I do really believe that chat sections in gambling sites, play a huge role in order to maintain a healthy community of users which would enhance their gambling experience to be more enjoying. As far as I've observed, there are only few gambling sites which are seeing this point of view, or simply showing support to their community of players. Most of the gambling sites are disregarding such aspect and they only focus on promotions. Promotions would really catch the interest of the players to engage into a particular gambling site but, how long would they stay? This is the question. Most of the gambling sites do not know about the importance of an interactive community of players, in which can make a player stay within a single gambling site for a long time due to the enjoyment that he experienced.
If you would be drafting a chat section for a gambling site, I would suggest to make the design simple and visible. Most of the chat sections are TOO colorful which is a bit disturbing in the eyes of some players, also, it would look more simple, complementing its function. 'Fixed expressions and phrases' would also help because some people are lazy enough to chat what they think at first. Emojis of course would do. The most important part I think is to where it would be placed when displayed, either at the bottom or right side would be good, in my opinion.