I completely agree with your mate, most gamblers, and when I say most, I mean majority of gamblers take gambling as a means of becoming financially free, I have several of such persons in my area where I live, like an experience I shared some time ago here, one who quit his job after some series of winning in sports betting, he felt that was how the winnings will keep coming, but eventually, the winning stopped and now, he's out here in the street looking for another job, cus right now, he doesn't even have the money to feed well, let alone gamble.
Gambling addiction have destroyed many destinies, lives, and when i say, "destroy", it doesn't mean the person have to die, many today are living dead, that is they are alive, but have no purpose for being alive.
What happens is that there is a lot of people which fail to see a way out of their difficult financial situation other than to trust on their luck, and even if we were to explain to them that such a thing is a bad idea, as luck is not reliable at all, they may still try anyway thinking they have nothing to lose, however what they do not consider is that as difficult as their situation could be things can always get worse, and risking whatever small resources they have left in this way is a bad idea.