It's not a matter of pride or not, in the environment where I live it's exactly like you said, if they know there are gamblers they will think we are very bad, and in my country gambling is strictly prohibited in all ages so it's normal they can think like that , but if fellow gamblers it doesn't matter if they know that we are gamblers, so I better hide it, for convenience
Depends from a situation and just like how you choose to hide it just to prevent discrimination where you are in the place that people will automatically thinks that you are doing wrong, we can't avoid this kind of situation as there are still places where gambling is not fully accepted especially those rural and religious communities where they are treating gambling as sin.
As an individual you are the one that's needed to adjust, you can only disclose your participation from those who also have that same interest, people who are also involved in gambling like you.