Am not a fan of mingling with friends when gambling, this is not because I don't have one, but I don't derive pleasure in working with friends when am gambling, sometimes being alone is of utmost importance to me, as I can't afford to gamble when am being distracted by friends, except on some rare cases I may personally intend to seek for their presence in gambling.
Then you are not a hard core gambler, you only gamble for fun and for personal reasons, if you gamble this way then you don't need to associate with friends when doing so, also this might depends on your lifestyle too.
In my own case, I was gambling with friends before until I stopped gambling, ever since then, my friends no longer talk about gambling with me.