7 Sad Facts About Gambling

What does the word gambling mean to you? Most people relate gambling with games of chance, but you can gamble in many different ways. Some of these ways are more dangerous than others, so you need to be careful.

I’m going to share some of the things that I’ve learned from gambling over the past 40 years. This article isn’t designed to get you to stop gambling. It’s here to help you gamble smarter and get better results.

You need to be aware of some bad things to protect yourself. Here’s a list of 7 sad facts about gambling.

1 – It’s Called Gambling for a Reason

What do you believe the definition of gambling is? Is it a game of chance, or risking an amount of money in hopes that you win more than you lose?

The way most people gamble is risking money on a game of chance and hoping that they win. But they’re risking money doing things that are built to take their money.

This means that instead of gambling, most gamblers are doing things that guarantee that they lose over time. They get lucky from time to time, but they never get ahead. In fact, the more they gamble the more behind they get.

Why do you gamble in ways that everything is stacked against you? Is it because this is the way everyone else gambles?

The problem is that most gamblers lose. So you don’t want to do the same things that they’re doing. If you’re acting like the majority of gamblers, it’s time to make a change.

2 – The Illusive 100% Return to Player

Every type of gambling situation and activity can be investigated or analyzed using a statistic that puts them on even footing. Do you know if buying a lottery ticket or playing slot machines is better?

Every gambling activity can be viewed using something called return to player. The return to player is a percentage of all of the money bet on a game that gets returned to players.

If a slot machine takes $10,000 worth of wagers in a day, the amount the machine keeps and gives back in the form of wins is dictated by the return to player. A slot machine with a 90% return to player is going to give back $9,000 to players and keep $1,000 for profit.

The only way to win when you gamble is to figure out a way to get the return to player number over 100%. When the return to player number is exactly 100% you break even over time.

Most gambling activities are constructed in a way that you never get to 100% return to player. And this is why almost every gambler loses.

You need to learn what the return to player numbers are for every gambling activity that you use, and you need to find ways to boost the return to player number if you want to have a realistic chance to win. You can learn more in the final section on this page.

3 – Which Game to Play?

In the previous section you learned how to compare gambling activities. When you know which gambling activities have the worst return to player numbers you know you need to not participate.

And when you know which gambling activities have the highest return to player numbers you know which activities you can participate in.

The smart thing to do at this point is only play games that have a high return to player percentage. These games include blackjack, baccarat, video poker, sports gambling, and poker.

You’re still going to lose overall, but you can limit your losses. And once you learn more about the best gambling activities you have a chance to push the return to player to 100% and beyond.

4 – Winning Chemicals

When you gamble your brain releases chemicals that make you feel good. It’s interesting, but most gamblers get a rush when they’re making a wager that’s bigger than the rush they get when they win.

These chemicals are addicting. This is why you keep gambling. Your body starts to crave the feeling or rush you get when you have a chance to win.

Most gamblers enjoy the rush of chemicals for a while and then are able to walk away. They usually gamble again in the future, but they can control this addiction so it doesn’t negatively impact their life too much.

But some gamblers get so hooked on the rush that they refuse to stop until it completely ruins them. Being addicted to gambling can be a terrible thing. And if you think you’re addicted, you need to get help right away.

5 – Gambling Isn’t Always in a Casino

Though most people don’t look at it this way, the truth is that everyone gambles every day. When you drive to town you’re taking a calculated risk. You know the odds are good that you won’t die in an accident, yet people die in accidents every day.

The only reason why I’m bringing this up is that it’s dangerous to only think about casino games and things like them as gambling. Just about everything in life is a gamble. All you can do is try to alter your odds in every situation so you have the best chance of surviving and thriving.

This article is mostly about traditional gambling activities, but you can learn a lot of things that are useful in day to day life from gambling. Look at everything you do in a day and do everything you can to stack the deck in your favor.

6 – Gamblers Don’t Win

If you’ve learned everything that has been covered in this article so far you know that most gamblers are losing. And this is because they’re participating in gambling activities that have a return to player number lower than 100%.

You’ve got to stop gambling. Gamblers don’t win because they leave their fate to luck. And you can’t overcome a low return to player number with luck. You have to do something to change the numbers. This means you have to stop gambling.

This doesn’t mean you can’t participate in gambling activities. It means that you have to learn how to control the gambling activities that you do participate in so you can win. This is extremely difficult to do, but you can learn how to do it. This is what you’re going to learn about in the next section.

7 – Advantage Techniques Are Available, but They’re Hard

Everything in this article has been bad. If you didn’t know anything else except what you’ve just read, the odds are that you’d probably stop gambling. And the truth is that you do need to stop gambling.

But this doesn’t mean that you need to stop playing. What it means is that you need to stop leaving the results to chance.

You need to learn how to find an advantage when you gamble. When you find an advantage you switch from gambling to investing. This sounds good, but it’s far from easy. In fact, most gamblers never learn how to find an edge.

Some gambling games are designed in a way that an edge is impossible to find. This means that you have to focus on the right gambling activities. Look into real money poker, blackjack, and betting on sports. These all have ways to find an edge.

It takes quite a bit of time and work to find an edge and learn how to use it. Most gamblers are too lazy to use an edge so they’re going to continue losing. You don’t have to be like most gamblers, but it’s hard work.

The good news is that if you put in the hard work you can stop gambling and start winning.

Conclusion

In order to make smart gambling decisions you have to know about the good and bad side of gambling. Once you learn about both sides you can avoid most of the bad and focus on chasing the good.

Most people gamble in situations where they can’t win. But you don’t have to do this. When you understand the numbers you can find ways to have better odds.

Don’t forget that gambling isn’t always in a casino. Don’t gamble with anything more important than money.

Finally, remember that gamblers don’t win. But there are ways to use gambling games as an investment vehicle.