Compulsive gambling is related to alcoholism and smoking

How would you call a man who comes into a casino and spends $2000 in two hours? Crazy, I would say but scientists would recognize an addict.
Some compulsive gamblers report that gambling gives them more pleasure than sex does and that gambling is their ultimate high.

An increase in the number of gambling places in the last few years gave raise to more the number of gamblers.

Screening the brains of the gamblers, scientists determined that that there is a physical difference in brain, especially, in the frontal lobe. These changes seem to occur when a person’s doing something so often that it changes the way their brains work. People addicted to gambling get less blood to their brains than non-addicts and they are rewriting the brain with constant gambling.

Previously thought of as a moral weakness, gambling as a psychiatric problem could be treated today. There are treatments used in alcoholism that have been found helpful in treating compulsive gambling by taking the excitement and pleasure out of winning. Besides medications, therapy and support groups as well have been found to be helpful in curing the problem.

For the time being, around 2 % of adults in North America are categorized as pathological gamblers.