How To Break a Gambling Addiction: 9 Ways To Stop

Quick Summary

• Gambling addiction is a tough cycle driven by triggers, emotional needs, and easy access to gambling, but recovery is possible with commitment and support.
• Overcoming a gambling addiction requires identifying your triggers, setting financial boundaries, and replacing gambling with healthy distractions.
• Mindfulness techniques like urge surfing, blocking gambling access, and opening up to trusted people or support groups strengthen your ability to resist urges.
• Professional therapy, especially cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), helps address underlying emotional issues and build lasting coping skills.

When gambling takes over your life, it can feel like you’re in a cycle you can’t escape. The rush of placing a bet, the hope of a win, the crash that follows a loss, and the urge to chase it again. It may feel impossible to stop gambling even when you know it’s draining your finances, hurting your relationships, and taking a toll on your mental health. That’s the nature of a gambling addiction. It pulls you back in even when you want to walk away. 

Recovery from gambling addiction is possible, even if it doesn’t feel that way right now. With the right tools and support, many people learn how to stop gambling and regain control of their lives. Change doesn’t happen overnight. Instead, it starts with a commitment to small but consistent steps forward. 

In this article, we’ll explore nine practical strategies to help you break the cycle of gambling addiction. Some of these are things you can do on your own, while others involve connecting with professional support to address the deeper emotional drivers behind your gambling problem. Together, these steps can help you move toward lasting change. 

1. Identify Your Triggers

A key step in learning to quit gambling is noticing what triggers you. Gambling urges are often tied to how you feel or what’s happening around you. You might reach for your phone to place a bet when you’re feeling bored, stressed, or lonely. Some people feel the strongest pull to gamble right after payday or in certain social settings.

Pay attention to the situations, emotions, or people that prompt your urge to gamble. It may help to keep track in a journal or even a note in your phone to help you notice patterns over time. Once you understand your triggers, you can begin to take steps to interrupt the cycle before it starts. 

2. Create Healthy Distractions and Replacements

If gambling takes up a large part of your day, quitting can leave you with more unstructured time than you’re used to. Filling the space that gambling used to occupy with something meaningful can help crowd out the behavior and reduce your cravings.

Instead of gambling, fill your time with activities that bring a sense of purpose. You can try learning a new skill or reconnecting with an old hobby. Some people find comfort in exercise, art, or giving back to their community. Any activity that brings you joy and can help shift your focus away from gambling can be a good replacement for gambling. By incorporating new habits into your routine, you can find healthier ways to meet your emotional needs. 

3. Set Financial Boundaries

Controlling your access to money can be a helpful step in breaking your gambling addiction. When you have easy access to cash or credit, the temptation to gamble can be too hard to resist. However, setting clear financial boundaries can help reduce your urge and protect your long-term stability. 

Practical steps to help you set financial boundaries include:

• Limiting the amount of cash you carry
• Freezing or canceling your credit cards
• Setting spending limits on your accounts
• Giving control of your finances to a trusted friend or family member

4. Practice Urge Surfing

When you feel the urge to gamble, it might feel like you need to act on it immediately. However, urges come and go, like waves. They rise, peak, and eventually pass, whether you act on them or not. Urge surfing is a mindfulness practice that teaches you to ride the wave of the craving instead of engaging with it. The idea is to notice the urge without judgment or trying to push it away. Instead, you’ll ride it out, knowing that it will pass with time. 

“Urge surfing is a technique that helps people deal with strong impulses or cravings like wanting to eat junk food, smoke, or gambling by teaching them to pause and ride out the feeling instead of acting on it right away. Over time, this practice can actually retrain the brain. Normally, the brain rewards impulsive behavior with a quick hit of dopamine, creating a habit loop.  But when you urge surf, you break that cycle and teach your brain that it’s okay to feel uncomfortable without reacting. Each time you do it, you’re helping your brain form new habits and become less controlled by urges. This also strengthens the part of the brain that helps with self-control, making it easier to stay calm in tough moments.”

– Talkspace therapist Famous Erwin LMHC, LPC

When you feel the urge to gamble, try to delay taking action on it for at least 20 minutes. During that period, you can practice mindfulness tactics or do another activity to distract yourself. With practice, urge surfing may change your response to your urge to gamble, and you’ll learn that you don’t have to respond to the urge.

5. Block Gambling Access

When gambling is just one click away, it’s easy to fall into old patterns. Reducing your access to online gambling can create momentum that helps break automatic behaviors to help you give up gambling. Putting distance between yourself and the urge to gamble gives you the space you need to make more intentional choices.

