Is someone else’s gambling becoming a problem?
A free, private self‑assessment for partners, parents, adult children, and close friends — the twenty questions Gam‑Anon uses to help families recognize when someone’s gambling has started to affect them. Yes or no, about two minutes. Nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere; your answers never leave this page.
One thing before you start: if conversations about money or gambling in your home ever involve fear — threats, intimidation, or control — skip the test for now and start with the safety note below.
“Is Gam-Anon For Me?” © Gam-Anon International Service Office, Inc. Reproduced with permission. Visit gam-anon.org.
What This Test Measures — and What It Doesn’t
Most gambling tests ask the person who gambles about their own behavior. This one is deliberately different: it asks about your experience of living alongside it — the promises, the unexplained hours, the money you have started hiding, the moods you have learned to read before you say anything. That design matters, because if you are here, you are probably trying to make sense of a behavior someone is actively concealing from you. You cannot reliably score what you cannot see. What you can score is what it is doing to you.
So a high count is not a diagnosis of your partner or family member. No online questionnaire can diagnose anyone, and this one does not try to. If the person is willing to look at their own gambling honestly, there is a gambling addiction test they can take themselves — it is just as private as this one. What your count here tells you is something different, and just as important: whether their gambling has reached the point where support for you makes sense.
Why the Questions Ask About You
The questionnaire comes from Gam‑Anon, the fellowship for the families and close friends of compulsive gamblers, and it was written to help people decide whether they belong in that room. Gam‑Anon’s guidance is that, for most people, answering yes to at least six of the twenty means someone’s gambling is affecting you — and, in their words, “You need not wait for the compulsive gambler to seek help” before you get support of your own.
That is also how I work. Family members do not need the person who gambles to be ready, willing, or even aware. You can come in yourself, as the client, to work on your own decisions — and in my experience it is usually the partner or parent who makes the first call.
If You Answered Yes to Six or More
Start with support for yourself, not with another confrontation. That can be a free 15‑minute consultation with me, a Gam‑Anon meeting (in person or virtual), or both. The point is the same either way: you stop carrying this alone, and you start making decisions from a plan instead of from the latest crisis.
Then deal with the money — your side of it. In Illinois, self‑exclusion is entirely voluntary: you cannot enroll someone else, no matter how obvious the problem is. What is inside your control is your own exposure — separating accounts, freezing your own credit, deciding what you will and will not fund. The money section of my family page walks through it, and if you are a spouse or partner, my guide to what to do when your partner has a gambling problem covers the harder questions: joint accounts, whether you are liable for their gambling debt in Illinois, and how to protect yourself without turning it into punishment.
If you are a parent, the same instinct that makes you want to fix it is the one most likely to fund it — my guide to helping without enabling and the companion piece on family money are written for exactly that bind.
And if the person you are worried about says they want to stop — today, right now — send them the 24‑hour betting shutdown plan. It is free, and it is built for that exact moment.
If Your Count Was Under Six
A low count does not certify that everything is fine. These twenty questions describe a fairly advanced picture — bill collectors, a family going without, a life that feels like a nightmare — and plenty of real problems sit below that line. If the yeses you did give are recent, or growing, or you took this test at one in the morning after checking an account, trust that. You noticed something, and people who live with a gambler usually notice long before the evidence is undeniable.
The family page covers what to watch for and how to raise it without it turning into a fight, and the partner guide goes deeper on what discovery and its aftermath actually look like.
If You’re Afraid at Home
Most of this page assumes you can have hard conversations about money with this person without being afraid of them. If that is not true for you, the order of operations changes — raising gambling or finances with someone who frightens you is not a neutral act, and a questionnaire result is not a reason to do it before you are safe.
If conversations in your home involve threats, intimidation, coercive control, or fear for your safety or your children’s, the first step is not a financial audit or a confrontation. It is talking to someone about safety. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 800‑799‑SAFE (7233), or text START to 88788. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does six or more mean my partner is addicted?
No. This questionnaire cannot diagnose the person you are worried about, and neither can any online test — a diagnosis takes a clinician and the person’s own honest participation. What six or more yes answers does tell you, by Gam‑Anon’s guidance, is that their gambling is affecting you enough that support for you is warranted now. If they are open to looking at it themselves, the gambling addiction test is the one built for that.
Can I take this about a parent, an adult child, or a friend?
Yes. The questions say “the person in question” on purpose — Gam‑Anon serves spouses and partners, parents, adult children, siblings, and close friends. If it is your adult child, the helping‑without‑enabling guide is the companion reading.
Will they know I took this?
Not from this page. Your answers are never stored or transmitted — there is no account, no form, no tracking on this test, and your result disappears when you leave. The page itself will appear in your browser history like any other page, so if that is a concern on a shared device, use a private browsing window.
What should I do with my result?
Treat it as a starting point, not a verdict. The count is a way of taking seriously what you have been half‑noticing for months — and a concrete thing to bring to a first conversation, whether that is with me, with Gam‑Anon, or with someone you trust. If the next step is raising it with the person themselves, the family page has a section on how to bring it up without it turning into a fight.
If You Need Someone Right Now
Illinois gambling helpline: 1‑800‑GAMBLER, or text GAMB to 833234.
National problem gambling helpline: 1‑800‑MY‑RESET — call, text, or chat, 24/7.
Gam‑Anon (for family and friends): national hotline 844‑475‑4213, with in‑person and virtual meetings.
If anyone is in immediate danger or thinking about harming themselves, call or text 988.
About Gam‑Anon and This Questionnaire
Gam‑Anon is a fellowship of people whose lives have been affected by someone else’s gambling — the family‑and‑friends counterpart to Gamblers Anonymous. Meetings are free, held in person and online, and you do not need the gambler’s participation, or permission, to attend. Gam‑Anon is independent of this practice; I list it here because it is one of the few supports built specifically for the people this page is written for.
The questionnaire above is Gam‑Anon’s “Is Gam‑Anon For Me?”, reproduced in full and word for word with the written permission of the Gam‑Anon International Service Office, Inc. The interactive format is used with their permission as well; the wording of the questions is unchanged from the version they publish at gam‑anon.org.
You Don’t Have to Wait for Them to Be Ready
If your count — or just your gut — says this has gone on long enough, you can start with a free conversation. Tell me what you have been seeing, ask whatever you want to ask, and we will figure out a next step that is actually yours to take. I see family members as clients in their own right, in person in Logan Square, Chicago, and online across Illinois and Minnesota.
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This page is for information and support. It isn’t a diagnosis — of you or of anyone else — and it isn’t a substitute for care from a licensed professional who knows your situation.