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.
This has been the opposite for me but I still treat it as a lesson. The people who introduced me to gambling were very nice to me initially. After, I joined with their referral links , they even stopped visiting me. I have seen fake people approaching me for friendship and then dropping referral links to various sites.
However, what you are saying might be true for physical casinos. This is true not only for land based casinos. I've made a lot of friends through online gambling, dozens of friends. Although we never meet in real life we chat frequently on various gambling sites or on related forums. Btw I've never joined any site with their referral links neither they've done it with mine. I think ref links "friends" is another story and maybe that's why you were unlucky with them. You can meet some really interesting personalities in the chat rooms on gambling sites and expand your horizons by talking with them. No kidding, try it.
True! So many times in social gatherings when you tend to meet a lot of new faces, play together on certain games, you get to familiarize yourself with people like this and can help you connect with them socially which we all know such connection might be of help in the long run.
You would really be surprised at some interesting people you will get to meet in casinos which are something that can also be used as an incentive or benefit for gamblers asides fun. Making money from gambling should not even be a thing to think about.