Gamblers Anonymous

Gamblers Anonymous is a worldwide gambling help organisation whose focus is on group therapy rather than one-to-one counselling. They describe themselves in this way:

What is GA?

Gamblers Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who have joined together to do something about their own gambling problem and to help other compulsive gamblers do the same.

They also make this encouraging claim:

Gamblers Anonymous ALWAYS works for the man or woman who wants it to

The structure of GA is quite loose, with little central organisation beyond the needs of the group meetings. They employ a 12-step recovery programme, spiritual in basis but with no adherence to any particular religious faith - the nature of spirituality is left to the interpretation of the individual.

The "12 steps" should be read in conjunction with the more lengthy Towards the first 90 days handbook, designed to help the problem gambler through the first weeks of the recovery programme.


The "Are you a compulsive gambler?" questionnaire gives the individual the opportunity to assess the extent of the problem; answering "yes" to just seven of the twenty questions is apparently indicative of need for concern. Even if you don't consider yourself to be a problem gambler, the questionnaire is worth taking purely for the interest value.