Do Layer-2 networks such as Base and Optimism ring a bell? ETH can already scale to millions of TPS. At least, using one of the aforementioned off-chain scaling solutions. On-chain speaking, you'd need to wait until gas fees decline to make your bet. With developers working hard to address ETH's scaling issues, you can feel confident fees won't stay high forever.
I've always wondered why a decentralized prediction market like Augur lost its luster. Even with the high fees, that wouldn't have stopped someone from creating a fork on another chain with lower fees (or L2 network). Decentralized gambling holds great promise to revolutionize the gambling industry. But with high fees and low popularity, it will only remain a niche for gamblers. I'm afraid centralized gambling will continue to dominate the industry for long. The future is unpredictable, so we can only hope for the best.
Of course Layer-2 networks bell a ring, but I admit I am not familiar with those implementations when it comes to decentralized betting applications. You can see the same issues with the Lightning Network and how it is still too much to handle for most people. I am not talking about the Bitcoin geeks, they know what to do, how to set it up and where to use it. But if there is a platform that wants to offer truly decentralized gambling, it should be no extra work for any gambler to get started or otherwise I'd expect many people to just stick with their centralized platforms. I am all for technological progress, but people are lazy.
Hm good question, I wondered the same because I can see real value in such a network. Vitalik Buterin explained it so well on his website with the help of a concrete example and yes, prediction markets could be amazing as it is far more than just a poll where people don't have to care about their answers as they are not putting anything at risk.
I think it will depend on whether or not authorities are able to fully enforce KYC regulation. So far they don't and I have been using several platforms without ever providing any KYC data. But I am only playing with small stakes.