Since gambling has some kind of a negative reputation built with years, then people will also talk negatively about me gambling. I and nobody likes to hear anything negative about them. That is why I would avoid such conversations or try to stop them early. I dont want to hear how «bad» I am. I wont care about what people say, because I would not hear or listen to this conversation, or will never know that they talk about me gambling.
I didn't care when I was young,didn't have my own family and used to go in landline casinos back at that time.People kept talking the worse about anyone who gambled at that time,it kept coming at me unless online gambling come to the rescue so I changed although not for real,I started going to church in on Sundays until people changed opinion about me as I could not get married otherwise,so I only started to gamble online and now I still do,I never go to a landline casino because people can start again,while I have my own family now and living happily with them,my wife knows about my online gambling and is the only one.I don't care much about people opinion but once it gets repeated so often it becomes a burden which is better to throw away.
You say that you never cared about people talking about you gambling, but from your post it looks that you care and you do it a lot. Look how your gambling habit has changed, you have switched from offline to online. You feel uncomfortable when people discuss your gambling activity, and you even went to church to create a different vision of yourself. And that is only what you have mentioned, as I feel like you have others examples how people influence on your gambling passion.