Gambling may be a great problem if adequate measure isn't take. One should just to observe himself/herself for necessary changes in case one observed he/she is gradually becoming an addict.
Addiction can be controlled to some extent. Most gamblers become addicted because they failed to even realise that they are in the stages you have listed. If we can as a gambler evaluate our life and see that it's probably not how we expect it to be before we began gambling then it may help us take the right decision to avoid becoming ruined by addiction. Yes no one is bigger than addiction because at some point we all fall victims but we can help to avoid it by watching our gambling lifestyle if it's positive or not.
If you are talking about addiction in general, then I would agree that no one is really bigger than addiction because we all as humans are all addicted to one thing or the other, but if you are talking about addiction to gambling in particular, I would beat my chest to being bigger than addiction in this area, gambling is the last thing I would ever get addicted to, in fact, i would just say that if a person like myself gets addicted to gambling, then any gambler out there would surely get addicted as well.
But all the same, you are right with most of the things you have said about we watching ourselves, being aware of ourself indeed plays a very important role in ensuring that we never get addicted to gambling, or reduce the risk by alot of percentage..