Home / Behavioural addictions / Gambling addiction
Gambling disorder
Gambling addiction treatment in Spain
A licensed 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, run by an English-speaking team, for gambling that has stopped being a choice, whether it happens in a shop or entirely on a phone.
A private room as standard, a price published in full, and no referral fees paid to anyone for sending you here.
Checked for accuracy on 28 July 2026. Next review due July 2027. This page is general information about our programme and is not a substitute for advice about your own situation.
Gambling addiction is treated at Sierra Recovery as a 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, published in full at £9,900. There is no substance to withdraw from, so the psychological work begins on the first day rather than after a detox, and the money is treated as a clinical issue rather than an administrative one: blocking access, self-exclusion, temporary handover of financial control and independent debt advice are part of the plan. Gambling disorder carries a raised suicide risk, so depression is assessed properly rather than assumed. Below is what the programme involves, what to do today before it starts, and when it is time to make the call.
Programme
28 days residential
Published price
£9,900
Group work
3 sessions a day
Room
Private, as standard
Language
English throughout
Registration
N.I.C.A. 67331
What gambling disorder actually is
Gambling disorder is the only behavioural addiction currently classified alongside substance use disorders in DSM-5, and gaming disorder was added to ICD-11 in 2019. That reclassification was not a formality. It reflected evidence that gambling acts on the same reward circuitry as drugs, produces tolerance in the form of needing larger stakes, produces withdrawal in the form of irritability and restlessness when stopped, and drives the same loss of control despite escalating harm.
What makes it different is that there is nothing to detox from and nothing to test for, so it hides better and longer than any substance. There is no smell, no comedown anyone can see, and no physical sign until the money runs out. Families routinely find out at the point of financial collapse rather than at any earlier stage, and by then the debt is itself a driver: the only apparently available way out of a hole made by gambling is to gamble.
Online gambling has removed every remaining source of friction. There is no closing time, no journey, no cash to hand over, and no other person watching. That is why presentations have shifted so heavily towards people who have never set foot in a betting shop.
Gambling disorder is associated with a substantially raised risk of suicide, and the danger peaks around financial crisis and disclosure. If you are having these thoughts, in the UK call Samaritans on 116 123, free, any time, or text SHOUT to 85258. The National Gambling Helpline is 0808 8020 133, free and open 24 hours. If you are in immediate danger call 999 or 112.
The signs, and why they are missed for so long
| What you might notice | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Needing larger stakes for the same feeling | Tolerance. It is the same mechanism as with a drug and it is the earliest reliable marker. |
| Chasing losses, and believing the next one corrects it | The defining cognitive feature. It is what turns a bad night into a catastrophe. |
| Restless or irritable when you try to stop | Withdrawal. It is well documented in gambling disorder and it surprises people who expected it to be purely psychological. |
| Gambling to escape stress, low mood or boredom | The function has shifted from winning to regulating. This is the point at which it becomes an addiction rather than a habit. |
| Lying about time and money spent | Almost universal, and the reason families discover it so late. |
| Borrowing, selling, or moving money between accounts | Financial harm that has become structural. It also creates the debt that then drives further gambling. |
| Betting through the night, or at work | The removal of all natural friction by online platforms. Time and place no longer limit anything. |
If several of those land, our short self-check takes under a minute and stores nothing.
Where the treatment actually happens
People ask for photographs before they ask about therapy, and they are right to. You are deciding whether you could live somewhere for a month. This is the place, not a stock library.
See the full gallery · how people get here.
What makes gambling different to treat
Two things, and the programme is built around both.
First, there is no substance to remove, so the whole of the work is psychological from day one. There is no detox period during which the physical picture clears, which means the emotional and cognitive work starts immediately rather than in week two. In practice that makes a residential month unusually productive for gambling, because nobody spends the first week too physically unwell to engage.
Second, the money is a clinical issue rather than an administrative one. Debt maintains gambling directly, so treatment that ignores it is treating half the problem. Practical work on blocking access, handing over financial control temporarily, self-exclusion through GAMSTOP and the operators, and getting proper debt advice is part of the plan, not something to sort out afterwards. Free, independent debt advice is available in the UK from Citizens Advice and StepChange, and neither charges for it.
