This post is meant to provide a broad introduction to the topic of gambling. It's aimed not only at potential gamblers, but also academics who are interested in what gambling is and how it affects society.
I'll start with a proper definition of gambling.
To gamble is to risk something of value on an event with the hope of winning something of value.
Before you can begin looking for the best crypto casinos on a review site such as CryptoGamble.Tips, you need to understand the basics behind cryptocurrency-based casinos. People new to the world of cryptocurrency tend to imagine that investing in crypto is the same as gambling. To a certain level, the difference between gambling and investing. An Introduction to the Art of Gambling Editor's note: Christatos Aristad is a recently retired professional gambler. He has most graciously volunteered to write a series of posts for AoM on the ins and out of gambling in general and the basics of various games for the education and enjoyment of those AoM readers who are interested in this.
For an activity to be considered 'real money gambling,' you need three qualities:
Sports gambling is the general method of predicting sports results by making a wager on the result of a sporting event. Betting on sports is a worldwide phenomenon these days, however, the difference lies in the fact that most states/countries have embraced sports betting and so have legally recognized it while others still consider it illegal.
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- Stakes
- Risk
- Winnings
The stakes are the amount that you're risking. Risk is the possibility you'll lose. And winnings are the payoff when things go your way.
Take away one of those factors, and the activity doesn't constitute gambling.
But you can also bet on who's going to win the Super Bowl at the beginning of football season and wait months to find out if you've won. That's a legal definition, but it's also a practical definition.
The rest of this page looks at how these factors work in the actual practice of gambling.
Gaming vs. Gambling
You'll often hear people in the industry refer to gambling as 'gaming.'
I don't like this usage, as I think the word 'gaming' has been co-opted from other activities that are already well-defined. People who play video games refer to their hobby as 'gaming.' Role-players (like Dungeons and Dragons fans) also refer to their hobby as gaming.
'Gaming,' in this context, though, implies a couple of things. The first is that the gambling in question is legal and happening in a licensed, regulated way.
The second is that the gambling in question is happening in the United States; other countries don't feel the need to legitimize gambling by calling it something else.
How Big a Deal Is Gambling?
I've seen writers claim that gambling is integral to our identity as humans. Everything we do can be looked at from a risk-reward perspective.
You can also find cultural evidence that suggests gambling is integral to our identity as a society. The gambling scene in Casablanca is critical to the plot, and that's considered one of the finest films of all time.
That's not the only movie where gambling plays a role either. Some movies, like The Hustler and The Cincinnati Kid, feature gambling as a prominent part of the plot.
But another way to examine the significance of gambling in our culture is to look at the size of the industry financially.
If you only account for legal gambling, then the market was $335 billion—in 2009. That was a decade ago. Imagine how big the industry has grown since.
And that doesn't account for the massive amounts of money that are gambled daily and weekly under the table, at neighborhood poker games and in bars where people are betting on sporting events.
The answer to the question, how big a deal is gambling, is simple indeed. Gambling is HUGE.
Gambling Throughout History
Introduction To Gambling
There's plenty of evidence that gambling has been a big deal for a long time. They were using dice (the same kind of dice we use in craps games) in Mesopotamia, all the way back to 3100 BC.
We also know that casinos were in operation in China around 1000 BC, too. One can imagine that people were betting on various sporting events of some kind even before that.
Poker is based on a Persian game called As-Nas, which is over 300 years old. Persia is now modern-day Iran, so there's some irony in the fact that a game that seems so quintessentially American originated in a country where the US currently has ongoing conflict with.
The Ridotto, in Venice, would be recognizable as a modern casino, and it opened in the 17th century.
I'll write more about the different kinds of gambling below, but I'd also like to point out that efforts to ban gambling come and go, and various kinds of gambling are legal or illegal depending on the time period and the place.
Introduction To Online Gambling
Types of Gambling
You can categorize the forms of gambling in multiple ways, but here are some broad categories worth considering.
