I think we should all agree that casino is a place where "game" is played at the end. I wanna discuss about this a bit. People think gambling as something very important part of their life because they may see it as option to make money. But what are played in casinos? Games! Literally games. Games where you win or lose money. In our mentality we should embrace this idea. We should never deny its just a game which someone wins or loses.
I don't know if it's possible to get reliable stats on how people relate to gambling, on what they really think about it, but even without those data it is obvious that for the vast majority gambling is games, like you said. They know it. They don't think it's "very important part of their life", and although they hope to win big, they don't count on it, they don't borrow money for playing in the hopes that they will win return it back. It's only problem gamblers are like that. They are the minority.