I think it depends entirely on the culture. Because if you look at it, gambling is not popular everywhere, but there are many countries in the world where gambling is prohibited in their culture and in those places you will see that the amount of gambling is very low.
On the other hand, most Western countries do not suppress gambling in their culture and therefore the amount of gambling is also very high in those countries. There is no cultural prohibition on gambling, so it is natural that they would receive support from the government. But I can't say how much a role of Big Paycheck plays.