The raison d'etre for the offense of fraud is to protect commerce. The state / society needs to enforce a basic level of trust for Business A to buy widgets fr

The raison d'etre for the offense of fraud is to protect commerce. The state / society needs to enforce a basic level of trust for Business A to buy widgets from Business B, and for Customer C to be employed, etc. Betting on sports / poker / etc. is not part of that. Nobody is creating anything of value when you spin the roulette wheel. At best, the house wins and most players lose... and that is a harm to society. At worst, the house cheats or some subset of players cheat, and most players lose... and that too is a harm to society. (Edit: At worse worst, it leads to violence, extortion, etc...) Gambling does not deserve the legitimacy of being policed.