If A Family Member Has A Gambling Problem, You Could Too

If someone in your family has a gambling problem, you’re more likely to develop one yourself, according to a new paper out of Finland.

And while the above might not come as a total shock, the research puts real numbers behind that risk, and adds an important wrinkle: When it comes to protection, family helps. Friends don’t.

Researchers led by Emmi Kauppila of Tampere University followed 1,530 Finnish adults across eight waves of surveys conducted between April 2021 and September 2024. The goal was straightforward. First: Does exposure to problem gambling in your family or friend group raise your own risk? Second: Can strong social relationships blunt that risk?

The answer to the first question is yes. To the second, it depends whom you’re close to.

In Finland, about 20% of adults (roughly 722,000 people) identify as “affected others” of someone else’s gambling. Using the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), a 0–27 scale, the study found large differences between the 20% and the other 80%. Respondents who reported a family member with gambling problems scored 3.65 points higher on the PGSI than those who did not. Those who reported a friend with gambling problems scored 2.17 points higher.

Those are not trivial gaps. In additional analyses, the researchers treated PGSI scores of 8 or higher as the high-risk or problem-gambling range.

The study also examined what happens to the same person over time, not just the differences between people. When someone first reported that a family member had developed a gambling problem, their own PGSI score increased by 0.61 points, evidence that exposure itself matters, not just shared background or personality.

You’ve got a friend

A similar effect for newly reporting a friend with gambling problems was smaller, but not statistically significant, according to the researchers. In short: Gambling problems cluster in both family and friend networks, but the strongest evidence for change over time points to family exposure.

Then comes the most interesting finding.

Strong, supportive, family relationships reduced the risk of gambling problems even when a family member was struggling. Close family ties acted as a buffer against transmission.

Friendships did not. Having close friends did nothing to weaken the association between exposure to a friend’s gambling problem and one’s own gambling risk.

The authors offer a few possible explanations. One is social withdrawal. People affected by a loved one’s gambling often pull away from friends out of shame or the belief that others won’t understand. As the paper notes, “Stigma, fear of blame, and cultural expectations on privacy can discourage open discussion.”

Another explanation is less comforting. Some friendships may actually reinforce a gambling problem rather than protect against it. The researchers suggest, “Some peer relationships may reflect a pre-existing alignment with gambling behaviors or shared coping strategies that maintain, rather than mitigate, harm.”

In plain English: Your poker buddies may not be the ones who pull you back from the edge.

The clinical implications are clear, based on the paper. Treatment systems that focus only on the individual gambler are missing a large part of the problem. Family members aren’t just collateral damage; they are at elevated risk themselves. The authors argue for family-focused strategies in gambling prevention and treatment, not just gambler-centered ones.

The study has its obvious limits. It’s based in Finland, which has a distinctive gambling culture shaped by state control. The researchers couldn’t break down results by specific family roles, because the subgroups were too small. And “affected other” status was defined by exposure to problem gambling, not by direct measurement of harm, which may undercount people affected by lower-risk gamblers.

Still, the takeaway is hard to miss. Problem gambling doesn’t stay contained. It moves through families and, to a lesser extent, social circles. Strong family bonds can interrupt that transmission. Friendships, for whatever reason, generally don’t.