There are (rare) situations where gambling is logical. It hinges around the obvservation that not all dollars are equal. It's basically the opposite of insur

There are (rare) situations where gambling is logical. It hinges around the obvservation that not all dollars are equal. It's basically the opposite of insurance, and most people consider insurance to be rational despite the fact that the "house always wins". A small regular payment that you can afford is preferable to an irregular large one that you can't, even if the small regular payments add up to more than the irregular large ones. The opposite effect can occur. Imagine if you owe the mafia $X but you only have $X/2. They'll break your legs if you don't give them $X. If you gamble and win you can pay off the mafia. If you don't gamble you'll be in basically the same situation as if you gamble and lose. So it's rational to gamble. The existence of rational reasons to gamble is problematic. It's very easy to convince yourself that you are in one of those situations even if you aren't.