Why Societies Gamble—and Why Crypto Often Feels Like a Casino

If you squint at a roaring bull run on Solana or memecoins ricocheting across X, it can look less like “investing” and more like a global casino with better UX. That intuition isn’t new: the appetite for long-shot payoffs shows up again and again in human societies, and modern markets—stocks, sports betting, and yes, crypto—keep reinventing ways to scratch the same itch. As one recent post by @cryptopunk7213 put it, crypto’s culture can tilt heavily toward a gambling-like ethos of fast thrills and skewed outcomes.¹ 

Gambling vs. Speculation (and why the line blurs)

Classically, gambling means staking money on chance (lotteries, tables, sports). Speculation means risk-taking in markets for uncertain profit. But the two blur because humans love skewed payoffs—a small stake with a chance at a life-changing win. In equity markets, researchers find investors chase “lottery-like” stocks (cheap, volatile, positively skewed); demand for these bets rises in bad times—exactly when hope sells best.² 

When does gambling emerge in societies?

Gambling is not universal. Cross-cultural anthropology shows many pre-colonial societies barely gambled at all. As economies monetize, grow more complex, and stratify, gambling becomes widespread and formalized.³ 

Who participates?

• Lotteries skew toward lower-income participants, who spend a higher share of income (regressive). Multiple studies across countries show this pattern.⁴ 
• Financial markets show a similar taste for long shots: investors with “gambling-type” preferences over-weight lottery-style stocks and underperform.² 

When do people gamble more?

• Macroeconomic stress: Lottery sales tend to be countercyclical—they rise as unemployment rises.⁵ 
• Boom times: Entertainment gambling (casinos, destination spend) is more procyclical. (You see this in Macau’s mass-market rebound as travel and income recover.)⁶ 
• Uncertainty & hope: In downturns, investors seek skew—more demand for lottery-like stocks and options.² 
• Access & design: Mobile onboarding, frictionless payments, real-time markets, and big-jackpot mechanics pull participation upward; policy frictions (e.g., bans on credit-card deposits) push it down.⁷ 

Region-by-region snapshots

United States.

• Lotteries revived in 1964 with New Hampshire, then spread nationwide.⁸ 
• Sports betting: After Murphy v. NCAA (2018) struck down the federal ban, a state-by-state wave followed; by 2025, 38 states + DC (and PR) have legal sports betting.⁹   
• Speculation: Zero-commission trading (2019) expanded retail participation, amplifying preference for high-skew bets.¹⁰ 

Europe (highly regulated, shifting fast).

• UK tightened risk controls: credit-card gambling ban (2020); online slot stake limits begin rolling out in 2025 (£2 for 18–24, £5 for 25+).¹¹ 
• Finland is dismantling its monopoly and moving to a licensing model by end-2026/Jan-2027, aiming to curb harm and channel play into regulated venues.¹² 

Latin America (rapid formalization).

• Brazil: Law 14,790/2023 now underpins a 2025 launch of licensed fixed-odds betting; regulators have begun blocking unlicensed sites.¹³   
• Colombia: First in the region to regulate online gambling (2016); Coljuegos runs a mature licensing regime.¹⁴ 
• Peru: Laws 31557/31806 and 2024 regs brought licensing online; operators faced a 2024 application window with MINCETUR.¹⁵ 

Asia (heterogeneous).

• Mainland China: Casinos illegal; only state lotteries are legal, with strict enforcement against illegal and online gambling.¹⁶ 
• Macau: The legal casino hub; 2024–2025 GGR rebounded strongly on mass-market demand.¹⁷ 
• Singapore: The Gambling Control Act (2022) modernized oversight and introduced class-licensing for lower-risk products.¹⁸ 

OK—so what makes crypto feel especially like gambling?

