I was recently in Richmond Market. The stall-holder told me she had won £20,000 on a scratch card. She spent some of the money on a holiday and some on a new car. She blew the rest gambling it away. ‘But I thoroughly enjoyed myself,’ she told me.
Such a person is by no means a degenerate gambler. She receives value from the bet in the form of enjoyment and does not gamble beyond her means.
It all leaves me cold, but who am I to knock other people’s pleasure?