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Online Gambling Now ‘An Increasingly Important Factor’ in Many US Divorces, Lawyer Warns

By jili tutorial · August 31, 2026

Online Gambling Now ‘An Increasingly Important Factor’ in Many US Divorces, Lawyer Warns

Civil courts across Indonesia report that a surge in online gambling is driving a catastrophic rise in divorce rates. However, the problem isn’t limited to Southeast Asia. A prominent American family lawyer says the same pattern is emerging in the United States.

Rise in Online Gambling Linked to Divorce Cases

“I think we are seeing the same phenomenon in the United States,” said Atty Bruggemann, a matrimonial and family law attorney and partner at the New York-based firm Gallet Dreyer & Berkey, in an interview with CasinoBeats. “While I would not claim that online gambling is responsible for a measurable percentage of American divorces, I absolutely believe it is becoming an increasingly important factor contributing to divorce.”

Although nationwide data does not yet prove a direct causal link between the growth of online betting and rising divorce rates, Bruggemann emphasized that digital platforms make wagering “dramatically more accessible.” Her warning comes just days after former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams compared sports betting to a “new opioid crisis.”

Breakdown in Trust Often Fuels Divorce

In May, the National Council on Problem Gambling reported that nearly one-third of its helpline callers in 2025 complained of issues tied to online and app-based gambling—a sharp 23% increase from 2024. Almost three-quarters of those callers said they were facing financial difficulties.

“From a matrimonial lawyer’s perspective, accessibility is enormously significant,” Bruggemann explained. “I am less concerned with whether someone placed one bad bet than with the pattern: secret accounts, repeated withdrawals, credit-card debt, loans from family members, unexplained transfers, and money that was supposed to pay the mortgage, taxes, tuition, or household expenses disappearing into a betting platform.”

Earlier this year, the medical journal BMC Psychology published a systematic review of 30 studies on gambling disorders. The authors concluded that gambling addiction severely strains romantic partnerships, fosters distrust, and negatively affects overall family stability.

“The research supports the broader connection between gambling disorder and marital instability,” Bruggemann said.

While Indonesian courts cite online gambling as a direct cause of divorce because it “destroys family finances,” Bruggemann noted that U.S. cases often involve more complex dynamics. “In my experience, the gambling itself is often only part of the problem,” she said. “What destroys the relationship is the combination of gambling and secrecy, which leads to changes in the relationship and financial decline.”

She added that some spouses may initially tolerate recreational betting, but the breaking point comes when they discover that family savings are gone, credit cards are maxed out, retirement funds have been borrowed against, taxes have gone unpaid, or the mortgage is suddenly in arrears—and learn that the other spouse has concealed the problem for months or years.

Online gambling presents a host of novel legal challenges, and many experts say the current U.S. legal system is not designed to handle them all.

“Gambling transactions can be fragmented across sportsbooks, casino applications, credit cards, bank accounts, digital wallets, and peer-to-peer payment platforms,” Bruggemann said. “A spouse may know that money is missing without knowing exactly where it went. That makes forensic discovery extremely important.”

Because online gambling resources are so easily accessible, lawyers often face a race against time—especially when it comes to preserving marital estates. “If one spouse continues gambling after learning that a divorce is imminent, the other spouse and counsel may need to move quickly to protect assets and obtain financial information,” she added.

However, Bruggemann stressed that the U.S. legal system lags behind gambling-related technology, particularly in terms of speed and transparency.

“The law was largely developed around a world in which financial misconduct might involve a checkbook, a brokerage account, or a bank account,” she said. “Now there may be dozens of betting transactions that appear on a bank statement under unfamiliar merchant names. Funds can move between traditional financial institutions and digital payment services almost instantaneously.”

To address these challenges, Bruggemann called for legal reform to bridge the transparency gap. “I would like to see greater transparency from online gambling operators in response to lawful matrimonial discovery,” she said. “If a spouse is claiming that tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars were lost, lawyers should be able to obtain a reliable transaction history without having to engage in unnecessarily complicated discovery battles.”

She also noted that U.S. law lacks uniform standards for financial disclosures concerning gambling accounts and gambling-related debts. The problem, she said, is increasingly interstate and digital, yet family law remains “overwhelmingly state-based.”

Bruggemann argued that judges and matrimonial lawyers need more education about gambling disorders, as well as a stronger grasp of digital gambling technology and digital currencies.

“Online gambling has changed the speed and scale of the problem,” she concluded. “Matrimonial law now has to catch up.”