Gambling seems far from helpful to me. Because when i gamble more appear to be a greedy who then just throw away money i've earned from working hard. Maybe only occasionally gambling help me in an emergency, the rest even destroyed by greedy self-error.
Gambling is a destruction of life indeed we should avoid this vice because it will do nothing good if you will be overcome to addiction. It will become a help if just for fun and entertainment but if you exceed on that it will become a vice that may forget your friends, family and god. Almost everything will be lost.
We shouldn't be considering it as a vice in the first place. Playing once in a while is okay but as you said excessive gambling is a way to destroy your life...