So far I remain convinced that one of the biggest triggers for addiction is winning. Logically, everyone likes winning or getting money and everyone certainly doesn't like losing money.
I have seen some gamblers in my locality, they haven’t won any reasonable amount of money from gambling, and they are already addicted to gambling. Most of them are pushed to keep on gambling just because of the stories they hear, they see people around them winning, which is always motivating them to keep on gambling, hoping they are going to hit a jackpot if they don’t give up. Also addicted gamblers do motivate each other not to give up because their time to hit a jackpot might be close.
So I won’t really say it’s only winning that makes people addicted to gambling, but it’s both. Just that if you have won some good amount of money before, then you will find it very difficult to get back to your right senses, but if you haven’t won any good money, you will find it kind of easy.
But the best thing is to just try to stay away from addiction, make sure you understand what gambling is all about before joining, avoid having the mindset of making money from gambling, just gamble for fun, and that’s all. If you are looking for a way to make money, then get yourself a job and work.
Everyone has their own perspective in terms of responding to everything, meaning I respect your opinion my friend and maybe it can be justified enough, but after I read about the scenario you told about the gamblers in your area for me it is not an addiction but rather feeling "tempted" by the victory produced by other people they see which indirectly attracts their attention so that they gamble to get the same victory as other people.
For me and in my opinion addiction means someone who is addicted to something, like those who have managed to win a certain amount and in the end they continue to gamble in the hope of getting the same victory as before, so in my opinion addiction is something that cannot be described but you can only feel it which makes you always want it which happens because of an increase in interest in yourself.
I can't be sure that my opinion is completely correct because as I said everyone has their own perspective according to their way of thinking, or maybe I would also say that winning has a greater chance of making a gambler addicted than losing, so I can also say that your opinion could also be right, in the end the best thing is yes as you said that when we want to get involved in gambling then as much as possible we should eliminate the intention and goal of making money, that is always the initial trigger for various impulsive actions.