As you said, if the casino is such that restrict our country, we should not play smart but abide by it. After all, such a casino is not the only caisno in the universe.
Unfortunately when gambling is illegal in your country, most of the top casinos would also comply and will not cater your country. maybe there are some out there that will cater, but you have a pause for a while and question their reputation as there are only few license provider in the industry and most of them have a similar rules. That's why some people are using VPN to gamble, but it's cheating, so they have to be aware of the consequences but if they accept the risk and possible consequences, then that's really up to them, what they just like is to enjoy in any available ways.
I dont think casino works that way. Gambling is illegal in my country but so many online casinos accepting players from my country.
As far as I can see, most casinos are following the regulation by the license and their own terms so even if gambling is illegal in a country but the country is not on the restriction list by the license and the terms of the casino then it will be fine.
Or maybe that depends from country to country. I think there are countries gambling is really discourage or it's a sin, so casinos are not serving the country. In my country, gambling is regulated, so I can't say it's illegal because there are casinos that are given a license to operate but when I visit to some popular online casino, I can see that they don't serve my country, some other casinos are not even accessible, so it's a case to base basis I guess.
Using VPN to bypass country restriction is cheating ofc but using VPN because gambling is not cheating for the casino but it is cheating for the country's regulation/law.
it's cheating on both ( casino and the country's law), but some still do it, right? So i think the punishment is not serious because there are still people who attempt in cheating just to be able to gamble.