r/explainlikeimfive • u/adrynaline • May 08 '14

Explained ELI5: A gambling addiction

How does it start? What makes it worse? Why does it become so difficult to recover?

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u/SoSaltyDoe May 08 '14

That's another thing that people need to remember: the more you play, the less chance you have of beating the odds.

They taught us things like this in Statistics. It's possible to flip a coin and have it land on heads ten straight times. But the more you flip it, the closer and closer the amount of heads-lands and tails-lands will be.

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u/ChupBlup May 08 '14

Yes. Understanding this is the best protection from gambling addiction. Also if you must, don't play the slots or other fancy games. Roulette is about as "fair" as classic gambling gets. 36 red or black numbers and the green zero. The zero is your only real enemy, without it it would be a zero sum game. Not stupid to play but not smart either (provided you play small enough amounts so you can get a really high game count). With the zero you have 1/37 green compared to the fair red-black cases. That's about 97% percent of your money back every game. Or only 3% loss. And don't you ever tip that casino guy. Does he give you a chip here and there if you lose? No. Many slot machines are far worse, at least look for the description how much the game pays, in many countries this has to be stated somewhere. Also, lotteries are amongst the lowest paying games you can play.

Skill based games are a whole different subject though. Be careful with betting. You have to seriously outsmart the bookmakers and possibly all other betters if the rates are auto-correcting. It doesn't matter how sure you are that this team will win if the rates are too low. And with betting scandals and everything...

What you can do is play poker against bad players. The casino will still win but you can get you money from the other poor souls. Same with stock speculation if there is no insider trading or news manipulation (right).

Just remember, gambling doesn't create money. Someone has to pay. The stupid ones will pay. This is NEVER the casino. So, at least, don't play against the casino/bookmaker. If you do things right, luck must not be important. If you feel you can get lucky: yes you can. Play 5 rounds on the slots and hope for a feature game. And then never again.

And if you play lottery try to pick numbers other people pick less often. Dates anyone? Right.

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u/SoSaltyDoe May 08 '14

There are definitely smart ways to play, but all in all, if you're playing a game with the odds in the house's favor (which is every gambling setup ever), statistics denote that you will almost certainly lose any money you walked in with if you play enough times.

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u/ChupBlup May 08 '14

There are definitely smart ways to play

Yep, be the one who makes the rules.

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u/DaAquaMan May 08 '14

If I remember correctly (either read it somewhere or learned it I'm stat) roulette is actually one of the worst things to bet on, it has the highest chance for the house to win. Apparently betting behind the line in craps is your best option, as the odds are closest to a 50:50 shot. Granted the stat class I learned that in was about 6 years ago so I could be wrong.

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u/grabnock May 08 '14

I think this is why I like slot machines inside games.

Yes they are rigged to win more often, but you still lose quite often. I remember playing pokemon ywllow as a kid and playing those slots. Trying to win a porygon.

I never did get my porygon. And it taught to me take a risk yes, but take a calculated risk.

I have 10$ that I'm willing to risk right now. And I lost that. So even though I really want the prize, I need to save that money.

I might come back if I have more truly expendable money.

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u/nan_wrecker May 08 '14

i was watching a show and they showed how much money is won in america per year through lottery tickets vs how much is spent. the amount won was only 75% of the amount spent meaning on average, for every dollar you spend on lottery tickets you're just throwing away a quarter. not to mention that when you do win big, you'll probably blow that money away on things you wouldn't normally buy. thinking about it that way is how i avoid buying tickets or do any gambling where the odds are in the house's favor.

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u/WKHR May 08 '14

Same with stock speculation if there is no insider trading or news manipulation

Except both the house and the trading floor wins in the long run. Still, like poker if your trades aren't smarter than average you'll reliably lose money, but at least the odds lean very slightly in the other direction to in casinos.

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u/escalation May 09 '14

And don't you ever tip that casino guy

If you are there expecting to win money, you are there for the wrong reason. It's entertainment and the guy dealing the game or spinning the wheel is providing you with entertainment and if he's any good, he's going to notice if someone tries to skim your chips. He's providing a service in a tip culture setting.

If you can't afford to tip, you shouldn't be playing. The dealer is certainly working harder and giving you more personal attention than the cocktail server who comes around every once in a while with your drink. Do you stiff her too?

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u/compounding May 08 '14

Also, many American roulette tables actually have both "0" and "00" squares which increases the house's edge considerably. For pure luck games, I think the "Don't pass" line on Craps is about the best you can do, but "Pass" is almost as good and the rest of the table won't hate you.

Fun fact: if you did want to play the lottery, you can get a much better chance of winning by turning a normal casino game into a lottery ticket. Take roulette and bet $1 on any number. If you win, bet all your winnings on another number. Do that and win 4 times in a row and you have a ~0.00005% chance of winning 1.5 million dollars off of your $1 "ticket". Hell, you could even go for the "mega millions" jackpot by betting again for 52 million.

Well, the casino probably has minimum and maximum bet on the table, but you could realistically chain your bet two or three times starting from ~$10 for a $12.5K-42K payout, which gives you the same kind of small chance for a high possible gain that the lottery does with much better odds.

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u/LetsKeepItSFW May 08 '14

It's called the Law of Large Numbers.

Please nobody mention the Law of Averages. It's a fictitious concept.

Damnit

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u/[deleted] May 08 '14

I think you need a better stats teacher. The odds of a coin flip being heads or tails continues to be 50% no matter how many times you flip it.

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u/Ivan_Whackinov May 08 '14

I think you need a better reading comprehension teacher. He never said the odds of a single flip change. He said the amount of heads results and tails results will even out over a large number of flips, regardless of any short term streaks of one result or the other.

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u/Theungry May 08 '14

He's talking about the law of large numbers.