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Slot Machines in\u00a0McCarran International Airport. Passengers leaving Las Vegas walking through the airport, some playing on slots.<\/p>\n
anouchka\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Jessica Steinman fell hard for a gambling addict.<\/p>\n
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They met when the Austin woman had just moved to Los Angeles in June 2011.<\/p>\n
She passed him her phone number while dining at a 24-hour restaurant where he had worked as a host. He called her the next day. Their relationship progressed quickly. He moved in.<\/p>\n
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She covered the rent, his daughter\u2019s preschool, vacations, dinners and other expenses. He spent his money on sports betting and at the local casino \u2014 entire paychecks.<\/p>\n
After three years of trying to \u201cfix him,\u201d she finally ended it. He had borrowed roughly $85,000 from her, she said, money that he never paid back.<\/p>\n
Today, Steinman is an addiction therapist who moved to Austin in August to help serve the growing Texas population of people \u2014 like her ex-partner \u2014 harmed by gambling.<\/p>\n
Texas has become a target of sorts for those who see the state as woefully unprepared to handle the explosion of online betting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would argue that we have the most demand in Texas,\u2019\u2019 said Sam DeMello, a recovering gambling addict and Boston tech entrepreneur. DeMello launched a digital gambling support platform that has doubled its number of users over the last six months. Hundreds live in Texas \u2014 and primarily North Texas.<\/p>\n
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Boston tech entrepreneur, Sam DeMello. DeMello is a recovering gambling addict who launched a digital gambling support platform.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Sam DeMello<\/p>\n
Problem gambling has been traditionally dismissed as an issue that can be fixed by willpower and moral conviction. A growing number of clinicians such as Steinman are raising concerns that excessive gambling can be more lethal and difficult to overcome than more well-researched addictions such as substance abuse or alcoholism.<\/p>\n
In young people, gambling disorders can create a dangerous rewiring of the brain, experts say, that is impossible to reverse without targeted support.<\/p>\n
And no matter the age, the disorder reports the highest rate of suicide attempts resulting in death among all addictions, experts say.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s most troubling is that Texas, unlike more than a dozen other states, contributes no state money for prevention or addiction services, addiction experts say.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The federal government spends billions annually on substance use. It dedicates no money to addressing gambling addiction.<\/p>\n
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Linda Uphoff, a gambling addiction expert, poses at her home in Dallas, Texas, Friday, September 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Anja Schlein\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
\u201cFor anybody in Texas to say that we don\u2019t have gambling is, I guess, kind of ignorant,\u201d said Linda Uphoff, a certified gambling addiction counselor in Dallas.<\/p>\n
North Texans, she said, regularly call for help. Some bet offshore on sports. Others on online platforms. Some wager in poker rooms or roadside game rooms and casinos in border states.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Uphoff also knows firsthand what it\u2019s like. She\u2019s the mother of a 30-year-old son in recovery.<\/p>\n
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\u201cTexas can bury its head in the sand and say it doesn\u2019t allow sports betting,\u201d Uphoff said. \u201cWell, you know what? That\u2019s not so true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas has no state certification for clinicians who specialize in treating gambling addicts, said Carol Ann Maner, founder and outgoing executive director of the Texas Coalition on Problem Gambling, which is based in Houston.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, only five therapists in Texas are trained under best practices. Maner and Uphoff are two of them. There is one in Fort Worth and one more in Dallas, according to the International Problem Gambling and Gaming Certification Organization in Pittsburgh. By comparison, Florida has twice as many.<\/p>\n
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Jessica Steinman, an addiction therapist based in Austin, Texas. Steinman moved to Austin to help serve the growing population of Texans harmed by gambling.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Jessica Steinman<\/p>\n
Steinman is hoping to soon close some of those gaps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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On November 15, she is expected to launch No Matter What Recovery<\/a>, a new treatment facility in Austin that will offer addiction services for people who struggle with alcohol and substance abuse, as well as gambling.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel I really understand the plight of the gambler and families,\u2019\u2019 Steinman said, \u201cobviously for my own personal reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s truly one of the worst addictions to get sober from.\u201d<\/p>\n Like almost all compulsive gamblers, Steinman\u2019s ex-partner never overcame the disorder. Just before they had met, he had been in an outpatient treatment center but had quickly relapsed.<\/p>\n While they were together, he promised \u2014 over and over again \u2014 to stop. He never did.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He told her early on that he liked to gamble, was bad with money and frequented casinos and used online sports betting sites. Like many partners and family members of those affected, she stuck by him and hoped things would change.\u00a0<\/p>\n A lack of awareness<\/p>\n The public has little awareness about why it can become so intense and hard to stop wagering.<\/p>\n Most families of compulsive bettors have little understanding of how the addiction grows.<\/p>\n And gamblers don\u2019t have a clue about how they can be at a higher risk. Some may have a family history. People with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder can be 20% to 30% more susceptible.<\/p>\n For women, the trigger can be divorce, illness, death of a parent or post-partum hormones.<\/p>\n Just as awareness about gambling disorder is limited, people who are trained to recognize and treat it are rare.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unlike alcohol or substance abuse, it\u2019s not as easy to remove the addict from the source of their addiction. Without restrictions on access to phones, computers, WiFi and money, gambling addicts can relapse.<\/p>\n And there is often little or no warning that something is terribly wrong.<\/p>\n