Gambling Addict Teen

[bettyskitchen]

Today my 19yr old has had the day off work. He has blown £500 ish gambling online then got a £500 loan to pay for his Christmas presents. He came clean and we quickly paid off the loan which had already incurred £70 interest!

He has said that he doesn't want help but I feel that he desperately needs it. When he was explaining what he had done he broke down and said he can't help it. This isn't the first time that he has done this, the last time was about a year ago and wasn't as much, but it feels as though all trust is gone. I took control of his debit card for several months until he felt ready to be in control of his money again. To add to this, once his girlfriend found out about his days gambling she dumped him, so on top of been devastated about his money loss he is heartbroken, they were together all the time and spent each night together.

I just have no clue how to handle this situation, we want to get him help to help him over come his gambling addiction but at the moment he is refusing any. Has anyone been through anything similar?! Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

[helpyourself]

You're enabling him by paying off his debts. Understandable though. Investigate GA, like AA but for gambling. But he has to want it himself, and at the moment there really are no consequences of his actions.

[SecretSantaSquirrels]

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