Gambling Addiction Counseling in Dallas, TX
Confidential help for gambling addiction from an International Certified Gambling Counselor. In person in Dallas or by Telehealth across Texas.
Gambling Addiction
Gambling addiction is one of the easiest addictions to hide and one of the hardest to carry. There's no smell on your breath and nothing to find in a drawer. Just accounts no one sees, losses you're chasing, and a gap growing between what people think is happening and what is.
If you're looking for treatment for gambling addiction, or you've typed "how to stop gambling" more than once, you're in the right place. I'm one of the few counselors in Texas with a certification in treating exactly this.
There is hope, and it doesn't depend on winning it all back first.
A three-question check
These are the questions I use in practice, from the Brief Biosocial Gambling Screen. During the past 12 months:
Have you become restless, irritable, or anxious when trying to stop or cut down on gambling?
Have you tried to keep your family or friends from knowing how much you gambled?
Did you have such financial trouble as a result of your gambling that you had to get help with living expenses from family, friends, or welfare?
If you answered yes to any one of these, an assessment is merited. That's not me being cautious. That's what the screening research says.
Gambling looks different now
A generation ago, gambling meant going somewhere. Now the casino and the sportsbook live on your phone, open 24 hours a day, engineered to keep you in.
Clinically, gambling sits on a continuum: recreational, at-risk, problem gambling, and gambling disorder, which is recognized in the DSM-5-TR with mild, moderate, and severe levels. The point was never how much you bet. It's what the gambling is costing you: money, yes, but also sleep, honesty, and peace.
Wherever you are on that continuum, it's treatable.
How counseling helps
I'm Stephen Kleine, an International Certified Gambling Counselor (ICGC Level 1, #1514) and Licensed Professional Counselor in Dallas. Very few counselors hold gambling-specific certification. Most have never been trained to treat it at all.
Working together looks like this:
Screening and assessment. I use recognized tools, including the Problem Gambling Severity Index, the Gambling Pathways Questionnaire, and the Inventory of Gambling Situations to understand your gambling, your triggers, and the pathway that led here.
A personalized plan. Chasing losses, escape or action gambling, and co-occurring mental health issues are some of the many different problems at hand and need different treatment. Yours gets built around your pattern, not a generic template.
The cause, not just the behavior. Some form of trauma typically underlies addiction, and gambling is often relief-seeking in disguise. As a trauma-trained counselor, I work on what the gambling has been doing for you, so it can stop doing it to you.
This is outpatient counseling: weekly one-to-one sessions, fully confidential.
Specialist credentials
International Certified Gambling Counselor, ICGC Level 1, #1514
Licensed Professional Counselor, LPC #91354
Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor, #16476
Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (Level 2), EMDR trained, ART trained
LegitScript certified practice
When it's your husband, your wife, or your son
Families usually find out late, because hiding it is part of the condition. By the time you're searching "my son has a gambling problem, what can I do", there's often real money gone and real trust broken.
You can't stop someone gambling. But you can get guidance on protecting your household, responding without driving the secrecy deeper, and looking after yourself in the middle of it. I work with partners and parents, with or without the person gambling.
About Stephen
I'm a Dallas-based counselor specializing in addiction and the trauma that often sits underneath it. Clients describe me as an intense listener with a gentle approach. Whatever the numbers involved, you won't hear judgment from me.
Common questions
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Completely. I'm bound by confidentiality law and HIPAA. For a condition built on secrecy, this matters: counseling is the one place you can put the whole truth down
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No. The continuum matters more than the sum. If gambling is causing you distress, that's reason enough.
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Yes. In person at my Dallas office or by secure telehealth anywhere in Texas.
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Sessions are private pay, which also means nothing about your treatment goes through an insurance company. Current fees are $300 per 50-minute session. A superbill can be provided upon request.
There is hope.
The next bet won't fix it. One honest conversation might start to.
Let's create change together.