hi dave,
i could write a book to answer those questions..
why do people differentiate between then...?
because i think the two are seen as being very different. gamblers are the old style of punters, people that put a bet on and leave it.. traders are this new fangled style of gambler that to most people only arrived after the betting exchange made it a possibility...
i very much think most people see traders as taking the easy option to making money and gambling as being very much harder and stressful.. there's a twinge of envy from the gamblers, and a sense of the traders are cheating almost...
i think they differentiate, because they are right to.. they are different to one another. you say they are both doing the same thing essentially, but i kind of disagree. discounting the fact that both are gambling (trading has just as much risk involved), the two are vastly different in approach.
you can do a lot of trading without the blindest care for value. in fact, theres a lot of times when traders would do well to care less about value.. i think some people get into trouble when they kid themselves that they need ot care about it to trade.
gamblers are all about value. they live and die by it, though it is a slow death if staked properly, since it will take quite a considerable amount of time for the negative expectancy to play itself out or prove itself..and the same is true of having an edge.. this aspect make it incredibly tough to do, and makes trading seem the easier and more appealing option.
... you can also trade pre match and gamble during the match..
let me just clear things up a little more maybe..
i consider myself a 'position taker'. essentially, a form of gambler, who when judged solely on actions looks like a trader, but the two are different. think of it as gambling, but doing it many times during a match, rather than just once... though there are times when i do just have one bet.
i rely on value, in the same way a gambler does, though i am realistic enough to want to reassess 'value' after each point. if this is different than before then i alter my position as a gambler in relation to this.
this is different to traders, who will use a variety of different ideas to get in and out of the market based entirely on market data and movement.. it's not neccessarily just value.
think along the lines of... more value bets in a day = more chances for the positive expectancy to grow. you are adding to your edge each time you bet. figuring out 'fair value' is much easier typed than done though.
i think your question then is probably, could you make a living as a gambler (in the classic - 'one bet' pre match sense) ? honestly - probably not, at very best - maybe.