But then also for some of us, gambling is based on just fun for us and at that we will only offer to spend our time while we already free from every other task for the day, we gamble and sleep, mostly on the weekend.
I believe on his case, his co-worker is not literally gambling and working at the same time since he is playing sportsbook which doesn’t need that much attention once place bets. Anyone can place bet quickly using minor breaks on work.
I think playing slot games at work that requires attention is what the OP doing that makes him distracted at work. I disagree that most of us here doing this kind of gambling at work. I will never do this because it’s forbidden at work. There’s a repercussion on doing this and caught since it will reflect on your resume that will make you harder to find jobs in the future. There’s a time and place to do gambling and that’s not on work for me.