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 .
You should also understand that an hobby can become an addiction with time. If you like dancing and you take it upon yourself to be dancing everyday. It will get to a point that if you don't dance in a day, you might not get yourself. Although this might have a little differences when it comes to gambling. Most reason why we become addicted to gambling is because of the urge to keep making money from gambling without even taking a rest. There are gamblers that wouldn't mind to keep gambling almost everyday especially when they don't have anything doing. Gambling is part of our financial decisions and it is good for us to be scrupulous about it.