What we are, and what we are not
Sierra Recovery is entered in the Registro Andaluz de Centros, Servicios y Establecimientos Sanitarios (the Andalusian register of health centres, services and establishments) under N.I.C.A. 67331, authorised by the Junta de Andalucía for the care unit atención sanitaria a drogodependientes (healthcare for drug dependency, authorised care unit U.71). That is a registered health centre with a supervised treatment residence. It is not a psychiatric hospital. Where alcohol or drugs are also involved and you are physically dependent, a medically supervised withdrawal is completed in an appropriate medical setting before you arrive, billed separately. You can check our registration yourself on the Junta's public register.
Not sure whether residential treatment is proportionate?
The assessment answers that honestly before you commit to anything, and it happens before you travel. A clinician will tell you plainly if something closer to home would serve you better.
What a day here looks like
Nobody arrives knowing how twenty eight days are actually spent. This is the real timetable, Monday to Friday.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 08:00 | Breakfast, cooked by a Michelin-trained chef |
| 09:15 | Planning: the day is set out together |
| 10:30 | Process group, the harder one |
| 12:00 | Therapeutic group |
| 13:15 | Lunch |
| 14:30 | Psychoeducation, working through the curriculum |
| 16:00 | Group activity, often outdoors or with the horses |
| 18:30 | Dinner |
| 20:00 | Day closing, together |
Saturdays turn to holistic and body-based work. Sundays are a supervised excursion, because reconnecting with the world outside a clinic is part of the treatment rather than a break from it.
What the treatment actually involves
The programme runs Monday to Friday on a fixed structure, with Saturdays given to holistic and body-based work and Sundays to a supervised excursion. Rather than list therapy names, here is what each part of the week is for.
Three group sessions a day, five days a week
The day opens with a process group at 10:30, a second therapeutic group runs at midday, and a psychoeducation session follows lunch. A group activity fills the late afternoon and the day closes together in the evening. That is roughly fifteen structured group contacts a week, which is the part most people underestimate before they arrive and value most afterwards.
Groups are small, in English, and run by the clinical team. Hearing someone else describe your own thinking back to you does something that individual work cannot, and it is the fastest route out of the isolation that gambling builds.
A seventeen-module curriculum, not a rest cure
The psychoeducation strand moves through a fixed seventeen-module curriculum written by our clinical director. It is the core of what we call the Regulation Model, which is our adaptation of the PROMIS Clinics methodology to this centre rather than a model of our own invention. It covers skills training, communication styles, boundaries and decision-making, trigger recognition, self-esteem and self-concept, dual diagnosis, self-care and habits, emotions, crisis identification and management, suicide prevention, goals, grief, values, trauma and relapse, perfectionism, loneliness and isolation, and cross-addiction. Every module runs the same structure: check-in, theory, an experiential dynamic, shared reflection, and a commitment carried into the week.
The cognitive work uses the ABC model, the same structure that underpins cognitive behavioural approaches: the event, the belief you attach to it, and the consequence that follows. It is taught, practised, applied between sessions and reviewed, rather than talked about once.
Individual therapy alongside the group programme
One-to-one sessions run three times a week and are where the material that will not surface in a group gets worked. For most people that is the thing underneath the use rather than the use itself.
You are treated by the same small team throughout, in the same house. Nobody is handed between departments, and there is no rotation of therapists mid-stay.
Yoga, meditation and body-based work
Saturdays turn to holistic and body-based practice: yoga, meditation and mindfulness, breathwork, art, and time outdoors on the land. This is not decoration and it is not a spa timetable. Early recovery is a physiological event as much as a psychological one, and sleep, appetite and the ability to sit still are usually the first things to return.
The self-care and habits module runs alongside it, treating rest as a right rather than a reward and food as connection rather than control.
Equine therapy on working farmland
The horses live here, on the forty hectares around the house, and equine work is part of the working week. Horses respond to what you are actually feeling rather than what you say you are feeling, which is why the work reaches people who have learned to talk their way around a therapy session.
What happens when you go home
Aftercare is planned before you leave rather than mentioned on the last day. For clients returning to the UK, care continues online or in person at the PROMIS clinics in London, with a weekly session for a full year, more than 48 in the twelve months after discharge, and a written handover to your GP so nothing has to be explained from scratch. For clients elsewhere in Europe we arrange continuity online and help find local services.
Alongside that, mutual-aid groups are free, run everywhere, and are worth using whatever else you choose.
Who will actually treat your gambling addiction
A small team, in one house, in English. You are not handed between departments and there is no rotation of therapists halfway through your stay.
Nerea Encinas Sánchez
Director · General Health Psychologist
MSc General Health Psychology. Leads clinical standards, the assessment you have before you travel, and admissions.
