Rick*, who pastors a church in Sydney, explains how gambling is wrecking his extended family, and the tough spiritual questions gaming addiction raises.

Among my immediate and extended family there are three problem gamblers.

In my experience, as the Government allows new forms of gaming, more people are caught in the web of addiction.

The extent of the problem in my family is directly related to the increasing liberalisation of gaming laws.

Sydney is now the poker-machine capital of the world. Forms of online gambling are becoming more widely available.

Indeed, for one member of my family, the particular issue is online gambling. Using credit cards, enormous debt can be racked up. With another, it is poker machines in local clubs. It appears almost an emotional outlet at the end of a bad day. Thanks to the State Government, poker machines seem to be almost everywhere these days, and ATM credit card access is always close by.

But for me, the most devastating has been the impact of horseracing. I was completely devastated one day to get a phone call telling me that a constable had turned up on the doorstep with a letter of demand from a bookmaker. I didn't even know such debts were being racked up.

Yet, legally, this situation can now arise because the Government now allows bookmakers to extend their own credit facilities. The bookmaker seems to be concerned only if someone has assets. Not even the family home is safe. As I experienced, the family need not even know what is going on until it is too late.

Why the Government allows bookmakers to operate in this way, and among those at such risk, is beyond me.

Impact on family

The innocent victims are gamblers' families. If research suggesting up to 300,000 Australians are at risk of problem gambling is correct, there would be over one million innocent victims.

I have also spoken with other gamblers' family victims over the years. In each the addictive pattern is similar. It starts off small, sometimes as entertainment. But at some point the addictive process kicks in, and psychologists confirm that turning back becomes very, very difficult. Once it kicks in, the level of gambling gradually increases, and the problem can be very difficult to break.

The impact of problem gambling on their families is nothing short of devastating. The person with an alcohol addiction can only drink so much. But the gambler can just keep on borrowing money, gradually eroding the financial security their family has worked so hard for. But in my experience, although serious, this is a relatively small problem.

The more significant problem is the breakdown of relationship caused by the breakdown in trust. The level of deceit tends to increase over time. The lies must grow to cover over the increasing amounts of money that can't be accounted for. This breakdown in trust can mean that you must question almost everything financially related, no matter how small. In extreme circumstances the pattern of lying becomes so second nature that nothing at all can be trusted.

Spiritual struggles

I have experienced enormous challenges to my faith and ministry. Periodically, I am powerfully reminded of the litany of lies and deception, leaving me anxious and stressed, yet needing to pull myself together for the sake of the congregations I pastor.

Spiritual questions constantly arise. As Christians we are not supposed to live for this world, but the world to come. Why then have I spent so much energy worrying about material things?

For me, it has been about the provision and financial security of my extended family. However my motives would not always have been clear to others, including some I pastor.
But what about the far more serious issue of relational breakdowns? Jesus died and rose again to restore our relationship with God and others. So shouldn't I be acting under a compulsion to restore my relationships with others, because I am a Christian? 

This is where it gets tricky. I am not sure that I have worked it all out. How does restoration look with those who have so much of an addiction that they fail to even see that they have a problem?

After many years of trying everything I could think of, I realised the experts were right: you cannot help someone who does not accept that they have a problem. As a Christian, how do you have an appropriate relationship with people in this situation?

It makes me long for heaven, and pray for the victims of what is rapidly becoming our nation's next great social epidemic.

*Rick is an ordained minister in Sydney. He is happy to speak to other pastors about the issues raised by this article and may be contacted via Southern Cross.