Gambling has been in existence since the beginning of human civilization, but Bitcoin on the other hand is just a decade plus so comparing gambling vs Bitcoin in terms of popularity won't make much sense because both don't have the same starting point.
Bitcoin has always sought out ways to provide alternative services in financial transaction and that is why most casinos adopted Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies into their payment system.
The gambling before the human civilization was not the organised one,it's like betting on the certain action or activity based on the probability.Sometimes it was like the ability of person to complete the task,which is very hard for the normal people to complete the task.Then the gambling was made with huge technology update and start with the cards the gambling in the offline mode.Then the gambling was started their service in the online mode.So the participants to the particular website was from all over the world.
So this means that gambling had been advertised even before the human civilization since you stated that gambling existed that way. This only means that we should not compare the popularity of Bitcoin to gambling because it is a no-brainer that gambling will have more fans and can accumulate more fans because gambling has been around for so long even before Bitcoin is created.
Investment and instant multiplier effect is one difference that you have pointed out here. Yes on a longtime, bitcoin is regarded as investment but at no time will gambling be regarded as an investment but rather it could be regarded as profit multiplier system that is, the aim of gambling is for quick and fast money generation but whether this manifest or not depends on the winning and losing rate of the gambler. People also known gambling because it is as old as humanity. In fact every older youth must have known what gambling is but has a choice to follow up with it or not but same will not be said about bitcoin because it is still relatively new and many countries have not legalized it which causes its popularity not to grow on a fast pace.
Gambling is based on the prediction of the exact option which help us to win,but btcoin the same manner.We should find the exact price to start the buy option of cryptocurency.The gambling website will allow us to do the fast deposit and withdrawal.So this made the gambling website more popular to other gambling website,we should find the good exchange to by the bitcoin and hold the money.
Come again? I got confused when you stated because gambling is based on the prediction of the exact option, it help us to win... and Bitcoin doing the same. I got confused reading this.
Anyway Bitcoin as a young industry against gambling which is an ancient Industry, we should not be surprise if Gambling beats Bitcoin to pupl in terms of acquiring new comers, besides gambling activities is addictive while Bitcoin is not.