My husband was a counselor/therapist - his specialty was drugs and alcohol but he also studied gambling addiction - he told me it is the hardest addiction to break, worse than heroin.
I was a counselor for twenty years. Never did much with gambling. Just didn’t understand it, because I didn’t want to lose my money and I can’t win off a lottery ticket. Not once did I ever win anything, so I wasn’t going to do that.
Heading for 36 years off the booze in my ripe old age. That one was hard enough.