History Main / TheGamblingAddict

* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', Roman's gambling debt puts himself into trouble with the mafia and being a reason Niko came into the country.

** In his creation of/expansion of the barely canonical "Aceria" [[note]] A portmanteau of CanadaEh and {{Eagleland}}[[/note]] drops the back-story that the [[UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands Sto Kerrigian]] colony in Aceria transferred ownership to Ankh-Morpork, not because of a war but because the King of Ankh-Morpork and the Chief Burger of Sto Kerrig had a gambling addiction that got out of hand. A session of Cripple Mr. Onion between the two Heads of State reached the point where they were betting whole ''colonies'' on the turn of a card. Thus, the city and colony of [[FreestateAmsterdam New DamHamster]] became New Ankh-Morpork in seconds, based on a bad hand. [[note]]The Ankh-Morporkian Empire insisted on the new name. The laconic Acerians shortened it to ''[[BigApplesauce New Pork]]''[[/note]].

* Lelouch from ''Anime/CodeGeass'', before BecomingTheMask, was a heavy gambler who often skipped classes to run off to casinos and nobles' residences. It stopped when he donned the alter-ego Zero, but regardless he still used his gambling addiction as a cover for his operations.

* Before the zombie outbreak hit, Javier Garcia from ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonThree'' was a professional baseball player with a serious gambling problem, which eventually became so severe that he was kicked out of the major leagues for it.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E10Springfield $pringfield]]" Marge Simpson becomes addicted to slot machines when a casino's built in Springfield, and shows this trait occasionally in subsequent episodes.
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E14LisaTheGreek Lisa the Greek]]", Lisa had a nightmare that she might end up becoming one after learning Homer only used her to help him gamble.

* ''Literature/RevoltingRhymes'': In "Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs", the dwarfs are compulsive gambling addicts how often go without food because they bet everything they have on horse-races. [[spoiler:Things go better when Snow White steal the wicked Queen's mirror and asks it which horse will win.]]

* Cal Hotchkiss in ''Literature/RiverOfTeeth'' is unable to KnowWhenToFoldEm at the cards table. His [[EstablishingCharacterMoment introductory chapter]] involves him getting his left ear cut off for cheating at cards, but the first chance he gets to play again after that, he's back to trying to cheat. [[spoiler:It swiftly ends in him getting thrown out the window to be eaten by feral hippos.]]

Sometimes a character [[CompressedVice develops this trait temporarily]], usually in a sitcom. In these cases, their new habit will often lead to a big loss, and the rest of the episode will be spent trying to recover the money or property. It's also a very convenient "habit" for a writer to use as a Compressed Vice because, as an emotional addiction, it doesn't carry outward signs that would have to be written in or accounted for later, and, as a legal or quasi-legal addiction, can be fully depicted in even some Family Friendly works ''and'' more "realistic" as an addiction for some characters than, say, heroin. Unfortunately, this often leads viewers to believe it is a Compressed Vice in real life - when real life gambling addicts range the spectrum from Compressed Vice/temporary irresponsibility to those who literally ''cannot stop'' and do incur problems with the criminal justice system or are even DrivenToSuicide.

* In the ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'' this was the goal of one of Rockerduck's most successful plans against Scrooge (explicitely inspired in-universe by Creator/FyodorDostoevsky's novella ''The Gambler''): first have [[StalkerWithACrush Brigitta]] chase him into the casino he opened just for this plan (he had the license for a long time, but never used it because he knew Gladstone would bankrupt it in a day, and got him on a world cruise just for the plan), then threaten to kick him out unless he gambles, and then have professional cheaters let him win long enough for Scrooge to become addicted to the victories before having them win everything and then some until they could have him interdicted with Brigitta as his caretaker [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe and then force Scrooge to marry her to get his money back]]. It worked, at least until [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Brigitta realized what she had done]] and got the Nephews and, most importantly, Paperinik to help, with Paperinik scaring the addiction out of Scrooge while having a disguised Gladstone bankrupt the casino.

