Yes, you have to Understand something, at least I have many Friends who are really good people, they are the best , you can count on them for any eventuality, but with money they are another thing , they are capable of Becoming Someone's enemy if they don't give them their money or if they lend money and don't pay them back, so it is very bad that someone for money stops being someone else's friend, for me it is not well seen, for me things S hould not be reduced to just that , there is much more than just Money there.
It will great if we have many best friends that will be besides us in any situation so we can share many things to them. We can count on them and vice versa because we will take care of our relationship and will prevents any bad things that can happen. When we playing free games with them, there will be no serious competition because we will know that is just a game that we play with them in our spare time so we only want to enjoy our time together with them.
We don't think about the winner or who will be lose in that game because that game is a free game that we always play with them. That will not be a gambling for us because that game can be played without using money although we can use other things to have excitement of the games. We don't want to ruin our relationship because of simple thing.
Luckily I have opposite story where I used to gamble against friends/neighbors (mostly card games) for so many years but it does not ruin our relationship because we are aware that when we play against each other (money involved), the main point is not about the money but about the moment of fun and moment of togetherness.
Of course it will always depending on how mature someone is because I also know that there can be a conflict between friends when it comes to gambling especially if someone is cheating or cant pay what they should pay while gambling.
You get your exciting moment with your friends and that will be valuable for you and your friends. We may not have that moment again when we are grow up and search for our living and we will be busy with our life. We will miss that moment especially when we can playing a game whether that is a gambling game or just a free game because in that moment, we share a moment of fun and togetherness that we will difficult to gets again.
Yes, conflict will always be there but as you said that will depend on how mature we can understand the matter so we will not fight each other because of a simple thing. We will take care our relationship no matter if we are far away with our friends so when we meet them, we can remember our good moment with them. Geez, I really miss with all of my best friends