Sunday Mirror: GAZZA'S HOOKED ON BETS

FALLEN Rangers legend Paul Gascoigne is being treated for gambling addiction.

He flew to Arizona last week for counselling at a pounds 3,500-a- week clinic.

And the former Ibrox idol admitted to friends: "I'm in danger of losing everything."

Last week the Sunday Mirror revealed how former alcoholic Gazza, 36, has become hooked on the soft drink Red Bull.

Now the reason has emerged - he has been guzzling the caffeine drink to keep him awake on marathon gambling binges.

For months the former midfield genius has been losing up to pounds 1,500 a night playing blackjack at a casino in his home city of Newcastle.

A source said: "Some evenings he would lose his money in a matter of minutes. It was crazy - he would throw away maybe pounds 4,000 a week. He doesn't have a great memory, so he writes on his arm how much he takes into the casino.

"And the Red Bull has made him so jumpy he has become a human version of Zebedee in the kids' television programme The Magic Roundabout."

Gazza is so desperate to kick the habit he has now drafted legal papers BANNING himself from the tables for his own good.

The bizarre documents give casino bosses the right to throw out Gazza - once he has reached a set level of losses.

The source said: "It was a drastic but necessary move on Paul's part. No one can say that he is not trying to help himself. But he is a confirmed addict now."

A worried friend of Gazza's said: "He has told us that he's in danger of losing everything." Gazza's downward spiral comes after the final collapse of his rocky relationship with ex-wife Sheryl, 37, who was due to take him to court this month claiming he has defaulted on his pounds 10,000-a-month maintenance payments. He has recently been living in a former council house in Gateshead owned by his old friend Jimmy "Five Bellies" Gardner.

It is the second time Gazza has needed treatment at the addiction clinic in Phoenix. Last May he arrived drunk and told a counsellor: "I am a disgrace."

Since then he has found himself without a club. A last-ditch pounds 400,000 move to Chinese club Gansu Tianma collapsed amid acrimony.

In December he was released by bottom-placed English Premiership club Wolverhampton when a hoped-for comeback failed.

And in January he narrowly missed serious injury when his BMW 4x4 crashed into a parked truck.

Gazza's sublime football skills made him an instant overnight hit with Rangers fans, who feted him for lighting up matches with moments of individual brilliance.

He signed for Rangers in June 1995 from Italian giants Lazio in the era of free-spending transfer activity in Scottish football.

Gazza arrived in Scotland already as famous for his off-pitch antics as his performances on it - and carried on in the same vein.

He beat up wife Sheryl in a Scots hotel in October 1996, leaving her with broken fingers and a black eye.

She later quit Gazza's luxury mansion in Renfrewshire, taking son Regan with her. She filed for divorce two years later.

In January 1998, Gazza mimicked a Loyalist flute player during Rangers' 2-0 defeat - in scenes that provoked widespread outrage.

He joined Middlesbrough in a pounds 3million deal in March 1998 but struggled to recapture his form from his Rangers heyday.

A spokesman for Gazza said he couldn't comment on the star's latest problems.

dan.evans@sundaymirror.co.uk