Casino games are games where you gamble against the establishment where you're playing. You might also call these gambling games 'house-banked,' because the house pays off the winners and collects money from the losers.
You can further subdivide casino games into gambling machines and table games. Gambling machines include slot machines and video poker, but they're not limited to that. You can also find video versions of blackjack, craps, and roulette in many casinos.
Table games, on the other hand, use chips, are played at a table, and require the use of a dealer—who represents the casino. Prominent examples of table games in casinos are:
- Baccarat
- Blackjack
- Craps
- Roulette
Numbers games are often seen in casinos, too. Some include games like the lottery, bingo, and keno (although keno is also considered a casino game). These games all involve choosing numbers at random and hoping to match other numbers that are chosen at random.
Poker games and other card games, where you risk your money against the other players at the table, are hugely popular. Some people don't distinguish between poker and casino games, but they're making a mistake.
What makes a poker game a poker game is the involvement of the other players. Other card games work similarly, although some card games are also just casino games.
Sports betting is one of the most popular ways to bet. Bets on horse and dog races are a peculiar subcategory of betting on sports, too.
From a business perspective, sports betting is interesting because of how the house makes money. Sure, you can bet on a football game with a buddy.
But most serious sports bettors wager with someone who takes care of such things professionally. Such a business is called a sportsbook, and they normally charge $110 for a $100 bet, so they can make a profit.
Horse tracks and dog tracks have a different model. They have prize pools based on a percentage of the money they've brought in, and they withhold a percentage to make a profit.
Individual gamblers are normally playing at a mathematical disadvantage and lose money over time. Some strategies can overcome this mathematical disadvantage, but such strategies aren't simple or easy. They also don't apply to all activities. No amount of strategy can beat the lottery in the long run, for example.
Problem Gambling
Gambling can be fun. It can be profitable for a minority of gamblers, too. But since it affects brain chemistry, gambling can become a psychological problem.
Some people think that you must ingest a substance to form an addiction, but psychologists recognize behavioral addictions, too—addictions to food or sex, would be examples.
More pertinent to this discussion, though, gambling addiction is a real danger to anyone with a tendency to 'overdo' things.
In fact, slot machine games are notorious for having intermittent reinforcement schedules that cause gambling addiction.
You'll often hear people in the industry refer to gambling as 'gaming.'
I don't like this usage, as I think the word 'gaming' has been co-opted from other activities that are already well-defined. People who play video games refer to their hobby as 'gaming.' Role-players (like Dungeons and Dragons fans) also refer to their hobby as gaming.
'Gaming,' in this context, though, implies a couple of things. The first is that the gambling in question is legal and happening in a licensed, regulated way.
The second is that the gambling in question is happening in the United States; other countries don't feel the need to legitimize gambling by calling it something else.
How Big a Deal Is Gambling?
I've seen writers claim that gambling is integral to our identity as humans. Everything we do can be looked at from a risk-reward perspective.
You can also find cultural evidence that suggests gambling is integral to our identity as a society. The gambling scene in Casablanca is critical to the plot, and that's considered one of the finest films of all time.
That's not the only movie where gambling plays a role either. Some movies, like The Hustler and The Cincinnati Kid, feature gambling as a prominent part of the plot.
But another way to examine the significance of gambling in our culture is to look at the size of the industry financially.
If you only account for legal gambling, then the market was $335 billion—in 2009. That was a decade ago. Imagine how big the industry has grown since.
And that doesn't account for the massive amounts of money that are gambled daily and weekly under the table, at neighborhood poker games and in bars where people are betting on sporting events.
The answer to the question, how big a deal is gambling, is simple indeed. Gambling is HUGE.
Gambling Throughout History
Introduction To Gambling
There's plenty of evidence that gambling has been a big deal for a long time. They were using dice (the same kind of dice we use in craps games) in Mesopotamia, all the way back to 3100 BC.
We also know that casinos were in operation in China around 1000 BC, too. One can imagine that people were betting on various sporting events of some kind even before that.
