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But if a gambler was playing he wouldn't commit a crime in the process either. I agree with you that it's the addiction not drugs or gambling by itself what makes people to commit crimes, but those kinds of addictions are very different. You can be distracted by something interesting and forget about gambling even being addicted to it, while this can't happen with drug addiction because you feel physical pain during withdrawals which can't be ignored.
Gambling has been historically intertwined with criminal activity but the connection has becoming weaker with the implementation of online gambling.
Gambling itself is a bad thing and the consequences are also worst. I have seen thousands of gamblers who ruined their lives because of regular gambling. You cannot make any money in regular gambling and once you become addicted, it will be difficult for you to quit gambling easily. You will not only lose money but also respect even in your own family.
I don't know what
respect you are talking about, but either way losing respect of your family is not a crime, as well as losing your own money btw. What we are discussing here is possible crime effect of gambling or, in other words, what percentage of gamblers is inclined to commit crimes because of their gambling.
In most cases the stats provided in support of the notion that gamblers commit crimes more often than regular people are wrong and manipulative. As long as 4.2 billion people, or over 50% of the world population, have gambled at one time or another, it is possible to compose any "stats". One can make up a research showing a "correlation" between gambling and divorces, deaths from lung cancer etc. Same can be done for people who eat cucumbers, drink coca-cola and so on.