Before I've used Tor for bad intentions and because of curiousity on how does deepweb differ from what is filtered on the surface. I have seen much evil that im not gonna go back again. If you're in a country that restrict gambling online, I think vpn is enough that my friend does the same. Tor network won't insure anonymity or any kind of virtual private network won't help you hide your true identity if in your own your not careful with it. Bitcoin address is highly traceable and if without proper mixing of address and vpn it won't work. A simple mistake will trigger more damage that you won't know.
I've surfed deepweb once, there's nothing scary and to worry about, and ofcourse I always follow the guidance to make sure my safety, and holy shit, there's so many illegal porn content there people said but will never visit it though. and also, it seems that the deepweb itself is just bunch of people who want to try something different, nothing as scary as what people said.
and one thing, what's the deal of hackers knowing your address tho.
I feel you, only those who has the guts to go beyond the surface (search engine) filtered and into the deep web with much safety precautions must be allowed. It is something we and I should discourage on accessing by our children and those teenagers who have small knowledge on .onion sites.
Tor is not really a bad thing that is for sure, but on how or where you used it is a different stories. If in accessing it is just for learning purposes or experience its much better but if and only reason your visiting there is to make illegal transactions is on your own risk alone.
I know that NBI and Cyber crime division is monitoring that sites after the Silkroad controversy and I think it was shutdown. But correct me if Im wrong, havent been there for years now and no plan to be back.