Addicted gamblers have the mistaken mentality that somehow wealth is something that happens to you instead of something that you plan, if you take a look at the richest people around the world you will see they were planning to reach those levels of wealth and they did everything they could to make their goals come true, but addicted gamblers will never understand this as if that were to be true then this means they have been wasting their time and money for a very long time.
Most people in the world will never understand how rich people got rich. It's not just about gamblers, or rather the pursuit of wealth is not a negative effect of gambling. Gambling is a mental disorder, an addiction. An addicted gambler may not even aspire to become rich, he simply cannot live without a casino.
Fair enough, still I think that at least on the early stages of their addiction the main reason they were gambling over and over again was because they hoped to obtain financial benefits without having to work for them, and only after some time passed then they began to gamble just for the sake of it, and by the time they recognize there is a problem, they are so immersed in that world they do not know what to do to get out, assuming they want to get out at all as there are gamblers which remain addicted for life.