What I have seen is that in our country, four people together create a gambling party and four people start gambling there (especially in rural areas). I have seen them gamble for a long time, if necessary, they spend the whole night in that party. In the meantime, if anyone wants to come out, they stop him from coming out, but there is no threat of beating. The threat of beating is given only to those people who are completely harmless. Moreover, those who are a little influential or powerful are not threatened with beating. Maybe they say that they will not let him gamble with them again in the future. That's all. They will not beat him and will not threaten him.
I am wondering how it is almost the same as my country. I'm not sure if it's the same, but I don't really want to reveal it. I am not aware of any casino houses in my country, and if there were any, that would be illegal too. Because gambling isn't legal here, and for offline gambling, people have to choose some different way. As you said, people choose card play as a gamble, but it's in rural areas too. Because if legal authority knows about the gambling, then gamblers will have problems. So gambling in my country mostly happens within a circle; there is not a wide range of offline gambling here.