It seems that way. Cloudbet are probably not involved in shilling and the two scenarios you listed are most probable in this case. Shills and scammers in general try to infiltrate threads in various ways in order to gain an air of respectability as they progress towards their ultimate goals.
I don't think Cloudbet is behind the shilling, though. It's an old casino, they have had so many campaign in the past, and they definitely know the forum rules. This particular ring of scammers or bumping farm just replies other threads to;
1. Increase post count.
2. Make their accounts undetectable to the snoops by covering their tracks in legitimate threads.