I did some research on how Bitcoin was used in its early days, and it shows that between 2012 and 2014, around 25% to 50% of all blockchain transactions were linked to gambling. Dice games were the most popular at that time, and everything was in Bitcoin because Ethereum only launched in 2015, and casinos or sportsbooks hadn’t started accepting ETH yet.
I guess you're right on that. A lot of early adopters and users of Bitcoin got to it through their gambling and gaming activities. One of the OGs in this industry I know said he started using Bitcoin because of certain Ponzi schemes he was running back then. He narrated how he would send 0.5
BTC to ponzi sites which was nothing then. Till date, each time he talks about it, it's always with regret how he wasted what would've been a generational wealth for him.
Perhaps, maybe because of Bitcoin's early years of romance with gamblers and those thought to be criminally minded that made notable people in finance stay away from it, and even spoke against it. Looking at it now, I can't say I truly blame them.