While I agree that the gaming industry is exploitative, it's unfair to assert that gambling is zero-sum by generalizing all means of gambling as "screens flashing bright lights for a few seconds."

You or I might value a video game more, but some people who gamble actually derive utility from the games themselves (and from a purely scientific standpoint, even a near-miss in gambling results in the release of dopamine [1]).

[1]:http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v36/n5/abs/npp2010230a.htm...