Maybe this could be done in other countries, not just in America, because I believe it would have the same result since gambling is more accessible than investing. I imagine how they think about having to learn even to open an account and deposit money, which is already hard for some people. So this could be the same for every country.
The part where you don’t have to think anything and could win large prices is probably enough to entice someone to gamble instead of investing.
I am pretty sure there are some developing countries in which it is more common for people to gamble than partaking in their stock market or the stock market of others countries as well. That is specially possible if we talk about towns and communities which are rather isolated technologically and manage more cash than electronic money or electronic transfers/wiring money.
Let us take a look at Nigeria, for example, there is very active gambling population in the country, so much that it seems gambling has evolved to be psrt of their culture, while on the other hand, I have not heard news about the Nigerian stock market or private markets from Nigeria at all, so it is easy and straight forward to reach the conclusion there are more gamblers in Nigeria than there are investors.
But that is an obvious example, let us take a look at other countries, like Venezuela, which has an stock market in the capital, but the volume of shares is so low compared to the size of the gambling and betting establishments in the country, that it is fair to reach the same conclusion one did with Nigeria.
In general, in developing countries there will be always be more gamblers than investors. The reason for it it is a question of debate itself, by the way