About
Christina Cook
Founder, The Broke Girl Society
Christina Cook, IGRS, is the founder of The Broke Girl Society, a peer-led community and podcast that creates safe, empowering spaces for women impacted by gambling harm. She is an international speaker and advocate who draws on her own recovery from disordered gambling to help others navigate the emotional, financial, and social challenges of rebuilding a life.
After more than 15 years in gambling's cycle, Christina went looking for a recovery community and found limited visibility and support built for women. So she built one: a shame-free peer support platform where women could tell the truth about what happened and be believed anyway.
Through storytelling and community connection, she helps women reclaim their voices and build lives they no longer want to escape from — breaking stigma and putting women's experiences with gambling harm at the center, not the margins.
Christina serves as Executive Secretary of the International Problem Gambling and Gaming Certification Board.
Sponsors & Partners
Organizations that make this work possible.
The Better Institute
Clinical Treatment Partner
Led by Jody Bechtold, LCSW, The Better Institute provides clinical treatment and coaching for individuals and families affected by gambling disorder.
Visit
Evive
App Partner
An app that helps you understand your relationship with gambling and build a personal recovery toolkit.
Visit
GamFin
Financial Counseling Partner
Provides financial counseling and coaching for people affected by gambling harm, in partnership with The Broke Girl Society.
VisitIn the Media
Where this story has been shared.
- The Hidden Faces of America's Online Gambling Addiction: WomenBloomberg Tax
National coverage profiling Christina Cook and The Broke Girl Society's 300,000+ listeners across 70 countries.
- The Broke Girl Society: Reframing Women's Gambling RecoveryTalking Addiction & Recovery Podcast
Therapist-hosted podcast interview with Christina Cook about gender gaps in gambling-harm treatment and founding The Broke Girl Society.
- Shining the Light on Women and Problem Gambling for Women's History MonthFlorida Council on Compulsive Gambling
Advocacy piece quoting Christina Cook on why women turn to gambling as an escape.
- Gambling is more than a man's game: women speak out on hidden addictionsInsight News
Covers Christina Cook discussing gambling harm and The Broke Girl Society's 3,000+ member community.
- Problem gambling support group began with founder Christina Cook's personal storyCDC Gaming
A profile of Christina Cook founding The Broke Girl Society as a judgment-free recovery community that has reached over 3,000 women.
- Curiosity Over Judgement | The Broke Girl Society w/Christina CookGateway Foundation (Wager Danger podcast)
An addiction-treatment nonprofit's podcast interview about how Christina Cook built The Broke Girl Society as a judgment-free space for women.
- Christina Cook's mission: Help Women with Gambling Addiction (RTFM 171)The Gambling Files
Gambling-industry podcast interview with Christina Cook about her recovery story and The Broke Girl Society.
- Radical Honesty: Christina Cook on Overcoming Gambling AddictionPopSugar
Christina Cook discusses overcoming gambling addiction as part of PopSugar's Radical Honesty issue.
- The Secret World Of Female GamblersChatelaine
A longform feature on Canadian women and gambling addiction, featuring Christina Cook's story and The Broke Girl Society.
- Norman Woman Advocates For People Suffering From Gambling AddictionNews 9 (Oklahoma)
Local TV news profile of Christina Cook's 15-year gambling struggle and recovery advocacy.
- Getting Out of DebtGlamour
Feature covering Christina Cook's debt and losses from compulsive gambling, and her path to recovery.