Let me ask you something, I’d like to know how you treat the money you use for gambling. Do you consider it an expense or an investment?
Gambling is a game of chance with its outcome dependent on luck. Let's be clear on that. So, having that in mind it won't be that wise to class any money one spends gambling as an investment. It's like banking on something that one can't really predict. That's not how investment works. I see whatever that's spent on gambling as expenses, and rightly so too.
So why we still think that trader is a profession? It is the same with gambling. He tries to predict result and get some profit with it. Of course, i`m talking about sport betting, it is predictable and we can calculate something. Not 100% of course, but it can be enough to get profit. Random games is only expense, even if we sometimes win.
I disagree. In trading there somehow a safety pin to avoid losing it all. The market moves but it doesn't go all the way down to zero in an instant. A trader could still save his money if he knows what he is doing. Alarms and notifications will really help in this situation.
Gamblers on the other hand doesn't have this kind of features to help them save their money. The cashout button doesn't work when the team you are betting for is losing. It only works when you hit your bet and want to pull out early to avoid losing it in case the results changes while there is still time left
So I think there's a big difference.