Me thinks they are just looking for unjustifiable reasons to clamp down on crypto. If they say crypto currency is another form of gambling, then stock market is also a form of gambling, because to me, they are similar just that one deals in digital currencies.
I agree, it is one way of devaluing the importance of cryptocurrency. Since these people are frustrated that they can't control cryptocurrency, they are now into spreading misinformation about cryptocurrency and spreading the idea that cryptocurrency investment is akin to crypto gambling. Investment is way different from gambling since investment has several factors to mitigate risk while gambling has none since it is the risk itself.
It doesn't matter whether they see Bitcoin as gambling or not, that will not stop us from investing in it. Bitcoin is more of an asset and currency that can be use to pay for services and make transactions. There had been so many calls for the government to regulate cryptocurrency and now we are seeing that this is already happening, it is going to give the government a chance to supervise every corners of cryptocurrency making it hard for our privacy to be kept safe from the government.
A person who has knowledge about cryptocurrency will just laugh at the thought of cryptocurrency investment as gambling, and only naive and newbie people will fall for this misinformation.