Anyone viewing gambling as harmless bit of fun should talk to Gina who has helped bail out her mother from more than $10,000 in debts incurred in the gaming rooms of Hamilton.

It took Gina's mother just a year's gambling to get that far into the red - an incredible figure considering her mother's mortgage is paid off and she has around $3,000 spending money to get through every month.

But with her own family and home to worry about Gina (not her real name) has vowed not to help her again while her siblings have also agreed that picking up mum's gambling tab was a one-off event.

She says: “She knows she can't come to us again. We all have our own lives. Yet she's still doing it.

“She asks us to drop her off on Front Street because she ‘wants to see her girlfriends'.

“But we all know where she's going. It's stupid. It's always at the end of the month. It's always pay day.”

Gina is no stranger to gambling herself, enjoying family vacations to Vegas. But while she views the annual trip as entertainment she fears an expansion of gaming in Bermuda could snare many more than her mother if there are no controls.

Her mother's problem began with gaming rooms allowing her to run a tab says Gina.

She believes her widowed mother is depressed, with no one to share her life with. But efforts to hook her up with the Employees Assistance Programme have failed.

“She never went, she always finds some excuse.

“I am not worried about it now. If she gets into a hole, she gets into a hole.

“But I worry if they open up casinos then she might get caught up again.

“If she can run a tab we will be stuck with her bills. I would like there to be someway to control who goes in. If you want to gamble you should pay as you go.”

For EAP Executive Director Martha Pitman the problem of gambling addiction is largely a hidden one.

While the organisation, which covers 16,000 employees in Bermuda, is keen to help it gets just a handful of cases. She believes that is the tip of the iceberg.

Unlike alcoholics or drug addicts there are no physical symptoms - you can't smell cards or dice on a gambler's breath.

And the consequences only kick in when it is far too late.

She says: “We have people who have lost their jobs and houses.

“It's a hidden problem, there's a lot of shame with it when people realise they have spent their rent money or their mortgage money.”

Gamblers also don't get the physical lows of those addicted to drink and drugs. However, the euphoria of winning has a definite kick which some say is the ultimate trip.

“The chemical changes are a bit like drugs. There's a definite high. People say there is no high quite like it.”

However, experts say depression is linked to the urge to gamble and when that problem is checked their gambling compulsion is diminished.

Group therapy through support groups is also a way forward.

EAP help with counselling but Mrs Pitman says there is no specific treatment her for gambling although a number of professionals on the island are becoming interested in the problem.

“But we don't see many here because people don't think ‘I have a gambling problem, I will go to EAP'.” says Mrs. Pitman.

“We see about four to five a year but I don't think that's indicative of the problem - I think it is much bigger.”

You can contact the Employment Assistance Programme of Bermuda on 292 9000.