Well, one can certainly hope for those people to get their life straight once again, but that but indeed take them for them to reach some rock bottom, until realizing what they are doing is wrong and it is not sustainable. Many do, I think; I have seen reddit pages and forums dedicated for people who once were gamblers and now they are recovering from that addictions and craving for more and more risk.
On the other hand, if you have paid some attention to this section of the forum for a while I am sure you have encountered stories about people going into crime, crimes as far as kidnapping their own family members for ramson, so they could continue to feed their bottomless pit for gambling and sport betting.

In any case, I would admit I could not easily place a line on when one is being empathic for people like those and when once is minding other's businesses.