife and children have left me and I have not seen them in over two years. I now live in despair. The high education, good status and jobs that I once had seem to have vanished.
• For two years I lived in different shelters, sought food and clothing from hand-me-down sources, yet I continued to gamble every chance I had money, no matter how little it was!
• As a full-blown gambler, I resorted to extensive research on the subject of addiction and was able to tie my own addiction to troubled childhood. I found out that my behavior was consistent with my subconscious desire to punish myself and my loved ones. I have not been loving myself and sought to humiliate myself and bring harm to those who loved me, because I thought that I was never worthy of being loved.
• This was a first small step in the right direction. It is known as the cognitive approach, and means that I, as a gambler, must have it engraved in my brain, that gambling will never get me even or regain my losses to the casinos. It would only bring me more punishment and it would be sick for me to continue to punish myself and my loved ones. I don’t want to be sick and I am determined to overcome my sickness.
• As a gambler, I initially experienced a win and this became a favorable event that stuck in my mind and I didn’t remember the overwhelming majority of unfavorable events of losses. I tended to chase my losses, and promised myself that once I “get even”, or at least regain some of my losses back, I would forever stop gambling. I rationalized my gambling due to the pressure that I received from my creditors wanting to be paid back, but gambling always got me deeper and deeper into more dept. Sometimes I become suicidal and other times I ended up committing fraud and consistently lied to my family, friends and associates. Is gambling worth these kinds of outcomes?!
• There is no strategy, there is no scheme that can take any one of us to a point where we can say we can now stop gambling. The only time you win is the time you stay away from further gambling. Conversely, if you submit to your “bad self” or irrational impulses, you give your own stubbornness control over your life and seize to live the life you deserve. Please don’t condemn yourself to a life of despair and worthlessness. Find your “good self” and overcome your troubles by loving yourself and finding strength and honor from your patience and inner spirituality!
• I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to tell my husband that once again we have a major credit card bill on the way. I swore to him that it would never happen again. I believed my vow, especially when I saw how hard he had to work to pay off the last debt I ran up. How can I tell him I’ve done it again? I lied about where I was and would rather die than tell him the truth again. I won’t blame him if he leaves me. Losing money is one thing, losing my husband, well I can’t believe I took that chance. I hope this helps someone like me out there. Now I have to make that phone call to the help line. I can’t say good luck, but I can wish you well.

• Greetings, I’m a compulsive gambler. I’ve been in the Las Vegas Gambler’s Anonymous program since 1992. I’ve gone out there countless times to try to prove I can gamble like others. I am currently living my program, and am very happy.

Compulsive Gambling Stories

• Good Morning. Here’s something for your real voices section. When I travel I make the mistake of thinking I can casually gamble in Indian casinos playing the slots. On occasion I’ve won really big, but the net is not very good. It’s pretty clear to me from your self test that I have a gambling problem. Thank you for your web site and for the information you have. I’m going to get help now.