Are you in a situation in which you have felt for some time that something is not quite right with a family member? You may have tried to figure out what is wrong, but you can't quite be sure. Whenever you question the family member about your concerns, that person always has an explanation. Because you trust and love that person, you believe the explanation, even if it doesn't make sense.

It is possible that your family member is experiencing a problem with gambling. Gamblers may be able to keep their activities a secret by doing one or more of the following:

- Lying about how they spend their time and money.

- Controlling all the family's finances.

- Directing their mail to their place of business or a post office box.

- Obtaining credit in their name only.

- Forging signatures for personal loans or mortgages.

If you suspect that gambling may be the issue, there are good reasons for you to take concrete steps so you can see the situation more clearly. If you don't, you and your family members may: 

- Suffer severe financial loss, become worried about the future

- Feel lonely and isolated

- Feel anger and resentment from being betrayed and 

- Become frustrated and without hope.

Taking concrete steps will help you to decide what action to take. The following section will give you some suggestions on what to do. (Helping the Gambler)

• How gambling really works
  • Randomness
  • Independence of events
  • Why gambling will cost you money
  • What is house advantage
  • House advantage and randomness: how they work together
  • What is your cost of play
  • Win in gambling is not long term
  • Return to player and hit frequency
  • Does skill work
• What's your cost of play
• Psychology of gambling
  • Optimism in gambling: good or bad
  • Systems in gambling: trying to make sense of randomness
  • 20/20 hindsight in gambling: useful or misleading
  • Near miss beliefs: close doesn't count
  • Hot and cold machines: there's no such thing
  • Selective attention and selective recall
  • Unpredictable payoffs
  • Entrapment
  • Don't get caught chasing
  • Illusion of control
  • Magical thinking
  • Superstitions and rituals
  • The appeal of gambling: what gambling means to different people
  • Gambling and keeping It real
• Responsible gambling tips
• Problem gambling
  • Range of gambling behaviours
  • Risk factors for problem gambling
  • How problem gambling can affect the individual
  • Dealing with problem gambling
  • Gambling and the family
  • Helping the gambler
  • Helping yourself
  • Why problem gambling is hard to deal with