Sunday Mirror: GAZZA'S HOOKED ON BETS

PAUL Gascoigne is being treated for gambling addiction.

He jetted to Arizona last week for counselling at a pounds 5,500- a-week clinic.

And the fallen football, idol told friends: "I'm in danger of losing everything."

Last week it was revealed how former alcoholic Gazza, 36, has been guzzling gallons of the soft drink Red Bull. It has now emerged he has been using the caffeine-rich drink to keep him alert while gambling.

For months he has been blowing up to pounds 1,500 a night playing blackjack at a casino in his home town 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 6,000 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's become a human Zebedee."

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

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.

"If it's not drink, it's something else - in this case betting."

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 lapsed on his pounds 15,000-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, Arizona.

Last May he jetted in drunk and told the counsellor sent to meet him: "I am a disgrace."

Since then he has found himself without a football place after a last-ditch pounds 600,000 move to China's Gansu Tianma collapsed amid acrimony.

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

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

Last night Gazza's agent said he knew nothing about the gambling claims.