What to Do If Your Child Has Gambling Debts: 5 Steps to Take This Week

Discovering your child has run up gambling debts is frightening, but you are not alone and there are practical steps you can take today. Children under 18 cannot legally gamble in the UK, which means any debts they have accumulated through gambling sites are not enforceable against them. Transformation Trust brings together the immediate actions parents can take, the support available and how to prevent further harm.

Legal position on debts from underage gambling

A contract made by someone under 18 is not legally binding in the UK, and gambling is no exception. If your child has lost money through a gambling site, those losses do not create a debt that can be enforced against them or against you as a parent. The law treats the transaction as void.

In practice, this means a gambling site cannot pursue your child for money owed, and debt collectors have no legal ground to contact your family about gambling losses incurred by a minor. If your child used a credit card, a parent's debit card or a payment method in someone else's name, the position becomes more complex: the cardholder may dispute the transactions with their bank, particularly where a site accepted bets from someone underage without proper age verification.

Worth remembering: gambling operators licensed in Great Britain are required by law to verify a customer's age before allowing them to gamble. A site that accepted bets from your child without carrying out these checks has breached its licence conditions.

Immediate actions to protect accounts and devices

Your first concern is to stop further losses. Go through the steps below as soon as you can, ideally with your child present so they understand what is happening and why.

1. Secure all payment methods. Change passwords and PINs on any bank account, card or digital wallet your child had access to. Contact your bank to explain what has happened and ask them to block transactions to gambling sites.
2. Remove stored payment details from devices. Check phones, tablets and computers for saved card details in browsers, app stores and payment platforms. Delete them all.
3. Install blocking software. Use a tool such as Gamban or BetBlocker to prevent access to gambling sites across all devices your child uses, including those they may use outside the home.
4. Check bank and card statements for the past few months. Gambling transactions are not always obvious; look for unfamiliar company names, overseas merchants and small repeated payments that may have been tests before larger bets.
5. Secure email and phone access. Gambling sites send marketing emails and text messages. Change your child's email password and consider setting up parental controls on their phone to filter messages from gambling operators.

These steps create a barrier between your child and further gambling, giving you both space to address what has happened. You can read more about technical protections in our guide on blocking gambling sites on your child's phone.

Disputing transactions with your bank or card provider

If your child used your card, or a card in your name, you have the right to dispute those transactions with your bank. Contact them as soon as possible and explain that the transactions were made by a minor without your permission.

Banks handle these cases differently. Some will refund the money immediately while they investigate; others will ask you to provide evidence that your child is underage and that the gambling site did not verify their age. Keep records of all communication with your bank, including reference numbers and the names of staff you speak to.

Where your child used their own money, or money from a part-time job, through an account in their own name, the situation is clearer: the gambling site should not have accepted the bets in the first place. You can complain directly to the site, asking for a refund of all money lost, and if they refuse, you can escalate the complaint to the site's licensing authority or an independent dispute resolution service.

Keeping a record of what happened

Write down everything you know about the gambling: which sites your child used, when the activity started, how much money was involved and how your child accessed those sites. This record will be useful if you need to make a formal complaint, and it gives you a clearer picture of the scale of the problem.

How to talk about what has happened

Your child is likely feeling ashamed, frightened and perhaps angry. The conversation you have now will shape whether they feel able to ask for help in future, so approach it as calmly as you can.

Start by listening. Ask your child to explain how they got access to gambling sites, what they were playing and what they thought would happen. Do not interrupt or lecture; let them finish. Then acknowledge how they are feeling: shame and fear are normal responses to losing money, and young people often believe the problem is bigger than it really is.

Explain the legal position clearly: they cannot be pursued for this debt, and you are taking steps to make sure it does not happen again. Avoid language that sounds like you are minimising the harm or dismissing their distress. Even though the debt is not enforceable, the emotional impact is real, and your child needs to know you take that seriously.

If you are finding it hard to stay calm, it is better to pause the conversation and return to it later than to say something in anger that closes down future communication. Our article on how to talk to your child about online gambling offers more strategies for these conversations.

Warning signs to watch for going forward

Stopping the immediate gambling does not always mean the urge to gamble has gone. Watch for changes in your child's behaviour over the coming weeks and months.

None of these signs on their own proves your child is gambling again, but together they suggest something is wrong and worth a conversation. You can find a fuller list in our guide to signs your child may be gambling online.

Getting support for your child and your family

You do not have to manage this alone. Free, confidential support is available for young people affected by gambling and for the families around them.

GamCare offers counselling and support for young people through its website at https://www.gamcare.org.uk. The National Gambling Helpline is available every day on 0808 8020 133; calls are free and confidential, and advisers can talk to parents as well as young people.

Gordon Moody provides residential and online treatment for people seriously affected by gambling harm, including young adults, and can be reached at https://www.gordonmoody.org.uk. BeGambleAware, at https://www.begambleaware.org, has information and tools for families dealing with gambling harm.

If your child is struggling with anxiety, low mood or thoughts of self-harm connected to the gambling or the debts, contact your GP or a young people's mental health service such as Kooth or Childline. Gambling harm often sits alongside other difficulties, and addressing those together gives your child the best chance of recovery.

All gambling services and sites in the UK are for people aged 18 and over.

Preventing access in future

Blocking software and account controls reduce the chance of your child gambling again, but they are not foolproof. Talk to your child about why the blocks are there, and agree together on rules around money, devices and what happens if they feel the urge to gamble again.

Set up transaction alerts on any account your child uses so you can see when money is being spent and where. If your child has their own debit card, consider switching to a card designed for under-18s that lets you set spending limits and block certain merchant categories.

Keep the conversation going. Ask your child from time to time how they are feeling about gambling, whether they have seen any advertising that made them think about it and whether any of their friends are gambling. The more normal these conversations feel, the more likely your child is to tell you if they are struggling again.

#Underage gambling #Parental controls #Blocking software

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