What to do right now

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Free hotlines and helplines

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline - call or text 988, available 24/7, for anyone in crisis, including gambling-related crisis.
• National Problem Gambling Helpline - 1-800-522-4700, confidential, 24/7, connects you to local resources by area code.
• SAMHSA National Helpline - 1-800-662-4357, free, confidential, 24/7, treatment referral service covering mental health and substance use, useful given how often gambling and substance use overlap.

For yourself

Start with a free call to the National Problem Gambling Helpline even if you're not sure you're "bad enough" to need it - they'll help you figure out next steps regardless of severity. If you want peer support with no cost and no waitlist, search for a local or online Gamblers Anonymous meeting; many run daily.

For family members and partners

You're allowed to get support separately from the person gambling. Gam-Anon is a peer support group specifically for family members and friends affected by someone else's gambling - it runs parallel to Gamblers Anonymous. A licensed family therapist can also help you navigate the practical and emotional fallout, including financial deception, which is extremely common and comes with its own specific grief.

Who else can you call right now?

You do not need an appointment to get help tonight. The numbers above are staffed by real people, and most work by text or chat too, if a phone call feels like too much.

Immediate support lines for gambling and crisis situations

Resource	What it is	How to reach it	Cost	Hours
Why.Help	Talk directly with someone in recovery about your options, with no cost and no sales pitch	Call 844-494-9435 or 646-721-2056	Free Consultation	24/7
National Problem Gambling Helpline	Confidential referral and support line for gambling problems, staffed by trained counselors	Call 1-800-522-4700, or use the online chat at ncpgambling.org	Free	24/7
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline	Crisis support for suicidal thoughts or emotional crisis, including gambling-related despair	Call or text 988, or use the chat at 988lifeline.org	Free	24/7
SAMHSA National Helpline	Treatment referral service for mental health and substance use, useful given overlap with gambling	Call 1-800-662-4357	Free	24/7
Gam-Anon	Peer support for family members affected by someone else's gambling	Find a local or online meeting at gam-anon.org	Free	Varies by chapter
State problem gambling helpline	Many states run their own line in addition to the national one, sometimes with local treatment referrals	Find your state's specific number through NCPG's help-by-state directory	Free	Varies by state

If you are thinking about suicide, call or text 988 first. Gambling problems can wait a day. Your safety cannot.

Which peer support group fits you?

The three big peer options are not interchangeable. They come from different ideas about what addiction is and how people change.

Gamblers Anonymous is a 12-step program. It treats gambling addiction as a lifelong condition you manage one day at a time, with a sponsor, a set of steps, and a spiritual framework that does not require any specific religion but does use the language of a "higher power." Meetings are widely available and usually free.

SMART Recovery is secular and built on cognitive behavioral therapy. It treats problem gambling as a set of learned behaviors and thinking patterns you can identify and change with tools and practice. There is no higher power, no lifetime label, and no sponsor system. Meetings run online and in person.

Gam-Anon is not for the person who gambles. It is for partners, parents, and adult children living with the fallout. It uses a 12-step structure similar to GA, focused on your own boundaries and wellbeing rather than fixing the person gambling.

Try a meeting from more than one before you decide. Some people need the structure and community of 12-step. Others find the disease language alienating and prefer SMART's practical tools. Neither is more legitimate than the other. Online and virtual meetings exist for all three, which matters if your town has no in-person option or if anonymity feels safer behind a screen.

How do you actually block access to gambling?

No single block is airtight. Layering several makes relapse slower and harder, which is often enough.

State and casino self-exclusion. You sign a form barring yourself from a casino or an entire state's licensed gambling venues, sometimes for years. It adds real friction at physical locations. It does not stop unlicensed sites, offshore apps, or venues in a different state.

Sportsbook self-exclusion. Platforms like the ones covered by the National Council on Problem Gambling's self-exclusion database let you ban yourself from a specific app or a group of them. It leaks the moment you try a sportsbook not in that database.

Bank-level gambling transaction blocks. Some banks and card issuers let you flag your account so gambling-coded transactions get declined. This is strong friction because it hits the money, not just the app. It leaks through cash, peer-to-peer transfers, or gift cards used to fund an account.

App and site blockers. Software that blocks gambling domains and app store categories on your devices. Easy to install, easy to defeat if you have admin access to your own phone or a second device.

Handing financial control to a trusted person. Temporarily giving a spouse, parent, or friend control of your accounts, cards, and passwords removes your own ability to fund gambling at all. It only works if you actually give up access, not just the illusion of it, and if the person holding control is willing to say no under pressure.

Where do you get help with the money and the debt?

Money repair works best in an order, not all at once.

Start with nonprofit credit counseling. Agencies accredited by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling review your full debt picture for free or low cost and can set up a structured repayment plan with reduced interest, called a debt management plan. This is different from a debt settlement company, which often charges fees and can damage your credit further.

If collectors are already calling, you have rights. Debt collectors cannot harass you, call before 8am or after 9pm, or lie about what you owe. Get everything in writing before agreeing to any payment, and never give a collector direct access to your bank account.

The rough order of operations: secure your immediate income and housing, stop new gambling-related debt with the blocks above, get a full and honest accounting of what you owe, then work with a nonprofit counselor on a realistic repayment plan. Do not try to gamble your way out of a gambling debt. That is how the debt doubles.

What helps if you love someone who gambles? (more)

Loving someone with a gambling problem often means learning to separate their choices from your responsibility for fixing them.

Gam-Anon exists for exactly this. So does individual therapy focused on your own boundaries, sleep, and finances, independent of whether the person in your life ever seeks help. Protecting your own accounts and credit is not betrayal. It is self-preservation.

Some common instincts do not work well:

• Paying off the debt quietly, without any change in access to money or accounts
• Monitoring their behavior alone, which is exhausting and rarely catches everything
• Giving ultimatums with no concrete plan behind them

What tends to help more: separating your finances where you legally can, being honest about what you will and will not tolerate, and getting your own support before you try to manage theirs.

What is a recovery coach, and do you need one?

A recovery coach is not a therapist. Coaches typically do not diagnose or treat mental health conditions. Instead, they work alongside you on practical, day-to-day recovery goals: staying accountable, building routines, navigating triggers, and staying connected to other supports.

A coach can make sense alongside therapy or a 12-step program, not instead of them, especially if you want more frequent, informal check-ins than a weekly therapy session allows. If you have co-occurring depression, anxiety, or trauma, you need a licensed clinician in the picture as well. A coach fills the gap between formal appointments. It does not replace clinical care.

What should you read, watch, or listen to?

We would rather leave this section short than hand you a list of books or podcasts we have not verified exist or that misrepresent gambling recovery. For vetted reading and educational material, the National Council on Problem Gambling and Gamblers Anonymous both publish resource lists on their official sites. Check back as this section is built out with confirmed, reviewed recommendations.