Could be in any context. I do it a little on UFC fights but that’s a relatively low amount and I can afford I to lose any time I do. It seems like it’s becoming a really wide spread problem though, at least in the US. At the same time I don’t see why it should be illegal. Granted I also don’t think any drug should be illegal.
if you’re not first… you’re last
Gambling is paying the idiot tax. Every game is rigged in favor of the casino (or whatever). On the long run, you lose and they win.
Yeah in regards to casinos and scratch tickets I’d absolutely agree.
Anywhere else, too. Companies earn money off it.
You’re technically always losing because it’s in embedded in the programs and the host/casino/whatever cannot lose money. You have to be an idiot to be gambling.
Like most things in life, in moderation it can be fun. Adding some stakes to an activity can make it more exciting.
It becomes a problem when people don’t have the self-control to self-regulate, and when it’s designed to prey upon those people specifically, or to prey on desperate people who feel like it’s the only chance they have to get ahead, or who don’t have a good understanding of the risks or chances of winning.
Humans as a whole are bad at understanding probability, and our brains are wired such that the happy chemicals we get from winning are more impactful than the unhappy chemicals we get from losing. As such, someone can be losing money overall, but still feel like they’re winning, or at least, still get the rush from winning even though they’re way down overall. That’s dangerous, and gambling companies are designed to specifically target those people and exploit those destructive behaviors. It’s like the experiment with the rat that was given a button to give itself happy drugs, and it just sat there pressing the button constantly. Basically, the regulations are necessary because of capitalism, and because without them, those people would very quickly ruin their lives given the chance while the companies running the operation give zero fucks about it.
Then there’s the fraud. Look at prediction markets. They’re rife with fraud and bet fixing and it’s not only politicians and policymakers doing it. John Oliver had a piece on this recently where he goes into some detail, but there’ve also been articles about journalists getting harassed and threatened because they report on something that would cause a Polymarket loss.
In conclusion, some humans are shitty and we need regulations to keep shitty people from doing shitty things.
Yeah polymarket is such a strange thing conceptually.
I don’t think betting on sports should be illegal. The problem is the endless advertising and the way sportsbooks have invaded and completely taken over sports coverage in the media. Feels like literally everything now is just about discussing under/overs and what Vegas thinks.
Call me crazy but I miss when sports was about sports.
Yeah I hate how agressive the ads are on everything.
I don’t do it because it feels like I’m throwing my money away.
I agree if you’re talking casino slots or pretty much any highly orginized “game” at a casino.
I do it a little on UFC fights
I agree if you’re talking casino slots
Now is your time to shine and become smarter.
I’m talking among friends usually only a hundred or two on big fights. I don’t have or use any apps/books. Or sometimes 5-10 per fight if I have a few people over. I also have barely missed any events in years so my bets are pretty educated guesses lol. Again, this is money I can afford to lose and is just between buddies, it’s still gambling/betting though.
Since I have a basic understanding of how odds work, I don’t do it because it is throwing my money away.
Gambling with any company is going to be negative expected value. However, I feel the same way gambling with individuals where the expected value is zero.
Not necessarily with sports betting though: Then you have a legitimate possibility of being more well informed than the bookies. A casino is mathematically rigged such that you will lose over time, that doesn’t apply to games of skill (sports).
I don’t gamble myself, but I seem to remember reading that the average person actually makes a net win in football betting (that is, more than 50% of gamblers are winning). Apparently, the betting companies make it up because you have a relatively small fraction of people that are losing big, and losing consistently.
That’s a common misconception. Sports gambling is exactly like casino games. Odds are skewed in exactly the same fashion in the house’s favor, the payout is lower than the win probability. In the long run, the house always wins.
Also, as the industry relies heavily nowadays on trading where any event can alter the odds in real time, I guess the only way to cheat the system would be akin to insider trading.
I think you’re misunderstanding my point. You’re completely right that the house sets the odds it it’s own favour in order to make money, I’m not arguing against that.
My point is that setting odds in casino games like roulette is trivial, and there are no confounding elements that can suddenly make your odds wrong. In sports betting, setting the odds is highly non-trivial and pretty much impossible to do exactly. The better can look at the odds and consider whether they think the house has under-valued a certain game, which is possible, and bet on that. If the better is more well informed than the house, it’s actually possible that they make a net win. That’s completely different from a casino game, where the odds will never be in your favour.
I would argue that sports betting is a fair game, in the sense that the house sets odds, and you can consider whether those odds are in your favour or the house’s favour. Obviously, they will try to always set them in their own favour, but (also obviously) they can make mistakes that are exploitable to a well informed better.
