I'm not taking about weekend poker players, here... I mean people who've lost their wife, kids, house, and job to a gambling habit. They have zero savings, mountains of debt, and if you lend them $20 to get groceries, they'll go hungry after gambling it away?
Modern video games are designed by highly paid, PHd-level behavioral scientists to be as habit-forming as possible. If you're vulnerable to it, you're going to have the same kind of struggles getting away from video games as a heroin addict would from junk.
The lack of immediately lethal consequences is only part of the problem... Addicts can ruin their lives, and take their families and friends to the point of no return, even without the possibility of something as serious as an overdose.