The Internet and digital television have brought 24-hour betting. They also mean it has never been easier to keep a gambling problem secret, writes Trevor O'Sullivan

'I have friends now. I never had friends before. You're borrowing money off people. Well, you're not borrowing it: you're stealing it, because you never pay it back. People know that all you ever want from them is money. People don't want you as a friend for a very good reason."

John Carpenter is a 30-year-old professional whose priority since his teens had been to earn money to pay for his gambling. At last his addiction is under control, but for years he was one of the many people whose lives are controlled by compulsive betting. It is a growing problem.

Internet and interactive television have made it possible to bet 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The unregulated and decentralised nature of the Internet creates the perfect environment for the growth of gambling. It is even reported to have usurped pornography as the most profitable online venture.

Internet casinos are a burgeoning business, with thousands now in existence. "We are seeing people now who have been hooked by the lure of Internet gambling," says Stephen Rowen, director of the Rutland addiction-treatment centre, in Dublin. And last month, the director of the Aiséirí addiction-treatment centre in Co Tipperary, Sister Eileen Fahey, said Internet gambling had become a serious problem. Nearly 10 per cent of the centre's clients are addicted to gambling, she added.

Carpenter's first gambling experience was putting a coin into a one-armed bandit. He soon developed an affinity with poker machines. Both changed the course of his life. His experience is all too common. Video poker and slot machines have been referred to as the crack cocaine of gambling. Because they're always there, blinking at you, win or lose, they can tip problem gamblers into compulsive behaviour much faster than horse racing or other games that do not offer such immediate gratification.

Carpenter says that many gamblers use their addiction as an anaesthetic against the pain of life. Feeding poker machines for 12 hours could dissipate his worry and pain. Carpenter's first serious relationship ended because of his enslavement to them. "Every time we would go to the pub I would be on the poker machine constantly. I wouldn't talk to her, wouldn't be near her. I would leave her sitting alone - and, if she was lucky, with someone else."

The thrill of gambling is hard to describe, says Carpenter. "You couldn't explain the buzz to anyone who is not an addict of something else. It's hard for people to believe that because you're not actually putting anything into your body that you have an assiduous addiction."

Unlike chemical addiction, compulsive gambling is a hidden disease. "Say there's an alcoholic, a drug addict and a gambler. If you gave each one of us €10,000, the alcoholic can only drink so much before they plunge into a drunken stupor, the drug addict can only stick so much in their arm before they overdose and die, but the gambler can go out, blow the €10,000, meet you on the street and look totally content." He will not smell of cards and dice and will be unperturbed by the fiscal loss.

Pathological gamblers are addicted to action, not money. This means that, during the desperation phase of their addiction, many of them gamble to lose. The thrill of the action is similar to being high on cocaine for a cocaine addict. Both describe their drug as seductive and ultimately destructive.

Once Carpenter found online betting his addiction intensified and, more importantly, became easier to hide. He says Paddy Power's online betting service led to the ending of the most serious relationship of his life. "She knew I gambled but didn't know the extent of it. I always told her I had no money until she found a credit-card statement, which said Paddy Power the whole way down."

With the proliferation of new ways to gamble, loved ones are far less likely to stumble across evidence. As Carpenter puts it: "I used Paddy Power online so she couldn't find betting slips in my pocket. There were no betting slips anywhere, no bits of paper to expose my habit."

He realised early on that he needed help, but he couldn't foresee a life without gambling. His girlfriend's discovery of his Paddy Power bill finally made him go to Gamblers Anonymous. "I always knew I'd end up there, and this was just the kick up the ass to do it." Carpenter has not gambled for two years.

Now he wants companies such as Paddy Power to follow the example of Australia, a country that has a serious gambling problem but is also attempting to tackle it. Australian bookmakers are obliged to put up signs advertising Gamblers Anonymous. They are also expected to refuse bets from people with obvious gambling problems.

You may think you are safe from gambling if you don't own a computer. But the once harmless remote control is now also a conduit to a world of unlimited betting.

Sky Digital offers a multitude of ways to have a flutter. Sky Bet, its licensed bookmaker, allows you to gamble while watching football. So as Michael Owen heads towards Manchester United's goal a strip down the side of the screen offers odds against him scoring. One press of a button places the bet. With the crowd's roar swelling and a few cans of lager consumed, many punters might find such a flutter difficult to resist.

Sky has moved away from telephone betting, which makes relatively low profits, to bets made using the remote control. The effect has been to replace sophisticated gamblers who bet larger amounts with ordinary punters who lose smaller amounts more often. The profits tend to be higher.

Sky's most recent addition to its interactive-betting portfolio is Sky Vegas Live, which promises to give viewers "the Vegas buzz in their living room". The channel, which broadcasts each evening, has one of the most persuasive sales patters of any interactive betting channel. Its young and striking female presenters urge you to "come on, press my button", its technology allowing them to see whether viewers are winning or losing. So if Dave from Kerry is on a roll, they can enthuse about how well he is doing. This is an integral part of building viewer loyalty to the channel. And loyalty, for a service such as Sky Vegas Live, means big bucks.

"These channels are not forcing you to gamble," says Rowen, "but their persuasiveness is highly dangerous. Gamblers who develop a problem usually start between the ages of 13 and 14, and the glitz of a channel like Sky Vegas Live is highly influential."

In today's technology-driven society nobody is free from the possibility of ending up like John Carpenter. Placing that seemingly harmless bet through your television can turn into something you can't control. According to Rowen, betting channels make it easier for gamblers to reach the point of self-destruction.

In the US the suicide rate for pathological gamblers is 20 times higher than that for non-gamblers - one in five attempts suicide. According to Gamblers Anonymous, a gambling addict is far more likely than any other type of addict to commit suicide.

• Gamblers Anonymous is at 01-8721133

• John Carpenter's name has been changed