Adding some sort of mini-game in the cantinas would be a great way for the average player to kill time and lose/gain a few credits while waiting (for friends to finish up what they're doing, waiting for a group to form, just socializing, letting their crew to finish they're mission, etc). This would make down time a lot more pleasant, and give an actual attraction to these areas besides rested xp. The closest thing currently implemented is space missions, which is a great time killer, but you can only ride the same lines so many times .
If you cannot implement gambling due a worry over legal or social issues, consider that even the pokemon games had gambling in several versions, and that you could always just make them "friendly" no credit games. Besides, Pazaak has been implemented in previous star wars games.
If implementing space in every cantina is an issue, you could just redo a portion of nar sha da, as we all consider it the Las Vegas of Star Wars anyways. Though I would imagine players would prefer to have it on their Fleets (or to push more deluxe editions you could place them in the VIP lounge as an added perk).
If this doesn't get implemented, like in most MMO's, people will eventually invent their own form of unsolicited gambling.. rolling for credits, betting on duels, etc, which is a bane to customer service for scams and disputes, generally ending in dissatisfied customers who feel swindled.
Thank you in advance if you already have something similar planned. Otherwise, I hope to see something like this in a future patch.
Regards,
DrZip