[itake]

My example is not great. A better one would be an employee at an oil company may be personally impacted depending which party is elected and they want to create their own hedge.

on sports betting, people's income depends on if a team wins or looses. If the team didn't make it to the playoffs, then their bonuses (or income) is reduced. Sports betting enables these people to smooth out their income, instead of all or nothing.

I agree, these tools are frequently abused by gamblers (or better: the tools abuse gamblers), but unlike your typical casino game, there is utility in these services for certain groups of people.