Gamblers Anonymous

The only requirement for membership to Gamblers Anonymous is a desire to stop gambling. There are no dues or fees for Gamblers Anonymous membership; they are self-supporting through their own contributions. Gamblers Anonymous is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution, does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any cause. Their primary purpose is to stop gambling and to help other compulsive gamblers do the same.

Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real problem gamblers. No one likes to think they are different from their fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that people's gambling careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could gamble like other people. The idea that somehow, some day, we will control our gambling is the great obsession of every compulsive gambler. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of prison, insanity or death.

As gamblers, we learned we had to concede fully to our innermost selves that we are compulsive gamblers. This is the first step in our recovery. With reference to gambling, the delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed. We have lost the ability to control our gambling. We know that no real compulsive gambler ever regains control. All of us felt at times we were regaining control, but such intervals - usually brief -were inevitably followed by still less control,which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced that gamblers of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period of time we get worse, never better. Therefore, in order to lead normal happy lives, we try to practice to the best of our ability, certain principles in our daily affairs

The Gamblers Anonymous Recovery Program

Here are the steps which are a program of recovery

• We admitted we were powerless over gambling and that our lives had become unmanageable.
  
• Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to a normal way of thinking and living.
  
• Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of this Power of our own understanding.
  
• Made a searching and fearless moral and financial inventory of ourselves.
  
• Admitted to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
  
• Were entirely ready to have these defects of character removed.
  
• Humbly asked God (of our understanding) to remove any of our shortcomings.
  
• Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
  
• Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
  
• Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
  
• Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
  
• Having made an effort to practice these principles in all our affairs, we tried to carry this message to other compulsive gamblers.