There only in a few cities in the US where you can gamble like that, it's illegal in most places.

Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Indian reservations, cruise ships, and casino boats are the only places I can think of that allow gambling in the US.

I'm not sure if there is a loophole for horse racing tracks or how that works.

Video gaming machines might be what you what you saw but they're really not much different than an arcade that spits out tickets. I think those video gaming machines are becoming more rare / illegal.

Our brains aren't wired to correctly calculate the fact that we're more likely to lose than win.

Same with lottery tickets, people get addicted to those things and don't stop until they run out of money. Even people in Haiti would receive a little money (meant to be used for food and other essentials) and spent it on lottery tickets.