Crypto amplifies classic gambling affordances:

1. Skew and leverage by design. Many tokens are lottery-like (tiny float, viral narrative, moon-or-zero payoffs). Empirical work links higher gambling propensity to more crypto trading, with overlaps in loss-chasing, impulsivity, and novelty-seeking.¹⁹ 
2. Frictions are minimal. 24/7 markets, instant funding, social signals on X/Discord, and game-like UIs lower the “pain of paying” and turbocharge FOMO (financial regulators now study how “digital engagement practices” nudge risky behavior).²⁰ 
3. Regulatory arbitrage + marketing adjacency. Crypto brands and gambling/trading apps share stadium, shirt, and broadcast real estate, reinforcing each other’s norms.²¹ 
4. Narrative velocity. Unlike casinos, crypto supplies a firehose of new games—memecoins, forks, airdrops, perps—so the “table” constantly changes. When macro uncertainty rises, so does the appetite for tail-risk bets—mirroring lottery spikes in bad times and skew-seeking in markets.²,⁵ 

This is the essence of @cryptopunk7213’s critique: the culture—memes, community norms, sprint-to-riches stories—gamifies capital allocation. Whether you call it “innovative finance” or “degenerate gambling” often depends on where you stand when the music stops.¹ 

When do crypto “casino cycles” intensify?

• Loose conditions / great narratives → speculative manias (NFT summers, AI-coin waves).
• Stress/uncertainty → lottery-seeking and “double-or-nothing” behavior (averaging down, chasing airdrops), especially among retail with lower buffers.²⁰ 

What actually reduces harm (without killing the fun)?

• Friction on funding and stakes (UK-style credit-card bans; online slot limits) lowers binge behavior; analogous crypto guardrails (cool-offs, default limits, leverage caps) could help.¹¹ 
• Channeling into regulated venues (Finland’s shift; Brazil’s licensing) reduces black-market risk while acknowledging demand.¹²,¹³ 
• Better choice architecture: Fewer dark patterns, slower defaults, and clearer risk cues (a big FCA focus) can blunt compulsive loops.²⁰ 

References (footnotes)

1. @cryptopunk7213 on X arguing that crypto often exhibits a gambling-like culture (2025). 
2. Kumar, “Who Gambles in the Stock Market?” Journal of Finance (2009); demand for lottery-like stocks rises in downturns. 
3. Binde, “Gambling Across Cultures” (2005): gambling correlates with monetization, complexity, and inequality; not universal historically. 
4. Evidence on lottery regressivity: Crowley (Ireland, 2012); Mobilia (Kansas, 1992). 
5. Lotteries are countercyclical: Mikesell (1994); Horváth (2011) show sales rise with unemployment. 
6. Entertainment gambling as procyclical (Macau’s recovery on mass segment, 2024–25). 
7. UK risk controls: credit-card ban (2020); 2025 online slot stake limits (£2 for 18–24; £5 for 25+). 
8. First modern US lottery: New Hampshire (1964); subsequent diffusion. 
9. Murphy v. NCAA (2018) ends PASPA; by 2025, 38 states + DC offer legal sports betting (AGA; Reuters). 
10. Retail zero-commission shock (2019) expanded retail participation and risk appetite. 
11. UK credit-card ban details; stake limit rollout and rationale. 
12. Finland ends Veikkaus’s monopoly—licensing by end-2026/Jan-2027 (Interior Ministry). 
13. Brazil: Law 14,790/2023; 2025 authorizations and enforcement against unlicensed operators (Reuters/AP + legal overviews). 
14. Colombia: 2016 online regime; Coljuegos as first mover in LatAm. 
15. Peru: Laws 31557/31806; 2024 licensing via MINCETUR. 
16. China: Casinos illegal; only state lotteries permitted. 
17. Macau: Strong post-pandemic GGR; mass-market focus. 
18. Singapore: Gambling Control Act (2022) and class-licensing framework. 
19. Crypto ↔ gambling links (scoping/systematic evidence): Johnson et al. 2023; Delfabbro et al. 2021; Roza et al. 2024. 
20. FCA research on digital engagement and risk-taking; regret over “hyped” products; broader vulnerability stats. 
21. Broadcast-level co-marketing prevalence for gambling/crypto/trading apps (EPL analysis).