I am beginning to think that the only time a gambler gambles for fun is only when he gambles with what he can afford to lose. In this case, a gambler has $10,000 as his savings, and he gambles with $1000 down, he or she won't feel sad when they lose it (it means they gambled for fun). But if a gambler who has the same $10,000 gambles for above $5,000, and he loses all of them, the gambler won't be happy about his actions, and it might result in chasing of losses (which means he didn't gamble for fun). It means that both those that say they aren't gambling for fun sometimes gamble for fun, mostly when they risk an amount they can afford to lose. The actual time you gamble for fun is when you risk what you can afford to lose and not when you say you want to gamble for fun. However, a gambler might say he will gamble for fun and still end up not gambling for fun when he starts gambling. One can know a responsible gambler if he starts gambling.
While i understand your point, i've never encountered someone who would lose 10% of their savings and wouldn't be sad. I would understand losing your gambling budget, as that you have prepared to lose in gambling (and even then, most people aren't happy, even if they are playing for fun). But losing
savings? I don't know anyone who would gamble their savings, because savings are usually something that take time to gather, rather than pocket money.
You bring a good point about chasing losses as that indeed tends to happen only with people who lost significant amount of money, that's hard to recover from. That has happened to me and thought of using months to work and save it back seemed too much, so i risked and suffered more. These days i have learned to recognize that feeling what makes me to risk it all by chasing losses. It's similar to rage quit, where you are throwing in your last money as a hail mary and just want it to be over. And now every time i get that feeling, i am leaving the table / computer and quitting. I can deal with that feeling better if i don't lose
everything. There's really no such thing as cutting my losses too late, as long as i remember to do that i will recover.