True and that is what makes a lot of gamblers suffer defeat and became broke just because of the fact that they are going too far from having fun. It like video gaming which I was addicted once though I am still playing nowadays but with my past mistakes I changed a lot and put some limits so I can still be productive.
It's a good thing you found a way to fight your previous addiction and have learnt from it as well. Gambling addiction, just like other addictions do not only bring financial losses to the victim, in fact, the implications and effects doesn't only affect the victim but also people around him, his family, friends and even the society.
Sometimes due to the addiction, one becomes unproductive just as you've stated, you'd care about nothing more but to satisfy your addiction and if not satisfied, the urge would be there, even getting worse by the day.
And the worst part of it is that, the road to addiction is way more easier to take than the way out, it takes so much effort of the victim and the people around him to help break him out of the addiction, so by all means, we should avoid falling into any sort of addiction.