There will be a great deal of

gambling going on to today. It is Melbourne Cup Day - a horse race which, for some reason, stops the nation. Parties are held for the event. "Sweeps" occur at work. (The year I won the packet of chocolate biscuits I had to share it at morning tea and did not actually get a biscuit!)
On top of that there is a large, indeed very large, lottery jackpot. The queues at the local newsagent (where the tickets are sold) have been growing longer ever since the results of last week's draw were known. People who do not normally buy tickets have bought tickets. They will probably gamble on the horses as well, even if it is just the sweep at work.
Then there is the American election. There are people gambling on that as well, gambling in more ways than one.
The Senior Cat has only just woken up to the fact that it is (1) Melbourne Cup Day and (2) that there is some sort of lottery.  He has known about the American Election for some time.  He is not interested in the first or the second. The third interests him because he knows that the outcome will affect our relations with the United States (and thus the rest of the world) for the next four years. We will not however be watching the progress of the election on television tomorrow. There is nothing we can do to affect the outcome.
If you vote you gamble. You gamble that the candidate you choose will get in and you gamble that they will be able to do as they have promised. If you don't vote then you gamble that the candidate others choose will do what is best for you and for the country. It is not like gambling on the outcome of a horse-race.
I know that the people I know in the US have either voted already or will vote. I can guess which way most of them will be voting and, like them, I know that not everyone else will vote - but every one of them will be gambling on the outcome.