It may be like that, but it works for me personally, sometimes I have so many things on my mind that playing is like therapeutic, it has a positive effect, of course this is how I free myself from the current situation, for me it's similar to when I go to the football stadium to sit with my team, it's a different environment, one de-stresses, my worries are different and that can turn into fun for me, the problem that could be caused by making this into a game is not controlling oneself, but since before playing I have money available that I can lose, there's no problem.
If you are stress and go to the football stadium to sit with your team and yell for them or do something fun, that will help you to release your stress. But if you go to casino and play gambling and lose after playing for half an hour, you will difficult to release your stress because of your losses. It is because your mind can not accept your losses easily and you come to casino wants to release your stress and wins some money. But rather than winning the money, you even loss your money without having a chance to recover your losses or win the money. So you are free to do other things besides of gambling to escape from your reality so you can release your stress. But if you still wants to use gambling as an escape, that will be up to you 
I think that I am definitely liking the sound of the football staduim much much more rather than the casino. If you're betting on a match at least you have the gratification of enjoying it over just sitting in some dim lit room with a bunch of other folks who are probably half drunk and all gambling their money aimlessly to try and win something or catch a rare streak of luck in many cases, unless you're on a wild streak!!! Definitely a possibility haha