There are many reasons why people prefer gambling from gaming. For me it's mostly the time required for each of these. If I gamble I spend an hour doing it and can move to something else. Online gaming requires a lot more time as RPG games are divided into quests and many of them can't be stopped until you reach a safe point. There are boss fights for which you assemble a team and need to reach the destination and win the battle (I played some wow in my time 
) I wish I had as much free time as 10 years ago.
It depends on the person, really. There are people who can be satisfied with just an hour of gambling while there are people that finishes until the next day, all just for gambling. Same with gaming. There are solo or offline gamers that just play just to pass the time while there are hardcore gamers that can play for 16 hours a day. Others even take adderall just to improve their gaming performance. It helps the player's focus, according to them. It all depends on the person, there's no such thing as time requirement in both gaming and gambling since both can be as casual as possible. ) I wish I had as much free time as 10 years ago.