you're right, so why are we creating more ways for people to lose so much money?

Bit of a tangent from your comment but I heard the argument once that, 'well people who are already addicted would find a way to do it illegally, at least doing it this way makes it legal and protects them from people like the mafia' to which I agree but it also makes it easier for people who aren't already addicted to become addicted with how often it's advertised. It's like saying 'well listen, those kids were going to see others smoking cigarettes so instead of getting ripped off buying cigarettes from older kids who would mark it up, we started offering safe cigarettes at the school. They don't have to smoke them but at least when they do they'll be smoking safely.'

To a degree I'd argue gambling can be more insidious - it's quite hard to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars being an alcoholic or drug addict, and also quite a bit easier to hide from your family (until your husband or wife sees the credit card/bank statement I suppose).