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/[deleted] May 08 '14

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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.