Addiction isn't a cause of gambling is an effect
Many join for entertainment / fun while most for money.
So I would say it should be because of poverty
People are always looking for ways to make more money
And with the success stories surrounding gambling
Many get hooked to try their luck.
The percentage of those gambling as a result of poverty is high compared to those gambling based on an addiction problem... I've seen people that depend on virtual games to feed their family, it's a crazy thing to do but the economic situation has given them no choice, so that makes your point correct.. A lot of people get hooked to try their luck but there are also people that get hooked because they constantly chase their losses, this has made them actively involved in gambling, and they spend more hours and money fueling their damaging habit..if the economy gets better would people recover from this?
Yea, I have also see few persons with such situation where they totally depend on gambling. To take a clear look at the discussion again, in gambling financial needs comes first before addiction, so if there is a rise in the population of gamblers, they didn't start to gamble because they want to become addicted but most of them actually started gambling because they had interest of making money from it but they became addicted on the process.