Your view of gambling as chilled-out leisure paints an alluring picture but not without risks. Things get messy when the initial excitement of risk-taking turns into a fixation. Saying that only a few gamblers can stay in control is a big understatement. Many studies reveal that most people can't recognize when they've shifted from a good time to an addiction. Their brains link the thrill of the gamble with happiness, complicating quitting. Though gambling for fun with self-restraint seems feasible, it overlooks the potential destruction of addiction. It's essential to highlight that for many, gambling isn't a simple toss-up between enjoyment and gain. It's a psychological trap causing deep financial and emotional issues.
The psychology of a person (a gambler) is indeed one of the factors that will greatly influence gambling, it is difficult for someone who has experienced addiction to be able to control himself because indeed the hope for a win is always an image in his mind. Compulsive and out of control are the strongest causes of gamblers experiencing addiction and this addiction comes from two separate reward pathways in the brain that can affect a person's behavior, namely liking and wanting. It's hard to hold someone who has experienced addiction to gambling to rest or stop because it's like you said that they like the exciting sensation of betting. Even though they have lost a lot of valuable things they have, there is still hope for a victory and then they will return to do it with high confidence.