Gambling addiction does not get as much media coverage as drug or alcohol addiction does, but it can be absolutely devastating to anyone caught up in it.  It can quickly destroy your finances, your career, your marriage, your family and even your health.  Due to the extreme financial problems it can cause it can literally take years to recover from the effects of gambling addiction even after the compulsion is broken.

Recent research reveals that approxiamtely 2.5 million adults in the United States are pathological gamblers and another 3 million adults should be considered problem gamblers.  Well over 500 billion dollars is spent on gambling each year in the United States.  That is a massive amount of money. 

Gambling has become big business in the United States, and the gambling industry is creating a massive number of gambling addicts as the following statistics show:

*The gambling industry has grown tenfold in the United States since 1975.

*Two-thirds of the adult population placed some kind of bet last year.

*Gambling profits in casinos are more than 30 billion dollars each year while lotteries make profits of about 17 billion dollars annually.

*In 1973 state lotteries had about 2 billion dollars in sales.  By 1997, the revenues of state lotteries reached 34 billion (Read More....)