Would past gambling addiction affect our ability to get a mortgage in the future?

Retireby40

You're probably not going to want to hear this but I will say it. Take what you want from it.

If you are a gambling addict the first thing you have to do is rid yourself of other gamblers. Now you're in a relationship with one. Thats going to be virtually impossible to deal with. Why? Because as an addict you are looking for someone to facilitate your habit. If your partner says will we gamble while you both know its wrong you feel you aren't doing harm. They are game and so are you.

Having had friends who had problems gambling and family the same I found that the only ones who succeed In beating the addiction (10+ years without a bet) were people who cut the cord with gamblers. Whether that be recreational gamblers like £10 a week football betters or more.

I don't know the history of your relationship and maybe there's people on here who can tell me what I have seen is !!!!!! and they know better but as a gambler the single most successful thing is ridding yourself of temptations. Being with someone who can facilitate your addiction is not ideal.

Maybe its a choice of relationship and gambling vrs no relationship and the potential to be gamble free. Neither have guarantees. But I will tell you one thing. 2 gambling addicts living under one roof will never lead to a gamble free life. The odds are stacked against one gambler recovering never mind 2. Not impossible but highly unlikely.

Sorry for the negative post but I have deep experience in this area and I try to say things as they are based on experience. 

Kamile23

I think I wasn’t clear enough with my story, what I wanted to say was that we both had bad gambling history on our accounts and I wanted to know if there is a chance on getting a mortgage in the future if we will sort this out, save money and never gamble again. The thought that this could still affect availability of getting a mortgage was very scary to me and that’s why I came here for advice. What I wasn’t so clear with is that for the past 2-3 years I was the main issue. 

We started gambling together and we did this almost every day for I’d say 6 years. Then my boyfriend came to realise that we are losing our life and we have to quit this, save money, pay debts and get our life together. But I wasn’t ready. After some time I started gambling without him knowing about it. Of course soon after I had to tell him about it as my mental health was so bad that I couldn’t hide this for too long. I’d promise him that I’ll never do this again, but I could never keep that promise. I felt guilty, I was scared, but the urge to gamble was stronger than me. At that point he was never again initiating gambling, but he would gamble with me if I lost too much (he wanted that money back). Of course all that had a bad impact on our relationship. My mental health got worse and one day I ended up in hospital and this was my breaking point. I got help and we didn’t gamble for almost 2 years. We were happy and I was very proud of myself and I truly believed that I will never gamble again. End of last year I lost my pet and I found it really hard to cope with grieving. I mentioned this because I believe that this was the main cause of my relapse. January this year I gambled again after almost 2 years free of gambling. I don’t even know how I started this circle again, I didn’t plan this in advance, it just happened. I told this to my boyfriend straight away and that day we gambled together. We promised to each other that this was one-time mistake that will not recur. And this month I did it again. 

Now I know that just believing in myself is not enough and that’s why I finally took this step and registered with GAMSTOP with maximum exclusion period of 5 years. I have to say that comments on this post encouraged me to do so. Thanks to each of you for taking a time to respond.