From child gambler to ruby anniversary “The mind of a gambler” – Paul talks of his experience as a gambling addict and of learning to live without gambling. He describes the typical process of addiction. He had started very young, on slot machines, and had gradually become addicted to the buzz and excitement of gambling, as he felt at the time, obtaining money by any means necessary. Pressure from his mother took him to Gambling Anonymous, where peer support was crucial in his progress and in time he stopped. But as he stresses, he remains only one gamble away from being a gambler again.