Addiction to gambling is not a problem for some gamblers because there are some gamblers who are addicted to gambling, but it doesn't affect the other activities of their life. They take care of their families, wear good clothes, smell nice, meet up with appointments but still cannot control the urge to gamble. It doesn't affect their life because they can afford to gamble and manage the loses they make. So, to these people addiction is not a problem. They are addicts, but because they are successful, their addiction is ignored or excused as it is not a problem.
So I am need to know, is addiction only bad when it is a problem?
Addiction is addiction and addiction is very bad because the result isn't always good, the fact that a gambler always have the urge to gamble doesn't make him an addict, neither does giving in to urges make you an addict. One sign of addiction is when your gambling life affects other areas of your life. For example, your gambling budget is 20% of your income and instead of just sticking to 20%, your gambling starts consuming and cutting into other expenses and sometimes you even end up using all your income just to satisfy your gambling urges and you only feel better when you're left with nothing. Sometimes it makes you even go as far as going to borrow from others just to continue gambling.
And just because a person smells nice, dresses nice or appears to meet up with appointments doesn't really mean he's all good, you might never know just how much damage his addiction might be causing him, not until he opens up and spills it all out to you.