Basically all decisions are in the hands of each gambler and we cannot force them to choose one of them between keeping it secret or publicizing it, because as we discussed that most likely someone makes a decision depending on how the situation is in their environment, like you where you prefer to keep it secret because you feel uncomfortable when someone mocks you, and it doesn't matter because everyone is free in terms of making the best decision according to them.
We can easily decide to keep gambling activities secret or public, it all depends on personal decisions based on environmental factors, work, religion and perhaps other factors involved in financial losses. However, some people prefer to keep gambling a secret to other people because they don't want the predicate of gambling to be involved in someone's behavior, but in countries that have gambling regulations, there will be many people publicizing gambling even though they have to comply with strict regulations.