Legalizing is of course can be a big factor to increase gambling addicted, especially in the country where I live, gambling is prohibited and there are examples of 2 years in jail for promoting gambling on social media, because the government strictly monitors gambling addicts, so many people do not want to be involved in gambling, and those who are involved in gambling maintain their privacy, they have to gamble and even hide from their families. A few days ago, the government identified and permanently banned over 50,000 MFS (Mobile Financial Services) accounts involved in gambling transactions. So many do not want to start gambling because of these fears.
That's just the difference, it's all in the law. What the law approves is what many people tends to get involved more a lot than what the law is against for fear of legal consequences. So it isn't surprising knowing that sports betting is more in participation by gamblers in legalized states than in states where it's criminalized with penalties given to defaulters, there can't be any debate against this.
There are so many gambling rules you might be breaking right now and because the law has not been used on you that is why you might think that you are doing the right thing. Some gambling laws are confusing and if you don't have a lawyer that can explain it better for you, you may think it's well explanatory. We often break the law every day in ignorance and until the government come for us, that's when we'll know the deep meaning of some of the laws we must have been breaking.