If tonight is hard, stop reading and call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133. It is free and open 24 hours. If it has got that dark, Samaritans are on 116 123, any time.
Behind Closed Doors · 59 seconds. Please watch it, then share it. Someone you know is behind one of these doors.
Two and a half minutes · headphones on
Feel what addiction feels like
Inside a mind that cannot stop. You are taken all the way down, and brought back out into the light.
Step insideMost of what gambling does to a person happens behind closed doors. At 2am, on a phone, under a duvet. In the next room, someone lies awake knowing something is wrong and not knowing how to say it.
I have been on the first side of that door. I have felt every one of the numbers below. I am writing them down because I think seeing them helps. Not to frighten anyone, but because they show you are not the only one.
How many people it touches
3.8% of adults in Britain now show signs of problem gambling, up from 2.4% in 2020 (GambleAware / YouGov, 2024).
Nearly half (48%) of those worst affected say they feel embarrassed or ashamed of their gambling all or most of the time (GambleAware / YouGov, 2022). That shame is why it stays hidden.
The people in the next room
4.3 million adults in Britain are harmed by someone else's gambling: a partner, a parent, a son, a friend (GambleAware / YouGov, 2024).
Around 2 million children may be living in a household with an adult who has a gambling problem (GambleAware / YouGov, 2024).
The hardest number
The government's own estimate is that between 117 and 496 suicides a year in England are associated with problem gambling (Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, 2023). Some researchers dispute how that range was worked out, and nobody knows the true figure. But every one of those was someone's dad, son, partner or friend.
If any part of that is you, please call Samaritans on 116 123. You do not have to be sure it is serious enough.
It doesn't have to end there
What changed things for me was not a big moment. It was one conversation. Somebody knowing. After that, the hiding stopped being the only option.
Breaking free from this is absolutely possible. Never give up. Never.
If you are the one who has noticed
You do not have to find the perfect words. I have written about a quiet way to help, including a way to leave something for them without saying a thing.
If you are the one hiding it
Start with the next twenty minutes. The Five Rooms is free, needs no sign-up, and was built for exactly that moment.
Where to get help, free
- National Gambling Helpline: 0808 8020 133, free, 24 hours
- Samaritans: 116 123, any time
- GamFam and Gam-Anon support families and friends
I am not a treatment service. I am one person who has been through it and came out the other side.
Sources: GambleAware / YouGov, Annual GB Treatment and Support Survey 2022 and 2024. Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, The economic and social cost of harms associated with gambling in England: evidence update 2023.