According to the talk, compulsive gambling and alcoholic addiction share similar

One of the largest mental health problems in the US is that of compulsive gambling. Although there are no scientific studies that have discovered the exact number, experts estimate that between 5 and 10 million persons are compulsive gamblers.
    Like addiction to alcohol, compulsive gambling crosses all social and economic lines. Compulsive gamblers can be found in any profession and at any level of society. And the addiction affects both men and women.
    The gambling compulsion usually starts in the early teens. The more often the young gambler indulges in the compulsion, the more obsessive it becomes. By his early twenties, the average compulsive gambler has moved from small bets on such things as football games, horse races and card games to more adult, more expensive gambling forms.
    For the compulsive gambler, life becomes one continuous gambling binge. The compulsion consumes the gambling addict to such a point that nothing else matters, not even health, children or family. Studies by psychiatrists seem to show that compulsive gamblers bet to lose. Compulsive gamblers never stop when they are ahead. Instead they try to win more. One important characteristic of the compulsive gambler is his optimism. Like most human beings he does not like to admit defeat. Consequently, he hides his real motivations for gambling with large amounts of enthusiastic optimism. The more deeply he is committed to betting and losing, the more fanatical his conviction that the next bet will make him wealthy.
    Compulsive gamblers will use almost any means to get money to feed their addiction. Borrowing or stealing from friends or family is the first method gamblers usually employ to get cash. Other common ways to get money are embezzlement, robbery or writing false checks.
    In recent years psychiatrists discovered some of the basic reasons for compulsive gambling. First, compulsive gamblers almost always come from homes lacking in love. As a result the child grows up still looking for the warmth of family love and parental approval. Another aspect of the nature of the gambling addict is that unconsciously he wants to lose. Psychiatrists believe that compulsive gamblers consciously may expect to win. However, there is a strong element of self-destruction in their inclination to continue betting until all is lost. One New York psychiatrist believes that basically the compulsive gambler is seeking an answer to the question. "Do you love me?" By winning he receives a "yes" answer. However the gambler cannot accept the "yes" he sometimes receives because it is contrary to the reality of his or her unhappy childhood—one lacking in family love. The gambler is compelled to continue betting, thus expressing again and again his need for love and acceptance. When gambling addicts do win some money, they rarely spend any of it on their families. Money is like a sacred thing to the addicts. It is reserved for one thing—placing a bet.
    Fortunately, there is hope and help today for gambling addicts. Psychiatric treatment is one possiblility. Group therapy seems to help in some cases. The most readily available and the least expensive help comes from an organization called "Gamblers Anonymous" (or G. A.). Patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous, G.A. has more than ninety chapters in the US with about 3,000 gamblers seeking a cure. One basic rule of G. A. is the gamblers must pay back all their debts, even if it takes many years to do so. Thousands of members credit G. A. with saving them from their addiction and helping them to build new lives free from the gambling sickness. Happily, today with more public interest in helping the gambling addicts overcome his problem and with such organizations as the G. A., the gambler who wants to help to break his addiction now has some place or someone to turn to.