Now researchers agree that in some cases gambling is a true addiction. Back then, Shirley's counselors never told her she was an addict she decided that for herself. Ten years ago the idea that someone could become addicted to a habit like gambling the way a person gets hooked on a drug was controversial. “It took me a long time to say I was an addict, but I was, just like any other.” “I realized I had become addicted,” she says. Along the way she started attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings, seeing a therapist and remaking her life. Shirley was convicted of stealing a great deal of money from her clients and spent two years in prison.
“I wanted to gamble all the time,” she says. Ultimately, Shirley bet every dime she earned and maxed out multiple credit cards. She played blackjack almost exclusively, often risking thousands of dollars each round-then scrounging under her car seat for 35 cents to pay the toll on the way home. By her late 40s, however, she was skipping work four times a week to visit newly opened casinos in Connecticut. Around a decade later, while working as an attorney on the East Coast, she would occasionally sojourn in Atlantic City. When Shirley was in her mid-20s she and some friends road-tripped to Las Vegas on a lark.
