How religious the country is will also determine their gambling habits. It doesn't matter how wealthy the people over there are or how vibrant their economy is, if the country has more religious population their gambling activities will be extremely low compared with countries that doesn't care much about religion. So this should also be put into consideration when deciding why some countries gambles more than others.
Are you sure? Here in my country which is known as the biggest Moslem country, in fact the number of gamblers is considered as huge.
I dont think how religious the country is, it will effect the number of gamblers because people own free will on what to do regardless what religion they are in.
1. Support from the government.
2. Bigger paychecks.
These 2 reasons are also not applied to my country because gambling is illegal in my country and our paycheck rate can be said as one of the lowest in the world.
I would add "culture or tradition" as the main reason why there are many gamblers in my country because gambling was something common decades ago and it was not something illegal for several years.