The only time that what makes you free is on the time or moment that you are free from gambling addiction, if we do speak about free on playing then its literally that you can play anytime with gambling. If we do speak about being addicted and getting shackled with it then this is where issues do really come out. If you arent that good on handling your emotions or mindset towards gambling then you would really be definitely get easily be addicted into it. There's nothing wrong when you do gamble, it is really just that a certain person do really experience unfortunate conditions when they are really that making up some non good decision making in regarding on how they should be dealing up with gambling. It is really just that for the sake of fun and entertainment and not something that you do make it as an income source. People do really have that kind of high expectations towards it and this is why they do end up on having that huge problem.
Freedom from gambling addiction is freedom from need to play, not freedom to play. Large difference. People mistake "choice" for "compulsion" and then put luck the responsibility when the consequence hits. When emotions lead, logic vanishes. This is on the collapse of self-governance in a society under hyperstimulus. Loops of dopamine. Systems of instant gratification. Although you believe you are playing a game, the game is playing you. A online casino meant to control your neurochemistry is not at all casual. While some people "just have fun", those same folks also cross crowded roads since it "seemed clear". Wisdom does not equate with risk tolerance.
People gamble, not because they are broken. Their brokenness comes from their outsourcing of their value to chance. They are looking for control among chaos. A high-stakes shortcut to significance. And no one warns you because the whole thing profits off your delusion.
Therefore, no, it is not only about emotional weakness. It's about structural stupidity, marketed addiction, and the inner civil war between your higher will and your inner escape artist. Play for fun? OK. But you have already lost if you so want it, expect it, believe in it.
That's the consequences of addiction, if makes one develope a habit for that particular thing and they fail to evaluate the need of doing the habit but focus on the urge to which is not necessary, it's something that's very difficult to get out of and sometimes people even seek spiritual help when therapy and rehab doesn't yield solutions. Well, cases like that are not very rampant. Anyways, asides rehab, Therapy and the rest, quiting gambling addiction is a personal decision when someone has not made up their mindset to change, it would be tough to talk then out of it, even though much pressure is applied on them by loved ones, through rehab, thereapy or any means they'll still go back into it when the slightest opportunity arrives.