One of the biggest positives for myself and gambling are the friendships I've made from it. Formed a lot of good relationships with great people that I wouldn't have if I wasn't involved in gambling.
It really does help stimulate the economy as well by providing jobs, this is something that the gambling naysayers often forget about.
I agree with you about making friendship, I think it also helps being patient.
Nothing like being patient when it comes to gambling as what is mostly important is to accept your fate of losing even before you start the game and that would make you to gamble what you can afford to lose anyway.
Benefits of gambling to me would be more applicable to the casino owners and not for gamblers except for those who were able to have some heavy luck and smart enough to win a huge amount of money and cart away with it without acting stupid to lose it over again.