Practical ways to block your access to gambling include:

• Delete gambling apps from your phone
• Use apps that block online gambling sites, such as BetBlocker
• Enroll in a self-exclusion program with your local gaming commission 
• Ask your bank to block gambling-related transactions

6. Tell Someone You Trust

Addiction often thrives in secrecy and isolation, making it harder to give up a gambling addiction on your own. Opening up to a trusted friend, partner, or family member can be a great emotional support when you’re trying to stop gambling. They can make you feel less alone, keep you accountable, and even assist with setting financial boundaries. Research shows that people with social support may be more likely to have a better quality of life after they quit gambling.⁴

Talking about your gambling with a loved one can be uncomfortable, but it’s a powerful step toward healing. You might start with, “I’ve been struggling with gambling and I’m trying to make some changes,” or “I could use some support trying to stop gambling.” You might be surprised at how willing the people in your life are to help you succeed. 

7. Join a Support Group

If you’re wondering how to stop gambling, connecting with others who know what you’re going through can make a big difference. Support groups, like Gamblers Anonymous or SMART Recovery, offer online and in-person meetings and resources to share your experiences and hear from people who understand what it’s like to try to stop a gambling addiction. 

Being part of a support group can help you reduce shame associated with gambling, build your confidence, and remind you that recovery is possible. In a support group, you can learn from others who’ve been through similar struggles to stop gambling and find support when you need it the most. 

A 2023 study found that being involved in a support group, like Gamblers Anonymous, was strongly associated with gambling recovery and a reduced urge to gamble.

8. Work With a Mental Health Professional

The urge to gamble often goes deeper than the behavior itself. Compulsive gambling can be tied to trauma-related addiction, anxiety, depression, and unresolved emotional issues. Many people use gambling as a coping mechanism or a way to escape these distressing feelings, only to find that gambling makes their problems worse. This can quickly turn into a cycle that’s hard to break. Working with a licensed therapist can help you explore what’s fueling your compulsive gambling, identify your triggers, and build healthier coping skills so you can break the cycle.

“Professional therapy helps people understand the deeper emotional reasons behind their addiction, not just the surface behavior. A lot of times, addiction is a way to cope with things like stress, trauma, sadness, or low self-esteem. In therapy, people get a safe space to talk about their feelings and experiences, which can help them figure out what they’re really trying to escape or avoid. Therapists teach healthy ways to manage those feelings, like learning how to handle stress, set boundaries, or deal with triggers so people don’t have to rely on harmful habits. Over time, therapy helps build confidence, emotional strength, and better ways to cope, making it more possible to stay on the path to recovery.”

– Talkspace therapist Famous Erwin LMHC, LPC

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most common types of therapy to break a gambling addiction. This therapy technique helps you recognize unhelpful thought patterns and teaches you how to reframe those thoughts. A therapist can also help you rebuild your self-esteem, strengthen your relationships, and manage other mental health concerns that go hand in hand with gambling. 

With Talkspace, you can connect with a licensed therapist who specializes in CBT techniques, addictive behaviors, and trauma-informed care.

9. Celebrate Small Wins

Recovery from gambling isn’t all-or-nothing; it’s a process you have to work through. During the process, it’s important to celebrate each win, no matter how small. Allow yourself to celebrate every time you go a full day without gambling, resist the urge to place a bet, or go for a walk instead of gambling. 

Recognizing your small victories helps build your motivation and reinforces the positive changes you’re making to stop gambling. Even if your progress feels slow at times, those small moments add up. 

Remember that it’s normal to experience some setbacks along the way. Recovery from gambling addiction is a journey. A slip-up doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Instead, it’s a chance for you to reflect, learn, and adjust your plan moving forward. When this happens, treat yourself with compassion rather than shame. 

Making Long-Term Change Stick

Breaking a gambling addiction is possible, but it doesn’t happen all at once. Long-term change requires consistent effort and support. Change often starts with small, intentional steps, like deleting your gambling apps, opening up to a loved one, or choosing healthier ways to cope with stress. Over time, these small choices can lead to changes that stick. 

Building a strong support system is key to lasting change. If you’re struggling with how to give up a gambling addiction or you’re wondering how to know if you have a gambling problem​ in the first place, your first step could be as simple as reaching out. Talkspace can connect you with a licensed therapist specializing in gambling addiction and long-term behavior change.

Discover how therapy can help treat addiction by offering a safe space to explore your goals, learn new skills, and move forward. With Talkspace, you can connect with your online therapist from the comfort of your home on your schedule.

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