Personally, I think that gambling or not everyone decides for himself, but to hide it, at least from your closest people is not the best solution. In addition, very often it turns out that the people around you know more about you than you imagine.
It is difficult to ask for a helping hand when you hide from the closest people that you play gambling. It is not that hard to become a gambling addict. If you ask any gambling addict how he got into such a situation, it is very likely that he will either not admit that he has any problems, or will say that he does not understand how it happened.
I agree with you on that.
Those who are closest to us must at least know what is happening. I have been occasionally playing casino games this week because I felt like I was getting addicted to it. My wife knew about it and she is the one who told me that I had been in front of the computer for longer periods than before. That made me realize that something must be wrong with me.
That's a good thing for me, a warning from another person. Some would perceive this as a bad intention but for me, it's a good one. That just means they care for us and they don't want us to end up being addicted to what we are doing. Gambling or games, it doesn't matter, we must be responsible for what we are doing and if it eating a lot of our time instead of doing something else then it's bad.
Keep it a secret with your neighbors but never with the people you are living with. They will be the ones who will notice if something is wrong and they will be ready to tell us anything without any hesitation. That's to save us, not to step on us.