It is, operatively, a casino.  The games are entirely different from vegas-type casino games, however.

People have various kinds of fun there....  but like any real casino, over time you will likely lose money. Some people don't seem to realize that and get upset.... just like real life in real life casinos.  Some people do win pretty big there.... One fellow hit a 165 BTC jack-pot a couple months back, for instance.

IN the game, you do 'progress' through various 'levels'.  The advantage to doing this , well there are several.... each higher level increases the rake-back that you get paid, for instance.  At level five you can start to take on students, of whose gambling proceeds you get a cut.  Too, you get access to some more interesting Islands as well.

Also there is a social/sociological component to the game: when you get to even the mid-range levels you have come to know some of the other players, and take your place among them.  Sure... it's all just a game, of a kind. But some say that about incarnation period.  To me that is not an unreasonable contextual placement.   

And if you want to test your patience, Di is always ready with his unpredictable, often unannounced, sudden changes.  No extra charge, sort of, for this last~

XD

~Scorp