Hello Labrat, firstly my commiserations for your loss.
Well done on looking for help, I am really glad that you have done so now, while you haven’t got any money, as opposed to after the house is sold and you have lost whatever lump sum you will get from that.
I see you are in London, you have a lot of help available to you there. Regarding your finances you can get free, expert advice from either the Citizens Advice Bureau or Stepchange. If your financial difficulties are only going to be short term ie until the hosue is sold, then maybe you could explain that to whoever you owe the money to.
Whatever you do regarding the finances the most important thing is to address your gambling. Read the other stories here, what barriers could you put in place to make it harder for you to place your next bet?
“….I’d be willing to stop gambling and attend GA meetings ….”
I hope you change that to “I AM willing to……” There are LOTS of GA meetigns in London, if the worst happens then you will need meetings and support to stay gamble free more than ever.
You can stop gambling I promise you, keep posting here, get to meetings and get some proper financial advice.
As you have mentioned what you spend the day debating then I think I should also give you this link to the Samaritans here in the UK http://www.samaritans.org/
There is always someone to talk to there.
There is a lot of life after gambling though, use the support that you have avaialble, here and/or elsewhere. keep posting and let us know some of the positive steps you are starting to take.