mi keamcha yisroel, you can put ANY distraction in that category. That doesn’t make it assur. Smoking can be the same thing, plus it kills you. Smoking is more assur than game machines. You should campaign to assur smoking in all circles a much biger michshol r”l, affecting many of all ages, than portable game machines, which are used by a smaller circle.
Games are inherently muttar, but can be misused to become assur. This is true of anything muttar. Food, cars, work, etc can all be misused. I would hate to put all of them under the rubric of “assur”. Save your askanus for cigarettes.