For Women Experiencing Gambling Harm, Awareness and Relapse Prevention Are Key to Recovery

Thanks to shifting norms, more women are gambling more than ever. Much like the relationship between power and responsibility, as participation increases, more women are at risk of gambling-related harms. But because women gamblers are typically an afterthought, gambling policy, research, and problem gambling treatment and prevention programs often prioritize men’s experiences. 

While this too is changing, women who don’t see their realities reflected can fall through the cracks when problematic gambling takes hold. 

While the industry catches up, Kurinn Wright, a problem-gambling coach on the front lines at Kindbridge Behavioral Health, believes education and awareness can help close that safety gap. 

“Education plays a huge role in helping women get a grip on the addiction,” Wright, who, in addition to one-on-one coaching, facilitates a weekly online women’s gambling recovery group, told Gambling Insider during a May 27 interview. 

With education comes awareness of a potential problem. With that awareness, women typically feel empowered to act, she said.

“We’re very, ‘If I can understand it, I can do it.'”

Before they gain that understanding, women often report feeling crazy or that something is wrong with their brains, she explained. 

“No, you’re not crazy. Maybe there is something going on with the brain, but it can be rewired.”

Mo’ Women Mo’ (Women with Gambling) Problems

A 2024 meta-analysis of gambling research in The Lancet, a leading health journal, found that globally, 46.2% of adults gambled in the previous year. While rates were higher among men (49.1%), over a third of women (37.4%) reported gambling during the previous 12 months. 

Among all adults, 8.7% reported some risky gambling behavior, and 1.4% engaged in problematic gambling. Problem gambling rates were highest among people who gamble on slots or online casinos, both of which are statistically popular among women gamblers.

A 2023 Rutgers study found that 56.4% of New Jersey women had gambled in the past year, underscoring the growing trend.

Speaking to North Carolina Health News, Michelle Malkin, head of the Gambling Research and Policy Initiative at East Carolina University, said several factors influence women’s increased participation:

We see a larger growth in females engaged in gambling, partly because of the social acceptability of it, and that it’s everywhere through advertising.” 

Gambling Companies Turn Marketing Toward Women

Malkin’s not wrong. Sportsbooks, whose marketing typically targets males, are investing in women’s attention. 

Earlier this year, Fanatics Sportsbook partnered with Kendall Jenner on a Super Bowl ad campaign, riffing on the so-called “Kardashian Kurse.” The ad insinuates that Jenner funded her luxury lifestyle by betting against several exes’ winning aspirations, and urges viewers to “Bet on Kendall.” 

Fanatics also featured former Louisiana State University gymnast and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Livvy Dunne in a series of recent ads.

At the end of April, FanDuel sportsbook announced sports broadcaster Erin Andrews as its newest responsible gaming ambassador. DraftKings, meanwhile, created a customer acquisition campaign with Basketball Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie.

Gambling companies also directly target women with ads on websites and apps that cater to shopping, gossip, and entertainment. 

This reality creates a challenge for women, like Wright’s clients, who attempt to restrict their gambling access while navigating modern life.

Encountering these triggers is why developing healthy coping mechanisms and boundaries in recovery is key, Wright believes.

Further, a 2026 study of over 500 Australian women (18-40) found “novel” gambling promotions, like influencer partnerships and links to women’s sport, are reshaping how women view betting.

The study highlights how novel gambling promotions may influence and normalize women’s gambling and, subsequently, increase their risk of gambling-related harm. The researchers argue that the findings “reinforce the need for comprehensive regulatory and public health responses,” and “targeted harm prevention strategies.”

Planning for Success Matters

For now, beyond signing up for self-exclusion, what best sets women up for recovery success, said Wright, is having a relapse-prevention plan (RPP). 

While each plan is unique to the individual, plans typically identify triggers, coping mechanisms, and support systems, and set healthy situational and relationship boundaries. Plans may also address goal setting, establishing new routines, and making amends. But an RPP should always include an emergency plan for short-term, longer-term, and worst-case scenarios.

“We need to know what triggers you,” Wright added. 

Previous research indicates that women typically turn to gambling as an internalized coping mechanism for stress, while men are more likely to externalize stress through risky behaviors.

When urges come up, what do you currently do? We’re going to address that autopilot. We’re going to set up an emergency plan… if you do relapse, what happens?”

Establishing healthy coping mechanisms is particularly important, according to Wright. Not having those mechanisms in place is often what pushes people to gamble in the first place.

“We want to build your relapse prevention plan, because if we can get that plan completed early enough, and you decide that you’re not going to continue with recovery, you still have a tool, You know where to go, you know what to do.”

Shame, Stigma and Fear of Relapse Create Biggest Challenges

The biggest challenges to recovery for women, Wright observed, are stigma and shame. Also, the perception that if they relapse, it’s over. 

For that reason, Wright tries to paint a realistic picture: relapse is part of recovery. And until someone develops the tools to challenge their addiction, relapse is likely. When it happens, Wright tells her clients not to beat themselves up.

“However long you’ve been alive, you’ve been on autopilot a certain way; now you have to change all those ways, those habits, those thoughts, and push in a different direction, that’s going to take time.”

Further complicating matters for some: problem gambling often shows up for people with comorbidities, and women typically report coexisting conditions more than men. Women, for example, often gamble as an escape from stress, which mental and physical health issues can agitate. 

At Kindbridge, Wright has seen this play out. 

In 2024, women made up 23.66% of all Kindbridge clients. Of those women, half met the criteria for depression and suicidality. Additionally, women reported varying rates of obsessive-compulsive behavior, insomnia, and post-traumatic stress alongside their gambling disorder. 

What she doesn’t see are women with young families. Typically, Wright works with women in their 20s or those in their 50s, 60s, and 70s and up. 

“I really have not seen anyone with toddlers come through,” Wright commented. I have not had anyone with young children come through, only people who’ve had children out of the house.”

This invisibility could mean women with children are less likely to gamble or develop a problem; it’s also possible that women raising kids are too busy to ask for outside help, even if they have a problem.

Recovery is a Lifelong Commitment

“You can fight gambling addiction,” Wright said when asked what message she wants women to understand.

There is help, you can beat this.”

Wright says Kindbridge receives inquiries from all over the world, and the goal is not to leave anyone without resources. 

Sometimes that means taking them on as clients; sometimes that means referring people elsewhere. Wright and a Kindbridge colleague even created a 16-episode podcast called Breaking Up with Addiction for those without access to other supports. Each episode tackles topics that come up in assisted recovery, such as prevention plans, support systems, and co-occurring disorders.

Gambling recovery is not a phase; it’s a lifelong project, Wright added.

“It’s not going to be something you ever say I’m over this about and move on, this is the rest of your life…  But there is support. If you reach for it, it reaches back.”