Harm we don’t see
Why gambling harm is never just one person
Written by Colin Edwards
Published 23 January 2026
Gambling harm is sometimes described as affecting a small percentage of the people who gamble. However, that framing misses a fundamental truth: Harm is never within one person alone. For every individual experiencing gambling harm, there are others affected: partners, children, whānau, friends, work colleagues, and communities. The impacts ripple outward quietly, often unnoticed, and unnamed.
What some people see first is financial stress. What is less visible is the emotional and relational harm, tension at home, loss of trust, distance that grows, the silence that settles in. Affected others often carry this harm without language, support, or recognition. Some don’t know what they’re experiencing has a name, or that help exists for them, too.
Harm multiplies:
Stress spreads through households
Children sense something is wrong, but don’t understand what or why
Whānau adjust, compensate, and absorb pressure
Workplaces see changes in focus, attendance, and wellbeing
As this harm is private and often hidden by shame, it’s rarely spoken in conversations or statistics in a meaningful way, but lived experience tells us it is real, significant, and long-lasting.
Why this matters for prevention
When we only focus on the individual who gambles, we miss opportunities to support earlier and more effectively. Prevention and minimisation are strengthened when:
Affected others are recognised and supported
Conversations include whānau, not just individuals
People understand that harm is relational, not personal failure
Support is available before crisis, not only after it
Lived experience tells us that people often don’t seek help for themselves, but they may engage when support is framed around relationships, care, and collective wellbeing.
A different way forward
If we want to reduce gambling harm, we need to widen the lens even more. This means:
Valuing the experiences of affected others
Creating safe spaces for whānau to ask questions and seek support
Shifting from “who has the problem?” to “who is being impacted?”
Designing services, learning spaces, and frameworks that reflect real lives
Addressing gambling harm from a whānau perspective tells us that harm doesn’t happen in isolation and neither should healing. While some services provide clinical and peer support to whānau and affected others, this support is often service-led rather than whānau-to-whānau. What might change if we designed gambling harm prevention and support with whānau, not just individuals, in mind?