A prediction - by 2030 there will be another temperance movement. This time it will be disaffected wives who don't want their husbands betting on sports. 75% confidence
However, you do see a lot of gambling shops around, and we get news stories of it being a huge problem.
I think if you're not based in the UK it would seem like it's a much bigger deal than it really is to many of the population. It's a big deal to a (small?) subset of the population.
There are some people that are hooked, and I've no doubt it causes a lot of misery in certain communities. I doubt there'd be so many betting shops without the addicts. Had friends who worked in those shops as students and they saw some pretty sad stuff. We'd be better off as a society without the betting shops, but now it'd probably all just go online and perhaps become something even more pernicious.
May I guess that you are not a soccer football fan? If you were I think this comment would be different. Football fans have been bombarded with gambling adverts for 20+ years.
Gambling is a very big deal in the UK. 40% of the population gambles on non-lottery at least once a year, 27% have done so in the last 4 weeks. 0.5% are problem gamblers and 7% have been affected by someone else's gambling. (all stats from Govt gambling harms review)
The highest-paid person in the UK is the head of a betting company. MPs are openly (Benton) and quietly selling themselves to the industy, who have succeeded in delaying reviews and watering down rules.
The parent post to yours is quite right to say that the US will inherit all of our problems in this area (if anything it will be worse) and I'm not sure you have the information to wave it away as you did.
My point is not that it's uncommon, but rather that it is very much not a feature of UK life or a defining part of culture for many people, perhaps a majority. We have a big problem with it in aggregate, but the coverage would suggest that this is something that everyone in the UK feels a part of, and that's just not the case.
The coverage of the US situation seems to suggest that the demographic split is quite different – that it's perhaps a younger crowd and perhaps not tracking so much with socio-economic status, where the UK mostly skews in different ways. There are similarities like our lotteries though. I think the US will get worse as they deregulate, although I suspect as it's in some ways a newer industry there it'll probably look a little different to ours. The problems will be the same though.
Anyone can become a problem gambler and, just as with other drugs, they become a problem for the rest of us.
In mainstream culture, it appears that Generation Z consumes less alcohol compared to earlier generations (although they might be substituting it with other intoxicants).
More niche but still present are the peculiar trends associated with right-wing groups, 'nofap' and similar movements.
If you're referring specifically to a movement involving spending money, I agree and anticipate that emerging as well, probably merging with one of the above two.
A very stupid analysis supports that idea: Looking at subreddit overlap with r/nofap reveals many right-wing adjacent subreddits in the top 10: MGTOW and asktrp (ask the red pill).
It's not to suggest that all forms of temperance are affiliated with the right-wing—many aren't, and some have even been noted in sibling comments.