Gambling, like credit card debt, is one of the most destructive choises Americans face in their personal finances. Warren Buffet call gambling a "tax on ignorance." For many, it is an occasional bus trip to a nearby casino for a day of “entertainment”. These types of trips usually include a lunch voucher and some small match play coupons (the match play coupons are designed to entice the modest, occasional gambler to become a more aggressive, more frequent gambler). For many others, gambling is a thrill which can become addictive. Many addicted gamblers talk about the rush or high they get from gambling. It is this high, like the high one could get from other types of addictions, that makes gambling problematic.
There
are many forms of gambling and many venues with which
to do it. The most
obvious forms are cards,
craps, roulette, sports betting and horse racing.
Less obvious forms of gambling are the lottery
(e.g. scratch offs, Powerball) and extreme stock market trading. The most obvious venues
for gambling include
casinos, racetracks, OTB and the local bookie.
Less obvious forums are the local convenience store
(lottery tickets),
bingo parlors, stock exchanges and the increasingly popular world of
internet
gambling.
Years
ago, casino gambling in the
Then there is internet gambling, which provides all of the “action” of casinos to anyone with a credit card and internet access. With internet gambling, the addicted gambler doesn’t even have to leave their home. Between the proliferation of casinos and the rise of internet gambling, some type of wagering is available to almost anyone, anywhere, anytime.
In addition to the issue of increased availability, Americans, by and large, have less discipline than they did years ago. Self discipline is a key component to avoiding or overcoming any temptation, and gambling is no different. Marketers prey on the gambler’s need for hope with get rich quick messages. Two of the New York State Lottery’s more successful slogans were "All you need is a dollar and a dream" and "Hey, you never know". Other slogans like “What goes on in Vegas stays in Vegas” attack the gambler’s desire for excitement and mystery. These types of messages work because they cloud priorities. High financial priorities include food, shelter, clothes, health care, charity and education. Marketers bombard consumers with messages that link increased pleasure to what should be among the lowest of all priorities, recreational gambling.
Many addicted gamblers simply do not understand statistics. Whenever a “house” (i.e. casino) or bookie is involved, the straight odds are against the player. I am only aware of couple of ways a player can win against the house; card counting (in blackjack) is one of them. A professor and some whiz kids at MIT perfected a system to do this. For a long time they were very successful, but eventually the casinos caught on and barred them from their establishments.
Statistically
savvy, straight-faced poker players can also
win when playing at a casino. These
players can win because they have a better understanding of both
statistics
(i.e. the odds) and body language (i.e. tells).
Highly skilled poker players have an even bigger advantage
when a casino
isn’t involved because the house doesn’t get a
piece of the action (i.e. percentage
of the wagering). Backroom
poker games,
likely found in nearly every town in the
Even though there are sophisticated ways to beat the system, it is still very difficult to do so. I will never recommend gambling to anyone. Any player that is smart enough to count cards or learn the statistics of poker is also smart enough to make a living doing almost anything else in this world.
So, is playing low limit poker with your friends the worst thing you could do? No, but relying on gambling to pay your bills is not a wise move. It is also not smart to let recreational gambling occupy a disproportionate amount of your leisure time. With the exception of casino owners, racetrack operators and bookies, I don’t know of anyone that has made a living from gambling. The odds against the player are just simply too high.
For example, take the game blackjack. The player is forced to call his cards before the house calls theirs. If the player’s hand breaks (i.e. is higher than 21), the player loses. Now, if the dealer also breaks during the same round, the player still loses. The house advantage lies simply in the order to which the game flows. Because the player goes first, the player will always break before the house does; therefore, the player loses his money to the house when they both yield equally poor hands.
Another
good example is sports betting. The
goal of the casino or bookie is to get
the same amount wagered on both sides of the game.
If this happens the casino is guaranteed to
win the “juice”.
The juice, typically
10% of the wager, is simply the added percentage the player pays to the
bookie
if the player loses. Let’s
say that
The
goal of this column is to convince you that gambling is
a bad investment of your time and money.
Unless you’re a professional poker player or a
good card counter, you
will most certainly lose in the long run.
I was never a serious gambler, but did take an occasional
trip to
When
others tell me that they’re taking a trip to
Remember, Christ teaches us to use our talent wisely.