There are many ways to go about getting help for a problem with gambling, from talking to parents, counselors or friends, to joining a support group. One of the best ways is through Gamblers Anonymous. The Gamblers Anonymous methods of recovery are given below.

Gamblers Anonymous

The first step to recovering is identifying whether or not you have a gambling problem. Gamblers Anonymous offers twenty questions that you may ask yourself to determine whether or not you have a gambling problem. These include, for example, “Have you ever considered self destruction or suicide as a result of your gambling?” and “Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?”

The Recovery Program

The recovery program set up by Gamblers Anonymous follows 12 steps, similar to Alcoholics Anonymous and other recovery programs. These steps are as follows:

1. We admitted we were powerless over gambling—that our lives had become unmanageable.
   
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to a normal way of thinking and living.
   
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of this Power of our own understanding.
   
4. Made a searching and fearless moral and financial inventory of ourselves.
   
5. Admitted to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
   
6. Were entirely ready to have these defects of character removed.
   
7. Humbly asked God (of our understanding) to remove  our shortcomings.
   
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
   
9. Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
   
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
    
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
    
12. Having made an effort to practice these principles in all our affairs, we tried to carry this message to other compulsive gamblers.

These steps help those addicted to gambling recover.

Hotlines

The National Council on Problem Gambling offers a national helpline at 1-800-522-4700.