My old college roommate's mother had an addiction for awhile. She racked up something like $5-10k in bounced checks, and could not seem to stop. Eventually the banks were coming after her, and if she did not pay in a certain period of time she would have ended up in court/jail/prison most likely as she had no assets to pay off that debt.
Myself, and some of our other college buddies, all pooled our money (this was a year or two after college) and we paid off the bounced checks for my friend which saved his mother. We also had the casino's basically ban her from entry (something you friend could also do).
I never understood how you could let yourself get to that point, but I guess there is some sort of "high" some people get. While I supposed I see the point in a card game with a big bet, I just can't see it in slots or whatever it was she was playing.
All the same, seems to be a hard one to break without losing it all. If you get shut out of the casinos, there is still backroom card games, lotto, lottery tickets, etc..
