Important context that many of these dollars are counted multiple times.
Ex: you bet 100 and win, bringing your holdings to 200. You bet another 100 and lose, back to 100. You’ve gambled $200 but have arrived at the same number you started with.
I have friends who gamble in excess of 100k/yr total. In general their net is +/- 3k. $3,000 is a lot to spend on a hobby, but the overall number can be misleading
Good call out. I hadn't considered this. Would be interesting to see net.