I agree with Dennis - it's all about location, though I do agree that the UK has problems with betting/gambling and alcoholism.
Imagine the difference you'd perceive in the US if you lived in a less affluent area of Mississippi compared with living in an affluent suburb of Boston or San Francisco.
Agree. I've visited areas in France and Spain that had me feeling the same way as OP and made me beyond ready to get back home to the UK. In fact, my first night at Madrid, walking to my accommodations, myself, my husband, and the three American friends I was traveling with were approached by a HEAVILY drunk man yelling at us in Spanish and gesturing like he was threatening t bottle us. What we could make out was that he was basically trying to mug us and threatening us if we didn't give him the money. It was TERRIFYING. And pretty much nobody left in the streets even batted an eyelash in our direction. He then started shouting something at us in French and then realized most of us were Americans and started yelling something abusive about Obama at us. He even attempted to follow us home [we were moving our luggage with us so not able to exactly move THAT quickly] until he found somebody else walk past he could approach. NEVER had anything remotely like that happen to me ANYWHERE in the UK...
The betting thing I don't really understand unfortunately
I guess my feeling is that if you don't want to bet, don't go in them? I rarely see people hanging around outside them or causing problems near them. Occasionally the ones on the outskirts of town MAY have a few people standing there smoking but that's about it and I live in a pretty busy city... I know I'm not from another area of Europe, but even in America we really don't have betting shops so it was a culture shock at first just to know they existed, but not something I can say really bothered me or made it hard to adjust. With the alcohol, I think there are alcoholics everywhere. Yes the UK does have a pretty hardcore drinking culture but I think any major city you go to you are bound to see drunks walking around being drunks. Never personally felt my quality of life was low, in fact sometimes i think it's the exact opposite and I didn't come from even a remotely bad area - but that is just a personal thing.
I think it would definitely be helpful to know what area you have moved to [and even maybe where you moved from] as I would put money on what everybody else is saying about this being the problem. Perhaps knowing where you came from, somebody can suggest a place more closely to what you're used to if there is a potential to move?
