Problem Gamblers and Their Finances
A Guide for Treatment Professionals
Treatment professionals familiar with the psychological background of problem gambling understand that it is not merely a “financial problem.” It is a chronic, progressive behavior disorder.
Financial problems—overdue bills, badgering creditors, and impending bankruptcy—are the usual symptom of an addiction whose statistical odds are stacked against the gambler.
Financial difficulties also seem to be the factor that most frequently drives the problem gambler, or a loved one of the problem gambler, to finally seek professional treatment of the gambler’s addiction. By helping the gambler face and cope with the financial pressures and find long-term solutions to money problems, you, as the treatment professional, can provide the gambler and his or her loved ones with several major benefits:
• You allow the gambler to better concentrate on a meaningful
healing program. As long as financial issues are uppermost
in the gambler’s mind, effective treatment of the underlying
addictive behavior can be restricted, if not impossible.
