You can't associate poker players with gambling either. Those are two completely different things. Of course you need luck with poker but you don't just depend on luck and that's the big difference. I think that poker is also older than (online) gambling. I'm still curious when online poker became popular and when it came on the market and originated. You also don't hear many new poker sites appearing, while at casinos and bookmakers you see one bookmaker after another emerging and new to the business.
Wow. Your explanation is invalid. Of course we can associate poker players with gambling.
There are millions of poker players around the world that gamble on their game. While this can be true for other sports, it is a very specific fact about poker. Sure you can know how to play poker and still not gamble on it, but that's definitely not the case here.
If you think about it, poker is mathematically just a different game of probability. You have a certain set of odds as to whether you will win or lose. Interesting. Just take a minute and try to answer this question: The odds of winning in poker are better than in purely luck based games or worse? And the answer is, it is better for some people and worse for others. Skilled poker players obviously have better odds than inexperienced ones.
Sure thing, there are freaks using poker as pure gambling. They are going all in all the time, irritating everyone around, and sometimes they succeed. But most of the time they don't finish in the paid places.