I must disagree with you. Gambling was 98% illegal and suppressed in 1975. Since then it's been made legal in a 1000 ways. Gambling is highly regulated by the states and the states promote it and host their own lotteries.
The upshot is there many more gambling addicts today than in 1975. Gamblers Anonymous can confirm this
AFA Issues: Gambling - A case against legalized gambling
... In 1989, only 1.7% of Iowa’s adults were gambling addicts, but after riverboat
casinos were legalized, the rate of addiction more than tripled to 5.4%. ...
www.afa.net/gambling/acalg.asp - 34k - Cached - Similar pages
Well... OK, I'll bite. Lets play with your numbers a little.
If 5% of gamblers are "gambling addicts", what does that say about the other 95%? You are then arguing that 95% of the people can gamble legally without any adverse affects of "addiction" corrupting the rest of their lives... Are you willing to equate this to drug use? That 95% (or some other high number) of users can use without becoming "addicts"??
Interesting argument...