S3 EP7: Affected Others: The Children

All Bets Are Off

In today's episode, we focus on the children of gambling addicts and how their behaviours have impacted them and shaped their mindset towards gambling and gambling-harm. Last year in a YouGov report commissioned by GambleAware, found that as many as 7% of adults, or 3.6 million people, report having been negatively affected by someone else’s gambling problem in the UK alone. Needless to say, that means there are a lot more people negatively impacted by someone else's problematic gambling, and yet as a recovery podcast, we feel that there still isn't a representative equivalent of their voices being heard and it's recordings such as this that will allow those affected others to talk openly, without judgement, and it may help others in a similar position. In today's show, we speak to UK-based sisters Jess and Em whose father was sent to prison for a crime that was driven by his addiction to gambling. We were keen to unearth how their dad's addiction had impacted them, what their relationship was like before and after his stint in prison (now in recovery), and the wider repercussions. In part two we speak with US-based Tricia whose mother has been attracted to gambling venues ever since Tricia was a teenager, and following many years of health issues, her mum has become reliant on Tricia and others to facilitate her gambling addiction.