My mother has a gambling addiction?

Question

my mother is a compulsive gambler. she can go gambling 12-20 hours straight. she always tell me that she know what she is doing. Everytime she goes to the casino Im always worried of how much she will be loosing since we do not have a liquid funding. She is not contented with one slot machine but more. She have been borrowing money from the financiers. Once I caught her lie to me that she is not in the casino. I want to talk to her but my worries is that in this process my family will be broken and my mother will be mad at my wife since most of the information I have came from wife because her family goes to the casino also for fun but not addicted to gambling.They are concerned with my moms addiction t gambling. please help me

Answer 1

I know your pain my husband won $160,000 the day be fore Valentine and broke now. I'm a gambler and it's hard to talk about it. It's time when and go and can win really fast (like today) I won $600.00 as soon as I got a machine. but it's really hard. Maybe she call 1-800-522-4700. that's a start. GOOD LUCK!!!!

Answer 2

This is a tough one, I haven't dealt with gambling addiction with anyone I know but I've had a great deal of experience when it comes to other addictions and there's a lot of parallels between any two addictions.

First thing I'll tell you is that by your fear of intervening and confronting her about it you are enabling your mother to continue her active addiction without realizing that something is wrong.

Secondly, and this is an unfortunate truth, there is very little you can do to change her, if you confronting her directly doesn't work. The change has to come from her.

This however doesn't mean that there's nothing you can do yourself, I strongly suggest that you go and attend Gamanon meetings. Gamanon is a fellowship program for the families, friends & those affected by compulsive gamblers. You will find a lot of support there and will learn how to deal with the impact her addiction has on your life.

I've attached links to Gamanon below, as well as links to Gamblers Anonymous (and other related sites) which is the fellowship your mother optimally should be attending. However, don't expect to be able to force or convince her into going there and equally don't just dismiss Gamanon for yourself  because she's the one with the addiction - be honest to yourself and admit what an impact her addiction is having on your life.

She'll come around once she hits rock bottom, if your very lucky that might be achieved when you confront her, but more than likely it'll take some time. I wish you a lot of strength for the difficult time ahead and hope you make use of support networks like Gamanon.

Regards,

-CP-