Once a time gambling was centered around a large social event. Gambling house were made temporarily in places where there was a lot of crowd. But later on it became very popular with the people and occasionally gambling was organized. At that moment it starts to expand massively and settles well. Then it is also get legalized. And whenever gambling is conducted over the internet, it creates a world wide frenzy. Nowadays, people are gambling comfortably from their home.
History of gambling goes back to the ancient times.
Even in religious books there is so much references of the gambling - Hindu and chinese are very fond of gambling and they are good in it too.
For me I think there are different history of gambling which depends on era and region.
When you look at the asia history, you will see that it's quest different from the European gambling history and that of Egypt which is africa.
Difference regions with different history but looking at era and the type of gambling can make it different.
That is quite true, however there are also some similarities among the different regions and idiosyncrasies that you mention. While the details of the gambling and the games are very varied, particularly if you consider the games played in China and the fart East that seem to be quite different from the rest, the concept of betting as "setting a prediction" is common to all and very old.