This is why if you like to gamble it is a good idea to have a small stash of altcoins that have very cheap fees and that you can use in the case the bitcoin and the ethereum network get really busy, litecoin and dogecoin are good options for this, especially dogecoin which not only can get you a fast confirmation but the huge amount of dogecoin I get for my bitcoin makes me feel I am betting a lot of money when in fact I am just betting a few dollars.
It is a fact that i am mostly wagging with dogecoin or XRP whenever the price of bitcoin starts to rise and especially when the network is congested i will always go for alts that could confirm in a short period of time. The price of bitcoin does affect my gambling as i will tend to take less risk when waging with bitcoin whenever there is a rally but i care less when waging with doge irrespective of the market.
Same here, usually XRP and doge for transaction. Bitcoin price is a big factor when it comes to my gameplay. Though I seldom play, but when it does I check the conversion rates first. Same here, that spending bitcoin looks expensive especially when price is mooning.
It looks expensive but you can always play the same amount in USD with Bitcoin, Doge, Litecoin, or XRP. It actually does not matter which cryptocurrency you are playing with if you just want to play a fixed amount of dollar in every bet. But like you said sometimes it really feels like if you lose Bitcoin you are losing a lot. Perhaps it has something to do with the very high prospect of Bitcoin's growth in the future.