‘I never thought he would steal from me’: Australia’s youth gambling crisis is taking a toll on families

Parents struggle to offset the positive messages children receive about gambling. Photograph: Nadir Kinani/The Guardian

Wendy* could tell something was wrong by the look on her son’s girlfriend’s face when she came down to the kitchen on Easter morning. “He’d been out with his mates, had a few drinks, got her phone, got into her savings account, and gambled $2,800 into two bets,” she says.

Her son’s girlfriend burst into tears. “She said, ‘I never … thought he would steal from me.’”