Living with a spouse who has a gambling addiction can be an emotional roller coaster. When someone decides that he or she can no longer live with a spouse’s addiction or refusal to get help, the idea of divorce is frequently just as overwhelming as staying in the marriage. It is not uncommon for gambling addicts in Alabama to rack up significant debts, some of which their spouses might be on the hook for.
What are the signs of gambling addiction?
There might be some misconceptions about what gambling addiction actually looks like. Many addicts do not gamble every day, and some even still have money left over to lose big on a regular basis. Instead, gambling addiction might manifest in some of the following ways:
- An inability to scale down gambling
- Routinely placing increasingly larger bets
- Lying to hide the extent of one’s gambling behavior
How to prepare for divorce
When divorcing a spouse with a gambling addiction, it is important to pay extra careful attention to finances. One of the first steps is to gather up all relevant financial documents. Having this information readily on hand will be invaluable when it comes to dividing assets, and to proving a spouse’s wasteful approach to marital money. Some of the more important documents to have on hand include:
- Bank statements
- Retirement and investment accounts
- Credit card balances
- Mortgage statements
- Property deeds
- Pay stubs
- Tax returns
- Insurance policies
When possible, it is best to acquire copies of these documents that go back for as long as a spouse has suffered from gambling addiction. However, there are certain situations in which people struggle to get copies of these documents. This does not mean that divorce is impossible, though. Those who choose to work with attorneys who are knowledgeable in Alabama family law often find that the guidance through the divorce process is an invaluable asset.
