Jay-walking the first behavioral addiction?

Last evening at the Big Book Meeting we were reading from Chapter 3 "More About Alcoholism" which beginning on p. 37, has the somewhat bizarre and humorous comparison of the insanity of the first drink to the insanity of an incorrigible jay-walker.

"Our behavior is as absurd and incomprehensible with respect to the first drink as that of an individual with a passion, say, for jay-walking.  He gets a thrill out oif skipping in front of fast-moving vehicles.  He enjoys himself for a few years in spite of friendly warnings.  Up to this point you would label him as a foolish chap having a queer idea of fun.  Luck then deserts him and he is slightly injured several times in succession.  You would expect him, if he were normal, to cut it out.  Presently he is hit again and this time has a fractured skull.  Within a week after leaving the hospital a fast-moving trolley car breaks his arm.  He tells you he has decided to stop jay-walking for good, but in a few weeks he breaks both legs.
On through the years this conduct continues, accompanied by his continual promises to be careful or to keep off the streets altogether.  Finally, he can no longer work, his wife gets a divorce and he is held up to ridicule.  He tries every known means to get the jay-walking idea out of his head.  He shuts himself up in an asylum , hoping to mend his ways.  But the day he comes out he races in front of a fire engine, which breaks his back.  Such a man would be crazy, wouldn't he?"
This example as noted is employed in the Big Book to illustrate the insanity that precedes the first drink and the powerlessness and unmanageability that characterize the alcoholic's life. 
But this anecdote is also a parable about behavioral addiction.  Early A.A. members were well aware of gambling as a common co-existing problem.  Now the field of addiction treatment teams with behavioral addictions to sex, shopping, the internet, pornography, high risk behavior, cutting and self-harm.  Its interesting in this example that the Big Book anticipates these developments and the common thread of the active principle of addiction.