* ''Film/{{Croupier}}'' has an interesting variation, as the title character, who works at a casino, doesn't gamble himself, but becomes addicted to watching other people gamble and lose.

* ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'':
** PlayedForLaughs in [[ManChild Slimecicle's]] case. He accidentally gets addicted to using the slot machine in Las Nevadas during his first lore stream, which he calls "a feeling in [his] stomach", to [[CloudCuckooLandersMinder Quackity's]] annoyance.

* David Scatino from Season 2 of ''Series/TheSopranos''. Even worse for him, the people he gets into bed with are TheMafia. After a few bad poker games, they basically take over his whole business and drive him into bankruptcy.

* On ''Series/TheAlmightyJohnsons'' Mike is an interesting variation. As the incarnation of the Norse god of the hunt, he cannot lose at games. However, if he uses his powers to gamble, he is quickly unable to stop and keeps on winning and winning. This obviously makes the people he plays against extremely suspicious. After one night of this, he is banned for life from the local casino and has to find underground gambling establishments to play in. The people playing in those types of places are just as unhappy about his winning streak and much more likely to employ violence. It does not help matters that when Mike is winning he becomes extremely arrogant and seems to subconsciously pick fights with dangerous people like bikers and ex-convicts.

* On ''Series/{{Mom}}'' Christy discovers that in addition to her other problems she is also a gambling addict. She theorizes that she has always been addicted to gambling but her alcoholism generally took precedence and left her too poor to seriously gamble. Now that she has put her life back together has is able to save up money, gambling is becoming a serious issue for her. Her Gambler's Anonymous sponsor suggests that it is a symptom of her low self-esteem. Whenever things go good for her, she has a need to gamble so her life will go back to being a mess. When she is poor and depressed, her need to gamble goes away.

* In ''Series/{{Next|2020}}'', programmer Sean Akers is a gambling addict, which makes him easy prey for Next, who offers him tips on how to win at games in exchange for attaching a wireless router to its mainframe, allowing it to connect to the Internet.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Promised Land|1996}}'' had the Greene family trying to help one of these, whose problem had become so severe that his car had been repossessed, his life was being threatened by bookies, and he was bordering on becoming abusive to his daughter when she refused to give him the money he had given her to save to pay the rent.

* On ''Series/{{Suits}}'' one of Harvey's clients is a gambling and alcohol addict who went OffTheWagon in an Atlantic City casino. The man lost 3 million dollars on a single hand of poker. A horrified Harvey then finds out that the gambler obtained the chips by using his 34 million dollar company as collateral for a loan. The man wanted to gamble so badly that he could not even wait to have money transferred to him from his bank and made a ludicrous deal with a total stranger.

* ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E17TheFever The Fever]]" features a man who abhors gambling who travels to Las Vegas with his wife (who won a contest) and is forced by a drunk to put a dollar token into a slot machine, and winds up winning some money. Despite his efforts to run away from the slots, he hears the slot machine literally calling his name, and winds up addicted to the point where he thinks it's alive, and [[KarmicTwistEnding he might be right]].
* The VictimOfTheWeek in a ''Series/WithoutATrace'' episode turned out to have been trying to help a friend who was afflicted with this, to the point that they were pulling illegal stunts to obtain the money to pay off his debts.

* ''Series/ThePact'': Nancy's husband Richard is one. He started by losing 10,000 pounds on a horse race, and tried to get it back unsuccessfully, while losing increasing amounts of money. All of their bank accounts are empty, he lose their investments and put the couple's cars up as collateral (so they get repossessed). Nancy naturally is angry and fearful about this. Richard also owes a {{loan shark}}, who beats him up for late payments. [[spoiler:She blackmails her own friends for money anonymously to recoup his losses.]]

Not to be confused with TheGambler. Often leads to being TrappedByGamblingDebts. Gambling Addiction may lead to an AbsurdlyHighStakesGame. More likely than most to start a GamblingBrawl when experiencing a losing streak. If a story arc focuses on a character ''becoming'' this, it's an example of DescentIntoAddiction.