You are right about this, there's no way the government can fully regulate gambling, it's more of a personal problem that the affected individuals must deal with by themselves. Many gamblers try to make gambling a source of income and that's where the problem of dependency start's from. Imagine what you planned to make a source of income is now constantly taking from you. In the long run no one actually gains more than the house or bookmakers, everything is calculated and the odds are always in their favour, you can only get lucky.
Honestly, I still wonder why and how a gambler would think that he can actually make a sustainable income from gambling, I know there are people who make good money from gambling but if you check very well, these are often people that have lost even more to gambling, so calculating the losses and the wins, you’ll find out that the losses are way more than the wins. I know of someone who constantly visits the casino every day, and this fellow spends both time and money everyday in gambling, and one day, he managed to hit a big win of over $4k, this was his biggest win, and perhaps the biggest amount he’s seen all at once, for a person of his status, this amount was enough for him to set up something that’d give him the sustainable income he was looking for, but no, he got himself a second hand car for his personal use, and as of that time, this car was around 3k, and then he started using the money left to gamble and foot his bills, and in a matter of weeks, the whole money was gone and he was back to square one, the only difference was that he had a car. A car he couldn’t afford to fuel, and in no time, he sold the car, used some of the money to foot his bills and the rest, back to the casino, and then he was back to where he used to be.
A lot of people who are dreaming of making it big in gambling do not even have the ability and capacity to handle such big amount when it comes, and when/if it eventually does, they squander it and in a matter of time, they’re back to nothing. Gamblers should really learn to set realistic expectations when gambling as this is the major problem most gamblers face.