Legalising gambling is a much better solution than the alternative of back room illegal gambling, loan sharks, enforcers and hit men. Shit it's not far back in history.

The problem is it needs to be heavily regulated, like: mandatory industry-funded addicts support services, high tax industry, no advertising allowed (including online), regulated opening hours, system-wide self-ban system for problem gamblers, no poker machines anywhere but casinos, etc - you know, things that smart countries do with success.