I've been addicted to gaming before, playing the same one on a regular basis for at least a couple years, but managed to avoid the same thing with gambling. It came close with poker and trying to make money from it over the course of a couple weeks, but you have to be so sharp to walk away a winner. Even if you have a great session, you can potentially wipe out all your profits within a few hands and throw away hours worth of work. There is definitely an incentive for poker sites to write algorithms that reward the riskiest and worst players, because they create action and rake that earns the casino money. Luckily I pulled away and self excluded because the appeal is very strong.