If the player is trying to make a game with his work and it is unlikely that it will already be a hobby, but rather the main way of the ease. And a fool who really play for the sake of entertainment on weekends or with friends in some kind of short period can definitely be called a hobby in this case .
In other words, if the hobby is not getting you distracted or harming you in any way such as financially then we can consider it as a hobby.
If someone is gambling casually then he is having gambling as a hobby but if someone is repeatedly gambling and losing money which he cannot afford to lose then it's not a hobby but an addiction.
So is better to take it as an hobby than being addicted to it , because taken it as an hubby, you can easily control yourself and prevent the act of going overboard. Because most time is those that are literally Addicted to gambling, usually endup getting ruin by it because of the lack of self-control most time . For instance we all know that is hard for gambling addict to stop or call it a day after experiencing a certain loss or winning while those that are into it as hobby can easily stop whenever they have experience a certain loss or win .
If at some point I am left to make the choice between taking gambling as a hobby or becoming addicted, I will probably choose hobby because with that I can still place some limits on my gambling involvement but if it becomes an addiction then one will have a lot of problems in controlling of your gambling engagements which could possibly result into more severe conditions that could put one out in the negative limelights.
But if you have the choice of utilizing your timing in form of how you engage with your hobbies which allow you to place schedule on all the activities, this helps you alot to make the right decisions, that limits your overall experience and help shape you activities as a gambler.
Even though you will be gambling frequently as a hobby, you will still not become addicted since you are doing so within the limits, unlike in case of an addiction where everything goes.