Which is what you ned to do now. Stop fighting. Tell him that there will be NO gambling, or you will leave him. And the next time it happens — leave him.

Gambling is a serious problem. Like smoking, drugs, and porno, it IS addictive. But if you two ever got married, then his addiction takes away the family income.

First, you don’t have enough money for food or gasoline. Next, they are repossessing your car. Finally, your house is up for foreclosure, or your being evicted from your apartment. And all the time HE is saying, “just one more time, Honey. This time I’ll hit it B-I-G!” But it neve happens.

But your boyfriend canNOT force this on you — you have to accept his problem and excuses. When YOU stop accepting it, either he will stop or he will be gone.

So you need to “grow a pair” and tell him exactly what is going to happen the next time you find him gambling, and then you need to “make it stick”. A Zero Tolerance policy — NO more gambling.

You should also look up Gamblers Anonymous, either on-line or in the phone book. If your state has a lottery system, they may also have gambling addiction information that may prove helpful.

If you want to help him, either put together an intervention via his friends, relatives, and a good counselor or drop him and tell him it is because he has a gambling problem.

Usually addicts have to hit some sort of ‘bottom’ before they surrender and get help, and losing you might do it for him. Or not.

Anyway, if you stay around, anyone who lives with or loves an addict also is subject to another disease called co-dependency.

So set up an intervention and see how that works. Or drop him for your health and, we hope, for his as well.