Unless I’ve got some insider information on specific athletes or I’ve done enough statistical analysis to gain a statistical analysis to gain an advantage over the house, I don’t see myself getting positive expected value.
Also, it is in the interest of sports books for a rumor like that to propagate.
it is in the interest of sports books for a rumor like that to propagate.
Oh, definitely. I’m not sure about this at all, please don’t take it as fact.
I completely agree with you. My point is just that with sports betting the playing field is actually fair, in the sense that anything can happen and that the bookies and the betters are considering the odds based on the same publicly available information. That differs significantly from games where the house is mathematically guaranteed to win in the long term, while the gamblers are guaranteed to lose.
Except that the payout for those bets are generally done so that the house takes a cut of the overall action. The vig is baked into the payout for sport outcomes; betting on all the outcomes equally isn’t going to probabilistically give you the payout equal to what you’d buy in.
betting on all the outcomes equally isn’t going to probabilistically give you the payout equal to what you’d buy in.
Exactly. That’s why I’m differentiating between games of skill (i.e. sports) and purely statistical “casino games”. It’s possible to beat the house in sports betting, but only if you are genuinely better than the house at considering the odds. Of course, the house will always try to set the odds in their own favour, but it’s impossible for them to know the exact odds. Thus, a well informed player can, in principle, identify the games where the house has under-valued an outcome and exploit those.
This basically boils down to the fact that in a casino game, the probability of every possible outcome is known exactly, so the house can trivially set a payout that benefits them. In sports, it’s impossible to know the exact probability of a given outcome, so the house can make mistakes.
It’s like drugs.
Yeah I agree which is why I added that last part.
Personally, I think it’s a total waste of money and addicting for some people. I don’t think it should be illegal, but I do think that corpo gambling should be. Sportsbooks and their ilk are cancer, and gambling should not be something you can easily blow all of your money on from the comfort of your toilet.
Yeah having it as accessible as an app is really dangerous for some people. Shocking how much damage you can do with just your phone now.
Yeah. I wouldn’t want heroin or alcohol to be able to be administered with a single push of a button, why let gambling be an exception? At least make people have to wait for delivery 😂
Thats reasonable lol
Absolutely should be illegal. People will do it anyway, but there will necessarily be restraints on the way it fucks up peoples’ lives. Same as underage drinking.
What do you mean same as underage drinking?
The prior 2 sentences also apply to underage drinking.
There was a time that I actually had a bit of a gambling problem. Came into some money and decided to just not work for a couple years and live like Caligula. Casinos took care of a good bit of that money before I managed to stop.
And to me that’s the real issue. If you’ve got cash, don’t mind/care if you lose it playing some games, and can walk away without feeling any need to go back, hey, have at it. But if you’re like me and easily get hooked on shit and it makes you irresponsible, well, the casinos and the gambling apps will be just as happy to take your money anyhow, and pretend that showing you an 800 number to call about it is being responsible.
It’s pretty stupid. Definitely among top 10 stupidest things humans have invented.
I wanna hear the other 9 lol
#1 and #2 are leaded gasoline and CFCs, respectively.
Oddly enough, both invented by the same dude.
Ironically I recently watched a like 2 hour video on that guy. Largest negative impact any human has ever had on the world and other humans (arguably I guess)
I bet small amounts on NFL games when the season is active. $10-$20 a week.
I go to the casino a couple times a year with a set amount of money (usually $500), and if I lose that money, I leave.
I’m glad it’s legal. Some folks get addicted, and that sucks, but the same can be said about booze, prescription drugs, and even food. We don’t need a nanny state banning things because some people go overboard.
Yeah I’m a big proponent of letting people do what they will to themselves.
I think it should be heavily regulated when not done informally.
Informal gambling is fine. Not my vice but you do you.
Gambling as a business should be heavily restricted because of its destructive and addictive nature. The current state of things is like if everyone had a tap with running vodka in their home. Sure plenty would be responsible, but the people who use it most would be the ones who need it to be less accessible, while the people who use it responsibly would be fine having to go outside town to a casino or something to get their fix.
Yeah I’d be fine with a good bit of regulation.
I would consider any gambled money to be lost, the equivalent of lighting it on fire
It’s fun but dangerous. My father’s gambling addiction derailed my college career, though admittedly it was already on shaky ground. I’ve forgiven him for that but his addiction and the damage it causes is ongoing.
So: not a fan of casinos.
What a horror story. So fucked up when you hear about that kind of thing.
