Beyond the Bet

Problem gambling jumps, suicides triple in Ontario after expansion of online casinos

For someone struggling with gambling, the church can become either another place to hide or a community where recovery begins. The difference often lies in how the congregation understands addiction—and how it responds when someone asks for help.

Developing an effective pastoral care outreach program requires more than warning people about gambling’s dangers. It calls for compassionate relationships, practical safeguards, professional partnerships, and a commitment to walking alongside people through an often uneven recovery process.

Sonia E. Waters’s Addiction and Pastoral Care offers a valuable foundation for this ministry. Waters brings theological reflection into conversation with understandings of addiction, encouraging pastoral caregivers to move beyond narrowly moralistic explanations toward care attentive to suffering, relationships, and the whole person. Applied to gambling, this approach helps churches replace blame with accountability grounded in dignity.

Gambling disorder is not simply a failure of willpower or evidence of inadequate faith. It involves persistent gambling behavior that causes significant distress or harm. Financial losses may be accompanied by secrecy, damaged relationships, anxiety, depression, and repeated unsuccessful attempts to stop.

A church should communicate a clear message:

This does not excuse dishonesty or minimize its consequences. Instead, it makes honest disclosure more possible. In keeping with Waters’s pastoral framework, the person should never be reduced to an addiction or treated only as a moral problem.

Use person-first language—such as “people experiencing gambling addiction”—and ask individuals how they prefer to describe their experience.

Before advertising an outreach program, establish a team with clear responsibilities. It might include a pastor, a pastoral care coordinator, trained volunteers, and a licensed mental health professional serving as a consultant or referral partner.

Training should cover:

Volunteers should not diagnose, provide psychotherapy, or act as financial advisers unless professionally qualified. Their primary role is to listen, support, connect people with appropriate help, and maintain dependable relationships.

A written confidentiality policy is essential. Explain what information is recorded, who can access it, and when disclosure may be required by law or necessary for immediate safety. Never turn someone’s disclosure into a prayer-chain announcement without explicit permission.

People in distress need an accessible first step. Offer a confidential contact method and explain what happens after someone reaches out.

An initial pastoral conversation can explore:

Gambling-related crises can involve serious suicide risk. If someone expresses suicidal thoughts, ask directly about immediate safety and follow an established crisis protocol. An imminent emergency requires emergency assistance—not merely a promise to pray or a later appointment.

Offer a “warm referral”: with permission, help the person contact a provider rather than simply handing over a telephone number.

Pastoral care should complement, not replace, clinical treatment. Develop referral relationships with licensed clinicians experienced in gambling disorder, addiction services, peer-support groups such as Gamblers Anonymous, and reputable financial counseling services.

Treatment may include cognitive behavioral approaches and attention to co-occurring conditions. Peer support can provide connection and shared experience, although no single group or approach suits everyone.

Practical measures may also help: voluntary self-exclusion from gambling venues or platforms, gambling-blocking tools, and agreed financial safeguards. Their availability and suitability vary. Any arrangement involving another person’s control of money should be consensual and sensitive to the possibility of financial abuse.

Never advise someone to recover losses through further gambling.

Prayer, Scripture, worship, lament, and pastoral conversation can support recovery. They should not become tests of sincerity or substitutes for treatment.

Ask what spiritual practices feel supportive. Some people need reassurance of belonging; others need room to express anger, grief, or shame. Avoid promising that sufficient faith will eliminate urges or guarantee financial restoration.

Waters’s integration of theology and addiction care supports taking spiritual life seriously without separating it from psychological, bodily, and relational realities. Churches can embody this through patient companionship, practical assistance, and opportunities for meaningful participation that do not require public disclosure.

Partners, children, and other relatives may experience fear, betrayal, debt, and instability. Offer them support in their own right, rather than treating them only as helpers in someone else’s recovery.

Do not pressure relatives to repay gambling debts, restore trust immediately, or remain in unsafe relationships. Forgiveness does not eliminate the need for boundaries, restitution, or protection.

Church assistance should follow a consistent policy. Where appropriate, paying an essential bill directly may be safer than providing unrestricted cash. Avoid repeated debt rescue without assessment and a support plan. At the same time, do not withhold basic necessities as punishment.

A return to gambling should prompt renewed assessment, not humiliation or automatic exclusion. Review immediate safety, losses, triggers, treatment needs, and protective measures.

Evaluate the program using modest, meaningful indicators: timely responses, completed referrals, participant feedback, volunteer supervision, and whether people feel respected and supported. Protect identities when reporting to church leadership.

The church cannot promise recovery on a timetable. It can promise something important: a community that responds honestly, maintains wise boundaries, and refuses to confuse a person’s worth with their worst losses.

Waters, S. E. (2019). Addiction and pastoral care. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

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