Coming from a country where gambling is like a plague (Most UK high streets are identical, gambling shops are everywhere), is that any worse than gambling elsewhere? Your chances of lucking into some money seem better there than on sports.

There's a side effect where stocks are no longer tied to company performance. It gets harder to seriously invest.

Yeah, of course. All other forms of gambling have an inherent negative return (the house has favorable odds always), while the stock market has a positive return inherently as most companies on the stock market are profitable, so it's better than slots or sports gambling for sure