IS SOMEONE YOU LOVE HAVING AN AFFAIR . . . WITH GAMBLING?

"If you have opened these pages because of a loved one's gambling problem, you will quickly discover that you are not alone. . . There is help, and there is hope."
Dr. James Dobson

A Focus on the Family book published
by Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL.

www.family.org

The warning signs are all there. Unexplained absences. Denials when confronted. Withdrawal from family responsibilities.

To the spouse of the problem gambler, the cover-ups mean only one thing: an affair. In a way, it is. Every waking minute, the problem gambler is consumed with chasing a "mistress" whose stakes are higher every time he's with her. But like a house built of cards, collapse is inevitable. And all too often, bankruptcy, divorce - even imprisonment or suicide - result.

Exposing the downward spiral from recreational gambling ("it’s just a lottery ticket") to pathological gambling, House of Cards, pulls no punches. It uses the true stories of compulsive gamblers and those who love them to expose the vice-made-nice workings of an industry fueled by the desperate dreams of its addicts . . . and offers hope to those trapped in the rubble when the dream falls apart.

House of Cards is about the seduction of getting something for nothing. It's about families who lose even when their gambler wins. And it's about time.

Contents

1 Compulsive Gamblers: Who They Are, What They Do
2 The Gamer Problem Gamblers Play
3 A Cost Too High
4 The Declline and Fall of the Gambling Addict
5 Identifying the Problem
6 Dealing with the Problem
7 From Down and Out to Out and Up
8 Staying Stopped
9 Getting Them Young
10 Getting Them Old
11 Sin or Recreation? The Morality of Gambling
12 The Changing Landscape of Luck
13 Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks
14 The Case Against Gambling