Ancient Indian texts shows that gambling was a part of people's life.
Type of gambling may vary from country to country/people to people.
Gambling habit had started one of the biggest wars of Indian History i.e. Mahaabhaarata.
Here is an article about it if you wants to know more:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2910357/It's about
compulsive gambling, but probably in older times almost all gamblers were gambling addicts. That's because people weren't cultured much in the past, and hence they were greedy and envious beyond measure. They could put at stake their children and wife , they could easily kill out of rage. Only a few people are like that these days. Because of the education today we have higher level of morale than people used to have in the past. And that's why we can be responsible gamblers.
There are many historical references to compulsive habits along the story, some of them affecting kings and emperors. I guess it is in human nature to look for things that thrill and cause good instant gratification. But it is not less true that it is human nature to look for a better version of ourselves, so if anyone fall for compulsions it may be corrected with some help.