The younger ones gamble more than the older ones. The reason is because the population of the youths is higher than the elderly, bad health conditions and death is a challenge to elderly people. Technology have made it easy for the youths to access the casino and place their bets easily, unlike the elderly ones who are used to traditional gambling, they need to go to where they will gamble.
Majority of youths see gamble as a get rich quick scheme, which is making more youths pumping into gamble, thinking that they are hustling.Elderly ones already understand that gambling is for fun, and they gamble only for fun. I don't think that there is an elderly person who have not gambled before in his life, that will say he wants to start gambling at old age. Any elder gambling, have been gambling for long.
The checkers game that you mentioned in which our elders use in gambling, is a game that I understand and know how to play it. So sometimes, if it happens that I need to see someone but he is at the traditional casino gambling, when I get there, I watch the game for a while to see who will win the bet, before I leave.
I also think that youths gamble more, because they are more inexperienced in money making. They are ambitious and always search quick and easy. Perseverance is not for them, and since a lot of games in gambling are quick, they gamble to get a better result faster. When elders slowly, step by step go to a desired result. (elders work / youth use gambling to get rich) And as usually, youth are in gadgets all the time, the chance that they gamble with it is higher than elder person would use a gadget to gamble.