We have the choice of making decisions of what we want and what we don't want. There are many ways to make decisions in especially choosing the kind of bet we want to go for base on our experience and interest. We should always make decisions on going bets that will give us profits and not make us lose big when we gamble.
Some gamblers are influenced and they don't chose gambling naturally. Either influenced by parents as a child or influenced by friends or peer groups as a youth. Even if you are not directly influenced, the activities happening in your environment will greatly impact you.
It is only few that makes the decision of betting by themselves. Note that when you are lured into betting in the early time, whatever decisions you are making will feel original to you but they are still influenced.
For Op, what you explained above is fraud and it is greed that leads to such type of fraud.