And another fact why people may simply choose or spend more in gambling over investment and which is why the survey results that maybe even the case even outside America, people would spend more in gambling than investing in stocks, is simply because gambling's pacing is faster and less complicated compared to stock investments that needs different approaches of analysis to understand the market to minimize the risk of losing.
Also, gambling is a form of an entertainment, so majority may surely find it more enjoyable than trading, so there's that.
Or people are so fed up with casual forms of entertainment (for example like going to a movie, watch sports game (which stimulates to place a bet), spend time outside) that in the search of new ones, they have stopped at gambling. Because it is both entertainment and a chance to win. When investing is kind of a work. People would rather have fun and might earn, that only might earn. Digitalization has helped a lot to attract more people to gambling also.
..Or they don't want to put much effort into the earning part.
Gambling gives that, but with the knowledge that luck is the biggest factor still.
And people sometimes forget about it.