Parents ask themselves: What did we miss? What did we do wrong? And then the harder questions: Should we pay off his debt? Are we helping our child, or are we helping the addiction?
This week’s SBS discussion opened with ESPN’s feature on Amit, a University of Cincinnati student whose weekend poker games spiralled into a full-blown sports betting habit — fuelled by spreadsheets, paid data subscriptions, and, eventually, money he didn’t have. It’s one young man’s story, but the numbers behind it are stark: a 2026 survey found that one in three young adults had placed a sports bet before turning 21, and under-25s are two to four times more likely to develop a gambling disorder than older adults.
One of the panellists opened with that story. He’s been in recovery for 30 years himself, and has spent most of that time supporting people through this addiction. He doesn’t see a statistic. He sees a family. He sees a parent, waiting for the phone to ring, wondering what the next crisis will be.
The addiction no one talks about
Parents ask themselves: what did we miss? What did we do wrong? And then the harder questions: should we pay off his debt? Are we helping our child, or are we helping the addiction?
This is the part of gambling addiction that stays hidden — parents becoming the financial backstop. Paying the credit card. Paying the rent. Paying off the loan. And underneath it all, only ever treating the symptom, never the problem.
What does a parent do when their child says my bookie is going to kill me?
Trust disappears. Bank accounts get checked. Parents start looking for evidence, wondering if their own child is lying to them. They stop being a parent and start being a detective.
That’s why “we are broken” is such a powerful thing to hear from a family. This addiction doesn’t just affect the person gambling — it reshapes the whole relationship between parent and child.
An industry normalising the risk
At the same time, sports culture is normalising gambling at every turn — odds on screen, betting shows, betting discussion built into the broadcast, promotions everywhere you look.
If the sporting industry is normalising sports betting, what responsibility does it have to support the families affected by it? This isn’t just another form of entertainment.
Families need recovery too
None of that helps the mothers, partners, brothers and sisters waking up at 3am wondering how to save someone they love. Parents need education. And sometimes they need the hardest lesson of all: you can love someone without fuelling their addiction.
As Marc, our panelist, put it – you can’t gamble for them, you can’t recover them for them. Your job is to love them, support them, set boundaries, and get support for yourself.
There are practical steps that help:
- Gamban – blocking software that restricts access to gambling sites and apps
- True Link Card – a prepaid card with spending monitoring built in
- Gam-Anon –  peer support for those affected by someone else’s gambling
- Parents Standing Together – a support network built specifically for parents
When you change yourself, the people around you change too and parents do so much better once they’re educated.
That’s what SBS is here for. This isn’t just support for the person gambling –Â it’s support for the families and partners living alongside the addiction too.
Join Chat with Dan, our parents’ session, Tuesdays at 5pm, or our Partners Support Group, Wednesdays at 6pm. You don’t have to carry this alone.
Support is available
Stop Betting Sports hosts free weekly support spaces for people affected by gambling – including parents and loved ones.
