Gambling Recovery: Taking Back Your Life

Craig Dempsey joins the podcast from the United Kingdom to share his lived experience with gambling addiction, recovery, and rebuilding his life.

Craig is the founder and host of The Calm & Steady Show, where he uses his experience to raise awareness around gambling harm and mental health.

In this conversation, Craig opens up about addiction, family, fatherhood, and the people affected beyond the gambler.

An emotional and vulnerable conversation about gambling, recovery, and what matters most when rebuilding your life.

Today, we’re taking the conversation to  Uganda, Africa where I’m joined by Pierre Ntango, 
Pierre shares his personal experience with gambling addiction in a place where awareness, treatment, and recovery support are extremely limited. His story highlights the isolation many gamblers face when they don’t even have the language or resources to ask for help.
This is a powerful conversation about gambling harm, shame, and why people everywhere need to know that recovery is possible.

Today I’m joined by Alex Effron, founder of Collectors MD. Alex has lived through the devastating effects of gambling addiction, compulsive collecting, and overspending, and has turned that experience into a mission to help others. Through Collectors MD, he’s bringing awareness to the hidden similarities between gambling and today’s collectibles industry while giving hope and support to those who are struggling. 
 
 

In this episode, Adnan Alisic shares the choices, consequences, and turning points that shaped his life. We talk about how gambling addiction slowly changed the way he thought, the warning signs he missed, and how it ultimately led him to commit one of the most infamous casino bank robberies in Arizona history. We also discuss the impact it had on his family, what life was really like spending more than 15 years in federal prison, and what recovery looks like today.
This conversation goes far beyond the headlines. It’s an honest discussion about shame, denial, accountability, second chances, and finding purpose after hitting rock bottom.
If you’ve ever wondered how gambling addiction can completely change a person’s life,or if you’re searching for hope that recovery is possible, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

This week, I’m joined by Daniel Bullen, host of The Addicted Recovery Show, a podcast reaching people across the globe with honest conversations about gambling addiction, recovery, relapse, and rebuilding life after gambling.
Daniel’s story is one of strength and perseverance. Along with overcoming gambling addiction, he survived a devastating car accident that could have easily claimed his life. Those experiences have fueled his passion for helping others and sharing the message that recovery is possible.
Daniel and I have had the opportunity to appear on each other’s podcasts, and I’m grateful to continue that conversation here. In this episode, we discuss recovery, purpose, resilience, and why sharing our stories can inspire hope in someone who may still be struggling.
Daniel is genuine, thoughtful, and clearly committed to making a difference in the gambling recovery community.

What happens when a man spends years chasing the next high, the next bet, the next escape, only to realize he’s really been running from himself?
Today’s guest, Tom Jenkins, knows that story all too well. His journey has taken him from gambling and alcohol addiction to a relentless search for meaning, purpose, and recovery. Originally from the UK and now living in Colombia, Tom has spent years asking the hard questions: What drives addiction? Why do we keep self-destructing? And what does true recovery actually look like?
 
He’s also the author of a book that explores many of these themes, which we’ll dive into later in the episode.
Let’s get started.

Today’s guest is someone who has become one of the leading voices in gambling addiction awareness and prevention, especially when it comes to young adults and sports betting culture.
Saul Malek grew up in Houston, Texas, in a loving family. What started as a fun way to connect with friends eventually evolved into sports betting after being introduced to a local bookmaker during college.
And like so many stories we hear in this space, the escalation happened fast.
In less than two years, Saul lost sleep, money, relationships, peace of mind, and nearly his life. But today, more than five years removed from gambling, he’s turned his pain into purpose ,using his lived experience to educate others and expose the realities of modern gambling addiction.
You may have seen him featured on Dr. Phil, PBS, or USA Today, but beyond the headlines, Saul is someone making a real impact through honesty, advocacy, and education.
I’m honored to welcome Saul Malek to Gambling Recovery: Taking Back Your Life.

For a long time, gambling felt harmless to Mickie.
It was exciting. Social. Fun. A way to escape reality for a little while. It started with casinos, scratch off tickets, laughter with friends, and moments that felt alive. But over time, the excitement slowly turned into secrecy, obsession, isolation, and emotional exhaustion.
In this deeply vulnerable episode, Mickie shares how gambling gradually took control of her life, from hiding losses and lying to loved ones, to sitting alone in her car surrounded by scratch off tickets realizing she no longer recognized herself.
But this conversation is about far more than gambling. It’s about grief, trauma, family addiction, shame, survival, and ultimately… recovery.
Mickie opens up about growing up around alcoholism and addiction, losing family members, caring for a husband with MS, and the emotional weight she carried for years before gambling became her escape. She also shares the moment she finally asked for help and walked into her first Gamblers Anonymous meeting terrified, broken, and unsure if she belonged.What followed became the beginning of rebuilding her life one day at a time.This episode is raw, honest, emotional, and incredibly important. Whether you struggle with gambling yourself or love someone who does, Mickie’s story is a reminder that addiction can happen to anyone , and that recovery is possible.

Some addictions are easy for the world to recognize. Others hide behind success, routines, and a smile.
From the outside, Mary D. looked like she had built a beautiful life, a thriving career, a family, stability, and everything many people spend years chasing. But behind closed doors, she was fighting a private war with gambling addiction that nearly took everything from her.
Mary’s story did not begin in a casino. It began in childhood, growing up with an alcoholic father and leaving home at just nine years old. Like so many people, the pain started long before the addiction ever showed itself. Gambling would later become an escape, a place to numb, avoid, and survive wounds that had never fully healed.
For years, Mary lived a double life. By day, she was a respected executive leading teams and meeting deadlines. By night, she was trapped in the grip of slot machines, secrecy, emotional exhaustion, and despair. Her addiction strained her marriage, impacted her relationship with her daughter, and pushed her to a place where hope felt far away.
But this is not just a story about addiction.
It is a story about survival. About the moment pain became greater than denial. About walking into a Gamblers Anonymous meeting on July 1, 2011, and beginning a new life one day at a time.
This is an honest conversation about trauma, resilience, healing, and what it means to truly come back to life.
Please welcome Mary D.

Some people are remembered for what they had. Others are remembered for what they achieved. My mom is remembered for how she made people feel, loved, welcomed, laughed with, and never forgotten.
In this episode, I share the story of Carmella, a woman raised in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood who became the kind of person people never forgot. She was strong, funny, stubborn, deeply caring, and the person who showed up when others needed her most. She carried loss, hardship, and pain with a strength that shaped everyone around her.

I also speak openly about our relationship, the strain my gambling addiction caused, and the healing we were able to find before she passed. Some of the most meaningful moments of my life came in those final years.

This episode is not about perfection. It’s about impact. It’s about the kind of woman who made people feel seen, made them laugh when they needed it most, and loved in a way that stayed with you. Her life reminded me that the greatest legacy we can leave is how we treat people while we’re here. It’s about showing up. 
This is for my mom.