"If I know I'm going to gamble, 24 hours before that my train starts running and it runs until I leave," said Chesser. "Broke most of the time."

Because the odds favor the house, the longer a person gambles, the more likely they are to lose over time. And that's when the compulsive gambler moves into the losing stage, piling up one loss after another.

As they become more desperate, pathological gamblers begin chasing their losses by betting more. The addiction is often marked by a need to bet more and more to get that same high. Soon, they are in the desperation stage.

"Their brain has been wired into the big win as solving all their problems," said George Brenner, program director at Gallahue Mental Health Center in Indianapolis.

Recovery has not been easy for Chesser. But he overcomes the urge to gamble by attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings twice a week, and helping others go through the organization's 12-step rehabilitation program. One day at a time.

Since his dark days, Chesser says, he has remarried and runs an ink jet recycling business with his fourth wife. He swears by Gamblers Anonymous and has never felt better about life.

"In our book, it says we have three options: prison, insanity or death," said Chesser. "None of them appeal to me today. I have life today. When I was gambling, I just existed for the next bet. That's all that mattered."

Denise Jewell is a CNHI News Service Elite Reporting Program fellow. She writes for the Niagara Gazette in Niagara Falls, N.Y.