Yes, it is not free to play, but I saw one post about adding a chat system to the game, and their opinion was that it would be much worse because anyone could chat and say bad words or other things, even if it did not affect the game. I believe it will become toxic soon, but the environment in Axie is not yet toxic, only when there are issues or maintenance.
It is very normal that we can encounter in any game, the community always has good people and there are always spoilers, even if they are cheaters
we shouldn't bother about it
There will be no in-game gambling feature. What the subject means is, Axie is planning to take the game to a higher level by dedicating servers to their future E-sports events. The gambling part is like the common and usual betting on other games on E-sports. To explain it literally, the community will place a bet on bookies.
I guess aioc misunderstood OP's question. By gambling, I think OP does not mean it would be integrated into the Axie Infinity platform itself. If I were to rephrase cabalism13's question, it would be like, "would bookmakers release betting odds for Axie Infinity tournaments in the future?"
Well, I think you two have brought this conversation back to the OP's purpose
Obviously, Axie's intentions lie to a new level, it is completely different from the current basic platform. I'm not sure they'll actually do it, but if you think about it in a positive way, it's clearly a challenge where they need to invest a lot of resources. It's not something that can be done in a short time, they need more time to perfect it than quickly move on to it. But is their idea really that interesting? It's too daring!