Berenice Paramés Jones
General Health Psychologist
Individual and group psychological work inside the house, crisis follow-up and coordination of the group programme.
Marta Leal
Social worker
Family mediation, links to services back home, and preparing for independent life after discharge.
Robin Lefever
Founder of Sierra Recovery; MD, PROMIS Clinics UK
Founder of Sierra Recovery and Managing Director of PROMIS Clinics, whose method this programme adapts. PROMIS has been treating addiction in the United Kingdom since the mid-1980s, and Robin has worked in addiction treatment for around 35 years, with thousands of patients treated with the PROMIS method in the United Kingdom.
Meet the whole clinical team and their qualifications.
What is treated, and what that looks like day to day
| What you arrive with | How it is worked |
|---|---|
| Chasing losses | Directly, with ABC work on the beliefs that make the next bet feel like a solution. This is the single most important cognitive target in gambling disorder. |
| Cravings and urges | The trigger-recognition module maps your own cues: the app, the payday, the argument, the empty evening, and builds a personal safety plan practised in group. |
| Debt | Treated as clinical rather than administrative. Blocking, self-exclusion, temporary handover of financial control and independent debt advice are built into the plan. |
| Shame and secrecy | The self-esteem, loneliness and communication modules. Gambling is the addiction people conceal longest, and disclosure is worked with support rather than left to chance. |
| Depression and suicidal thinking | Assessed carefully, given the elevated risk. The suicide prevention and crisis management modules and a written safety plan. See depression. |
| Alcohol or cocaine alongside | Common, and treated in the same programme. Both remove the judgement that would otherwise stop a session. |
| The relationships | Family work where it is wanted, including how to rebuild trust that has been broken by lying about money rather than by the gambling itself. |
Treatment options for gambling addiction, and how they compare
Residential rehab is one treatment option among several, and it is not automatically the right one. Being straight about that is more useful to you than a page that pretends otherwise.
| Option | What it involves, and who it suits |
|---|---|
| Medical detox | Not needed for gambling itself. Required where alcohol or drugs are used alongside and there is physical dependence. |
| Residential rehab inpatient treatment | Living at the centre for the whole programme. It suits compulsive gambling that has continued despite blocking and self-exclusion, or where depression and suicide risk sit alongside it. |
| Outpatient treatment day programmes and therapy sessions | Attending sessions and going home between them. Often effective, and free specialist gambling treatment is available in the UK through the NHS and GamCare. |
| Community and NHS services | Free local drug and alcohol treatment services, reached through your GP or by self-referral. Waiting times vary and residential placements are rationed, but the support is real and it costs nothing. For many people this is the right first step rather than a lesser one. |
| Mutual aid and support groups | Free peer support meeting in person and online, everywhere, with no waiting list and no cost. Worth using alongside whatever else you choose rather than instead of it. |
A treatment plan should be built around your circumstances. If an outpatient or community route fits you better, we will say so at assessment and we will not charge you for the conversation.
The therapies used, in plain terms
Every centre lists the same acronyms, so here is what each one actually is and where it appears in the week.
| Therapy | What it is, and when you would meet it here |
|---|---|
| Cognitive behavioural therapy CBT, and the related REBT | Evidence-based work on the link between an event, the belief you attach to it and what you then do. Taught through the ABC model in psychoeducation, practised in group therapy and applied between sessions. It is the backbone of the cognitive work rather than an optional extra. |
| Acceptance and commitment therapy ACT | Learning to have a difficult feeling without having to act on it, and choosing behaviour by your values instead. Module eight, on emotions, is built on it. |
| Dialectical behaviour therapy DBT | Distress tolerance, emotional regulation and interpersonal skills, used where emotions arrive faster and larger than they can be managed. See DBT. |
| EMDR | A structured trauma therapy, used where trauma is driving the use and always after stabilisation rather than before it. See EMDR. |
| Group therapy | Three group sessions a day, five days a week: a process group, a therapeutic group and psychoeducation. It is the largest single component of the treatment programme. See group therapy. |
| Individual therapy one-to-one counselling | Three therapy sessions a week with the same clinician throughout, where material that will not surface in a group gets worked. |
| Family therapy | Offered where it is wanted, in person or online, because the people around you are part of what happens next. See the family programme. |
| Motivational interviewing | Used throughout rather than booked as a session. It is the stance the team takes: working with your reasons for change rather than arguing you into someone else’s. |
| Holistic therapies | Yoga, mindfulness and meditation, breathwork, art and equine work, on Saturdays and through the week. See equine therapy and all our therapies. |
Every element above is delivered by the clinical team as part of the residential programme. Your treatment plan sets out which of them apply to you, and it is reviewed during the stay rather than fixed on day one.
