Controlling addiction to gambling.

To some, it's only a game, but to many, gambling is a serious addiction, becoming an uncontrollable behavior that can lead to financial and personal ruin. Gambling addictions affect an estimated 3,000,000 Americans, and statistics show that one out of every 10 people who gamble will become a pathological gambler.

Whether bingo, sports betting, or high-stakes roulette, all games of chance are a potential threat to person at risk for gambling addictions, maintains John Thompson, a psychiatrist and medical director of the Ochsner Addictive Behavior Unit, New Orleans. "There are may similarities between addictions to substances and addictions to gambling. The stages are similar, the signs are alike, and, most of all, the devastating social effects... are the same.

"Gambling addictions have the same characteristics as other types of addictions," including mental preoccupation with the behavior, disregard for the negative consequences, loss of control, and progressive worsening of symptoms.

Pathological gamblers tend to focus on the euphoric thrill of risking money in attempts to win more. Their desire to gamble becomes so strong that they often lose focus on the amounts of money they are spending. "For many people with gambling addictions, it doesn't matter how much money is being spent or where that money comes from. They will begin a process known as |chasing'; that is, after losing a large amount of money, they...