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.
Yes as I said above that basically it all depends on the environment and the situation which will be used as a benchmark in terms of making the best decision, they will make decisions that are in accordance with the situation and the surrounding environment, simply put if for example their environment is anti-gambling then yes obviously the decision is to keep gambling activities secret, and if indeed the environment around them is free of gambling or that means their country legalizes gambling activities then maybe they will not be too secretive about their gambling activities which maybe they will even gamble in public places. But overall and in general I often find that the reason why people choose to keep their gambling activities a secret is because they don't want others to interfere and also they don't want others to have a bad view of themselves and their personality especially when their country is an anti-gambling country where most people have a negative view of people who are involved in this activity.