Most often, addiction to gambling progresses after several times of playing and there are some who gamble for years but with no urge to let it overcome their lives but for some it becomes a mean to earn money or to get away from a stressful life and the impulse to gamble becomes uncontrollable. Over time, compulsive gamblers may not even give that much notice to the money they win but to the rush they experience when winning much like the rush experienced by taking drugs. compulsive gamblers are not contented with just betting but they need to increase the stakes and place larger bets which later on results to their destruction.

Some signs of compulsive gambling are:

1. Preoccupation with everything about gambling

2. Raising the stakes and taking risks

3. Choosing to gamble instead of spending quality time with family or friends

4. Hiding the growing addiction and feeling guilty after playing

5. Trying to find ways to borrow money for gambling and resorting to theft at later stages

6. Trying to stop but unsuccessful

These are just some of the many symptoms experienced by compulsive gamblers and this kind of addiction is considered as impulse control disorder and seeking treatment is neccessary. Otherwise the addiction will continue even if it causes harm to the gambler or to the people around him.

Online gambling addiction refers to the excessive amount of time and money wasted when gambling online. It is the desire to gamble despite the negative and detrimental effects and unable to stop even when the desire to stop is there.

It is also called compulsive gambling because it's considered as an impulse-control disorder. Addicted gamblers cannot help themselves and they loose control when they gamble. They place higher bets just to achieve that 'rush' using money that they cannot afford to lose. Compulsive gamblers just want to keep on gambling even when they're happy or sad, broke or flush and even when they know that the odds are against them.

Below are some of the symptoms of an online gambling addict:

Unusually anxious if access to computer is denied

Needs to spend excessive amount of time on the computer gambling

Spends excessive amount of money while gambling

Neglecting other duties and responsibilities

Feeling depressed, irritable when unable to gamble online.

Lying about the actual amount of time spent gambling online

Foregoing other pleasurable activities in order to gamble online

Some of these symptoms may not be connected initially with online gambling but as the problem worsens, a link may be observed between the symptoms and an addiction with gambling online. So if you feel that you have 2 or more of these symptoms it's very much recommended that you seek a professional help before your problem escalates.

Gambling, online or otherwise, should be about recreation and fun and not as a means to support your life.