Hi,
wondering if someone can give me some advise. My partner has a gambling addiction, has done for the past 3 years, the time before this time was 18 months ago and we just managed to get ourselves out the debt and then this week he gambled £14,000 using credit cards. As you can imagine I feel utterly devastated. I feel we are back to square one and struggling to see a way out of this.
His been on Gamstop, which doesn’t help, he just finds ways around this, I had full access to all our money and finances but the one thing I couldn’t do is stop him getting the credit cards out. His never been to meetings or councilling and has promised this is going to happen now and he went to his first meeting tonight and starts therapy next week. But for my peace of mind I need to know is there anyway I can stop him taking more credit cards out. Or is there anything else I can do to stop this happening again. We have a 1 year old little boy and a house and I hoping we get through this but this time is the hardest yet.
Hi Jodie
I'm sorry to hear this, it must be very difficult. Don't know if you have heard of gamban, but it's blocking software that will stpp any device you register accessing online gambling sites. Life saver for me in the early days.
All the best to you both
Roxy
@aoxbg6d3ji Hi Roxy,
His on Gamban, but he just uses sites outside the UK where it doesn't block it. The ony thing that I felt helped over the last 18 months was that I had full control of all money, then I started to loosen the reins, my fault, and let him have a credit card, thinking you couldn't gamble on credit cards, but you can and now we're straight back into massive amounts of debt again. I'm guessing theres no way to stop someone getting new credit cards out and I just have to hope the meetings and councilling will help. This is our last chance though, next time I'm going to have to leave. I a strong person mentally but even this is having a toll on me.
very good advice from roxy may i also suggest contacting gamcare for one to one counselling and debt advice from stepchange and taking all cards from your husband and putting a gambling block on all bank accounts gambling addicts are very devious liars and will look at any opportunity to find a way round it and also full access to his mobile phone in case he goes to the dodgy gambling sites not regulated to the ukgc we're even if by pure luck wins will never be paid out by them anyway as they are just thief's
also the moses scheme for bricks and mortar bookies in the UK were by calling moses they give you an email address to send a pic and also send it to the bookmakers that you wish to bar yourself from in your local area for up to 5 years this is what I did and wouldn't embarrass myself by walking into and being told to leave as I'm banned bless you
Hey Jodie,
make him give you full access to his credit report. You can do this on apps like Experian, moneysupermarket. Most of the reports on these apps list total debt and any credit cards/loans he has open including balances. Keep his login and check in every couple of weeks or so to see if there are any changes there shouldn’t be.
Which bank he is with ?
Hi Anon. Your partner will need to want to stop otherwise they will always find a way. You can only support. re credit cards, i thought the UK has banned the use of credit cards for gambling but I imagine he uses it in offshore based gambling sites. As someone else mentioned above, get him to give you access to his online credit report. It’s free and the best in my opinion is Credit Karma because it updates quicker than Experian. You will see existing debts or loans and any recent searches also (which could signal if he’s applying for a credit card). Wishing you all the best.
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