Why gambling can feel like the solution
What that means for prevention
Written by Colin Edwards
Published 30 January 2026
People who experience gambling harm don’t always see gambling as the problem, at least not at the beginning. Some describe it as the answer or the thing that worked, for a while. This can sound like denial or minimisation. From lived experience, it isn’t—it’s information. When we listen carefully, it tells us something important about how gambling harm begins, and how we might prevent it earlier.
Why gambling can feel like a solution
Gambling harm rarely starts because life is going well. It often enters quietly, at a time when someone is under pressure, stretched, or overwhelmed. From lived experience, gambling can initially offer:
Relief from stress or constant worry
A sense of control when life feels chaotic
Focus or mental escape
A brief calm when everything feels noisy
Hope, distraction, or a feeling of “switching off”
Company from loneliness
For a period of time, gambling can feel like it works.
The harm comes later, when the behaviour is no longer about choice, but about coping. Understanding this does not excuse harm, but it helps explain why simply telling someone to “stop gambling” often misses the point.
The question we often miss
When gambling is treated only as the behaviour to stop, we overlook a more useful question: Before the harm, what was gambling helping someone cope with?
People don’t gamble because they want to lose control, many gamble socially, casually for entertainment. For some, gambling becomes the only thing that feels effective when other supports are missing or out of reach. If we don’t understand what gambling replaced, soothed, or temporarily solved, we risk responding too late, once harm has already escalated.
What this means for prevention
This insight matters because prevention isn’t just about identifying risky behaviour. It’s about understanding unmet needs. From lived experience, prevention works best when people:
Have safe ways to talk about stress before it becomes overwhelming
Learn skills to manage pressure, urges, and emotional load
See support as normal and human, not a sign of failure
Encounter lived experience early, not only at crisis point
This is where lived experience, peer support, and reflective learning spaces play a critical role, not to replace clinical care, but to complement it by creating understanding earlier.
Call to action: Change the question
If gambling felt like the answer, the task is not to judge the behaviour, but to understand the need behind it. What would change if prevention focused less on “stopping gambling” and more on ensuring people have other ways to cope, connect, and feel supported, before harm takes hold? Are we doing enough for this to happen? Listening differently changes how we respond. And responding earlier changes outcomes.