No system is perfect. Laws are made to protect the majority, not the minority. It takes a lot of effort individually to find out what is ethical, and education seldom teach these.

Freedom of religion and separation of church and state helps create a collective conscience to enact laws, but at the end it comes down to each individual's responsibility to search for the truth - an effort that advertising can easily tamper with. We could use more stringent laws for advertising.

Note that the gaming and crypto industries have parallels with gambling, both targeting the younger population (least able to control addictions)

Disney (a media conglomerate) was initially opposed to sports betting, but once covid hit their bottom line, they turned to this opportunity once it was legal.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27514437