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If there's any government officials reading this, it is important you all understand that the ban doesn't in anyway stopped your citizens from still accessing these gambling platforms online with their phones either through VPN. And this evening makes the citizens risk losing their money to the casino whose ToS is against the use of VPN. Your citizens now lose more to these casinos without the country receiving any royalties as revenue raising. Invariably, it all ends in favour of the casinos at the end of it all. Because you can't really stop your citizens from gambling at this digital age, except you plan on manning one policeman to a citizen 😜 , which is not possible.
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VPN is good way to go around government bans when it comes to seeking information, but it's pretty weak argument when it comes to gambling. Because i don't think that majority of people would risk making accounts on sites where their country is restricted.
They would just risk their money that way, and it's not like anyone is helping them legally when their money is seized. Even if it's just by a scam, because when it's you who is breaking the law (no matter how stupid that law is) who would you go to resolve the situation exactly?
But i agree with you that there are more effective ways to combat gambling addiction, and those programs could be used broadly to educate people about addictions in general, and they could be helpful in teaching about personal finance plans.