Isn compulsive gambling basically a financial problem?
No, compulsive gambling is an emotional problem. A person in the grip of this illness creates mountains of apparently insurmountable problems. Of course, financial problems are created, but they also find themselves facing marital, employment, or legal problems. Compulsive gamblers find friends have been lost and relatives have rejected them. Of the many serious difficulties created, the financial problems seem the easiest to solve. When a compulsive gambler quits gambling, income is usually increased and there is no longer the financial drain that was caused by gambling, and very shortly, the financial pressures begin to be relieved. Recovering gamblers have found that the best road to financial recovery is through hard work and repayment of our debts. Borrowing and/or lending of money (bail outs) is detrimental to the recovery process and, whenever possible, should not take place.
