‘I’m on the verge of divorcing my husband’: Las Vegas woman says husband gambled away $100,000 HELOC and added $20,000 in credit card debt. Dave Ramsey responds.

“I'm on the verge of wanting to divorce my husband,” she admitted. The rise in gambling addictions coupled with financial infidelity is ruining family finances across America. Here’s how to identify the financial infidelity and work towards alleviating the stress of hidden debt.

Financial infidelity

Jill said her husband kept her in the dark about the family’s finances for at least two years. It took him just five months to blow through the $100,000 HELOC he convinced her to sign up for in December. After that, he proceeded to take cash advances from multiple credit cards to fund his addiction to slot machines.

Keeping secrets about money or debt from loved ones is what experts call “financial infidelity”. In a recent survey by Bankrate, 42% of Americans admitted to it. Of those who responded, 30% said they made purchases their spouse or partner wouldn’t approve of, while 23% had secret debt.

This pattern of behavior could have a lasting impact on relationships. Jill said the interest rates on all the credit card debt range from 23% to 29% while the HELOC is set at 9%. This means their monthly housing costs have now shot up from $1,000 to $3,200. This precarious situation has made her consider leaving her husband and raising their three-year-old child alone.

“He conned me into getting the HELOC so that he could have access to cash and he burned through it really quickly,” she admitted.

Ramsey confirmed her suspicion that this is grounds for divorce. He said he believes her husband must take drastic steps to salvage the marriage at this stage, including professional help to tackle his gambling addiction.

Gambling addiction

Roughly 1% of America’s adult population is impacted by gambling disorder — a compulsive need to gamble despite the consequences, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. Another 5 to 8 million (2-3%) adults have mild or moderate gambling problems. The council estimated that the total social cost of this mental health crisis is $14 billion annually.