gambling is often seen as a harmful habit. my question to you is, in a completely free society, should someone be prevented from providing gambling services for the good of society?
from an individual point of view, it is everyone's choice to gamble or not to gamble. the management of your money is entirely up to you in a physical sense. but that doesn't change the fact that some people are going to go bankrupt, their lives are going to be very difficult with the existence of gambling. if it was up to you to allow gambling, knowing that it is inevitable when enough people are involved in gambling, would you consider it ethical?
do you think that things that can harm a person through their choices should be prevented, or is everyone responsible for their own decisions as long as they are not forced to make them?
I've yet to see a good reason that somebody should not be able to gamble, as long as they are fully informed of the rules and have at least an average amount of intelligence - nobody is forcing them. It is simply opening up the possibility to exchange a small amount of money for a larger amount of money, but knowing that the prizes are not appearing out of thin air, some players will be a loser out of the equation. I do think that casinos and bookmakers should offer a comprehensive way to opt out and self exclude, ideally with up to five years as an option, because we might all be vulnerable to forming an addiction. Everyone can go through rough periods in life and when your defenses are down, those little boosts of happiness you get from winning can land you in a trap that is hard to escape.