Where else to get help, free
Not everyone needs residential rehab, and nobody should be waiting on a private programme before they get any support at all. Everything below is free, and none of these organisations pays or receives a fee from us.
| Organisation | What they do |
|---|---|
| GamCare and the National Gambling Helpline | Free treatment, advice and support for gambling harm, with a helpline on 0808 8020 133, open 24 hours. |
| GAMSTOP | Free self-exclusion from every online gambling operator licensed in Great Britain. It takes minutes to set up. |
| Gamblers Anonymous | Free peer support groups for anyone with a gambling problem, meeting in person and online across the UK. |
| StepChange and Citizens Advice | Free, independent debt advice. Never pay for debt help when these exist. |
| Samaritans | Free and confidential, 24 hours a day on 116 123, for anyone struggling to cope or having thoughts of suicide. |
| Adfam | Support and information for families and friends affected by someone else’s drug, alcohol or gambling use. |
Sierra Recovery neither pays nor accepts referral fees, so nothing on this list depends on where you go. If a free or community service is the right fit for you, use it.
How to get ready
- Block access today, before anything elseRegister with GAMSTOP, which self-excludes you from every online operator licensed in Great Britain, self-exclude with individual operators, and turn on your bank's gambling block. None of it costs anything and none of it requires a treatment date.
- Hand over financial control temporarilyTo a partner, a family member or a professional. It is not a permanent arrangement and it is not a judgement on you. It removes the means during the period when the urge is strongest.
- Get independent debt adviceFree from Citizens Advice or StepChange. Do this before treatment rather than after, because the debt is a driver rather than a consequence and knowing the real position removes some of its power.
- Compare on licence, not on photographsAsk any centre abroad for its registration number and the register it sits on, then look it up yourself. Ours is N.I.C.A. 67331 on the Junta de Andalucía register.
- Ask what the price actually includesOurs is published: private room, meals, the core therapy programme, and a year of weekly UK aftercare, with medical, psychiatric and laboratory costs quoted separately. You get an itemised written quotation before admission.
How Sierra compares with private gambling treatment at home
| What you get | Sierra Recovery | Typical private residential clinic |
|---|---|---|
| 28-day residential programme | £9,900, published in full | UK £12,000–£40,000 · Australia A$30,000–A$50,000 |
| Is the price on the website | Yes, in full | Usually "contact us for pricing" |
| Your own private room | Included as standard | Often an upgrade |
| Referral fees paid to third parties | None | Common |
| Written itemised quotation before admission | Yes | Varies |
| Distance from the people and places tied to use | Rural Andalucía | Usually close to home |
| Medically supervised detox | Arranged and quoted separately | Quoted separately |
Comparison figures are the published ranges collected on our cost calculator: the United Kingdom at roughly £12,000 to £40,000 a month, Australia at roughly A$30,000 to A$50,000, and the United States at roughly $20,000 to $40,000 for a 30-day programme. New Zealand, South African and Canadian ranges are set out on the country cost guides. Indicative, not a quotation. Every clinic sets its own fees.
When gambling sits on top of something else
Frequently. Depression, anxiety, ADHD, trauma and loneliness all appear regularly underneath gambling disorder, and alcohol and cocaine often appear alongside it because both remove the judgement that would otherwise end a session. Treating the gambling while leaving the rest is why so many people stop for months and then return. At Sierra both are worked in the same programme. See dual diagnosis and other behavioural addictions.
When is it time?
If you are chasing losses, if you have lied about money, or if you have tried to stop and could not, that is enough. You do not need to have lost the house. Gambling is the addiction that most reliably escalates in silence, and the point at which it becomes visible to everyone else is usually the point at which the options have narrowed considerably.
Talk to a clinician today
You will speak to our admissions team, all of them clinicians. Confidential, no obligation, and we will tell you honestly whether this programme fits or whether something closer to home would serve you better.
Questions people actually ask
Is gambling addiction a real addiction?
