Keeping Safe from Gambling

Harmful gambling can have a significant impact on a person’s life, especially with their finances, their job and their relationships with a partner, family and friends.

Other people can be harmed by someone else’s gambling too. It can cause financial difficulties for the whole family, an unhappy home life, domestic violence, alienation from family and friends, and crimes committed against employers or other people.

A single person’s harmful gambling can affect five to ten people, and children are vulnerable when it’s their parent or other close relative.

Young children can miss out on basic essentials if a parent has gambled away household money. Children are more likely to suffer physical violence or abuse if they have parents with problem gambling, especially when combined with other problems such as alcohol abuse.

Pokie machines are the most harmful form of gambling. The majority of people who seek help for their gambling problems do so because of non-casino pokies (i.e. those found in pubs).

At the Problem Gambling Foundation (PGF), qualified counsellors provide free, professional and confidential counselling for gamblers and anyone affected by someone else’s gambling. Counselling is a private, confidential process and is free of charge to the gambler, their family and others affected by problem gambling.

If you, or someone you know, has a problem with gambling contact us: Phone 0800 664 262 Email help@pgfnz.org.nz or visit www.pgfnz.org.nz