Affected describe their experiences with their own gambling. Often, they had gambled very little themselves, only on events such as the Grand National or playing the lottery. After being around someone with gambling difficulties, some found themselves using gambling to cope. For many affected others, their experiences made them stay away from gambling themselves.
Mum let me buy a lottery ticket for my birthday and I won £10. And it really sticks in my head because I was allowed to spend it on holiday in Disneyland. And it was just something, that’s the only thing that I kind of knew about it. My Mum did the lottery, and she placed a bet on the Grand National once a year, and that was literally it…. So, I met [partner] in 2016, and before that like I say I didn’t have really any experience of gambling apart from the lottery and a bit of Grand National.
When I met my now husband, I had no real background of understanding of gambling, in a way. Although having said that, when I look back now, in my family, gambling was probably quite prevalent, but I didn’t see it that anybody had a real problem with gambling…As a child growing up, everybody had a bet on the Grand National or something. It was part of culture really, but nobody really talked about it being a problem for anybody.
An affected other describes how they went through a period of gambling and so had their family members.