a. Gambling with help of friends and associates who share codes and betting strategies, versus,
b. Gambling alone depending on pure wits, knowledge and personal developed strategies?
gambling alone is the best way to go. that way, you know that you are depending only on yourself. if you risk too much, you know that you have yourself to blame and if you don't also risk enough, everything is just yours to handle. most of the times, being too close to other gamblers will make you try to gamble whenever others are gambling and that in itself is a disadvantage on its own.
I see no problem staying in the midst of other gamblers to gamble. You know why? because most of them are gambling responsibly. If you are in the midst of people who knows the rules in gambling and abide to it, you will easily be influenced positively. We ought to know the type of gamblers they are before agreeing to sit next to them. Yeah you might even get lucky to win, especially when you guys share ideas, check flaws and try to collect them. You may never know a new things awaits you until you find out.