The other thing about the drive to survive is that it is both a logical and emotional response. Emotions, fear, as an example, helps us survive. This isn’t the way our consciousness and mind think but it is the way our brain thinks.
Our brain is in our control, what we are going to do comes from us - emotions/feelings, and wants to do. But if we talk about gambling, it is a different thing knowing that we are not controlling it so we couldn't say that if we wanted to win, we win. No, because gambling is also controlled by others which is beyond our control. This means that whatever their plan (owner) will also be the result and this is why players often lose their money rather than winning.
With gambling we don't know when we'll loss control. If we're on the winning streak we'll have the patience to think and we'll place the bets. When we're on the losing streak the mind always thinks about recovering the loss. By this time we should've got the control to take a break, but most of us get triggered and multiply the bet value. This at times recover the lost fund and most of the time loss used to be the end result. Having limit on spending unlike win/loss used to be the best way to control ourselves.