My father's gambling addiction is destroying our family

[Never_give_up]

My father became a gambler these past , I don't know, maybe 8 months. We just learned yesterday as a family that he has lost a huge fortune of money that was in common bank account with my mum. My sister is going to give birth in few days and she is thinking of leaving the house faster than she would. 

The whole family and the husband of my sister told him to stop playing these games, I said to him to go to a center that helps gamblers. All my father said was that he will stop he just wants to play one last time, which is ridiculous. You don't play one time, if you play one time you play again and again. He doesn't want to go to a center or to a psychologist or psychiatrist, he thinks he doesn't have a problem.

My mother made her own bank account cause we know that gamblers may steal money , in some sense he already did that with the common bank account. 

You have to be really low IQ not to know that you can't win in gambling and yet he thinks he can make money.

I can't see my father anymore it's too painful, he is addicted, I can't see an addicted person that doesn't want to help himself and he may end up homeless some day. He lost a ridiculous amount of money. I have a million problems in my life like being autistic, this is the last thing I imagined I would have. 

What can I do?

 

[Hojo]

You can 

Fight him

Tell him what you think

Ignore it and stop worrying

Leave

Cry

Do nothing

Forgive and forget it ever happened

Edited Tuesday at 05:06 PM by Hojo

[Basman]

He's estranging himself by his actions. It's natural that you start disliking him. Sometimes people have to hit rock bottom before anything else can happen. 

You could try to talk to him and convince him of how much more painful his addiction will be than pleasurable, but that's not guaranteed to work, especially if he's not listening. The core issue of addiction is that the addict feels like they would be missing out without their vice. Breaking addiction is therefor about feeling like you no longer care if you miss out. Best you can do either way is to just focus on yourself and your goals. 

[PsychedelicEagle]

On 6/12/2026 at 9:49 PM, Never_give_up said:

You have to be really low IQ not to know that you can't win in gambling and yet he thinks he can make money.

It's not about IQ. It's about a mental disease. Even the most "intelligent" people are susceptible to addiction, depression, etc.

The first thing I would do is to secure as much money as you (as a family) can. Treat the addicted person as fully compromised, and untrustworthy when it comes to money issues. Take all legal action that you can, and seek professional help.

[integral]

Your mother has to transfer all of the funds to a different bank account to secure everything and not give him access.