Yes. Gambling disorder is classified in DSM-5 alongside substance use disorders, and gaming disorder was added to ICD-11 in 2019. It acts on the same reward circuitry, produces tolerance in the form of escalating stakes, produces withdrawal in the form of irritability and restlessness, and drives the same loss of control despite mounting harm. The absence of a substance changes how it is treated, not whether it is real.
Do I need a detox for gambling addiction?
Not for the gambling itself, because there is no substance to withdraw from. The psychological withdrawal is real, with irritability, restlessness and strong urges, but it does not require medical management. Where alcohol or drugs are also involved and you are physically dependent, a medically supervised withdrawal is arranged in an appropriate medical setting before admission and billed separately.
What should I do today, before treatment starts?
Three things, all free. Register with GAMSTOP, which self-excludes you from every online operator licensed in Great Britain. Turn on your bank's gambling block. Hand financial control to someone you trust, temporarily. Then get free independent debt advice from Citizens Advice or StepChange. None of this requires a treatment date and all of it reduces risk immediately.
How is the debt handled?
As a clinical issue rather than an administrative one, because debt drives further gambling directly. The plan includes blocking access, self-exclusion, temporary handover of financial control and independent debt advice. We do not provide financial or legal advice ourselves, and we do not recommend anyone who charges for debt help when free services exist.
How long is the programme and what does it cost?
It is a 28-day residential programme, published in full at GBP 9,900. That covers a private room, meals, the core therapy programme, and a year of weekly UK aftercare. Psychiatric, medical, laboratory and detox costs are quoted separately. You get an itemised written quotation before admission.
Can I use my phone during treatment?
Phone use is structured rather than banned outright, and for gambling specifically the arrangement is agreed with you at admission, because unrestricted access to a phone is unrestricted access to every operator in the world. This is discussed openly rather than imposed, and it is one of the practical reasons a residential setting works for gambling.
How do I get help for gambling addiction?
The first step towards recovery is an assessment, and ours is free and carries no obligation. You can also seek help through your GP, through a free local drug and alcohol treatment service, or through a mutual aid group, and none of those routes costs anything. If you want to talk it through with a clinician, call +44 1202 653136 and you will reach our admissions team. The National Gambling Helpline is free on 0808 8020 133, open 24 hours, and GAMSTOP self-exclusion takes minutes and costs nothing.
What does gambling addiction treatment involve, from start to finish?
The course of treatment runs in four stages. An assessment before you travel, which decides whether a medically supervised detox is needed first. Any detox, completed in an appropriate medical setting and billed separately. Then the 28-day residential treatment programme itself: three group therapy sessions a day, individual therapy three times a week and the seventeen-module curriculum. Then aftercare, agreed before you leave and continuing online or in person in London.
How much does gambling rehab cost, and what affects the price?
Sierra publishes a single figure: GBP 9,900 for the 28-day residential programme, with a private room included. What changes the total is whether you need a medically supervised detox, which is arranged and billed separately, and any medical, psychiatric or laboratory costs. Private residential rehab elsewhere commonly runs from around GBP 12,000 to GBP 40,000 a month in the United Kingdom and from roughly A$30,000 to A$50,000 in Australia. You get an itemised written quotation before admission, and we neither pay nor accept referral fees.
What are the signs and symptoms of gambling addiction?
The signs of a gambling problem are needing larger stakes for the same feeling, chasing losses in the belief that the next one corrects it, restlessness or irritability when you try to stop, gambling to escape stress or low mood, and lying about the time and money involved.
Is lasting recovery from gambling addiction actually possible?
Yes, and the evidence is better than the public conversation suggests. What predicts long-term recovery is not willpower but what is in place afterwards: continuing therapy, a treated mental health condition, a support network and a relapse plan that was written before it was needed. That is why completing gambling rehab matters less on its own than what follows it, and why aftercare is planned during the stay, so it is in place before you leave.
How can I help someone with gambling addiction?
Start by getting support for yourself, because living alongside someone with an addiction is its own burden and Adfam and Al-Anon exist for exactly that. Beyond that: raise it when they are not intoxicated, be specific about what you have seen rather than general about what they are, and offer a concrete next step such as an assessment or a call to a free service. Ultimatums delivered in anger rarely work. We speak to families every day and that conversation costs nothing. For gambling specifically, protecting the household finances is not a betrayal, it is a reasonable response to a recognised disorder.
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Talk to a clinician today
You will speak to our admissions team, English-speaking clinicians who know the programme and the people in it. Callback within 24 hours.
Registered health centre. Authorised by the Junta de Andalucía, N.I.C.A. 67331.