Poker is based on a Persian game called As-Nas, which is over 300 years old. Persia is now modern-day Iran, so there's some irony in the fact that a game that seems so quintessentially American originated in a country where the US currently has ongoing conflict with.
The Ridotto, in Venice, would be recognizable as a modern casino, and it opened in the 17th century.
I'll write more about the different kinds of gambling below, but I'd also like to point out that efforts to ban gambling come and go, and various kinds of gambling are legal or illegal depending on the time period and the place.
Introduction To Online Gambling
Types of Gambling
You can categorize the forms of gambling in multiple ways, but here are some broad categories worth considering.
Casino games are games where you gamble against the establishment where you're playing. You might also call these gambling games 'house-banked,' because the house pays off the winners and collects money from the losers.
You can further subdivide casino games into gambling machines and table games. Gambling machines include slot machines and video poker, but they're not limited to that. You can also find video versions of blackjack, craps, and roulette in many casinos.
Table games, on the other hand, use chips, are played at a table, and require the use of a dealer—who represents the casino. Prominent examples of table games in casinos are:
- Baccarat
- Blackjack
- Craps
- Roulette
Numbers games are often seen in casinos, too. Some include games like the lottery, bingo, and keno (although keno is also considered a casino game). These games all involve choosing numbers at random and hoping to match other numbers that are chosen at random.
Poker games and other card games, where you risk your money against the other players at the table, are hugely popular. Some people don't distinguish between poker and casino games, but they're making a mistake.
What makes a poker game a poker game is the involvement of the other players. Other card games work similarly, although some card games are also just casino games.
Sports betting is one of the most popular ways to bet. Bets on horse and dog races are a peculiar subcategory of betting on sports, too.
From a business perspective, sports betting is interesting because of how the house makes money. Sure, you can bet on a football game with a buddy.
But most serious sports bettors wager with someone who takes care of such things professionally. Such a business is called a sportsbook, and they normally charge $110 for a $100 bet, so they can make a profit.
Horse tracks and dog tracks have a different model. They have prize pools based on a percentage of the money they've brought in, and they withhold a percentage to make a profit.
Individual gamblers are normally playing at a mathematical disadvantage and lose money over time. Some strategies can overcome this mathematical disadvantage, but such strategies aren't simple or easy. They also don't apply to all activities. No amount of strategy can beat the lottery in the long run, for example.
Problem Gambling
Gambling can be fun. It can be profitable for a minority of gamblers, too. But since it affects brain chemistry, gambling can become a psychological problem.
Some people think that you must ingest a substance to form an addiction, but psychologists recognize behavioral addictions, too—addictions to food or sex, would be examples.
More pertinent to this discussion, though, gambling addiction is a real danger to anyone with a tendency to 'overdo' things.
In fact, slot machine games are notorious for having intermittent reinforcement schedules that cause gambling addiction.
Also, one of the biggest signs of compulsive behavior is a lack of ability to enjoy an activity. Once gambling stops being fun, you're in serious danger.
Conclusion
That's a broad overview and introduction to the subject of gambling, but it's a complicated subject with many facets. In fact, you'll never run out of blog posts, articles, or even books to read on the subject.
Gambling is fun and exciting, but it carries elements of risk with it that you might or might not have considered. Sure, you know you might lose money, but you might also become addicted.
Betting on sports is a popular pastime. And when we say popular, we REALLY mean it. Countless people all over the world enjoy sports betting, so much that they collectively spend billions of dollars on it each year. Not only is it a lot of fun, but there's also the chance to win money. The same could be said for almost all forms of gambling, though, and few (if any) are as popular as sports betting.
So, why does it attract that much attention? It's difficult to know for sure without surveying every single sports bettor in the world. Still, after considering everything we know about sports betting, we believe that it ultimately comes down to two main reasons. The first is simply that sports themselves are extremely popular. Not everyone is into sports, of course, but there sure are A LOT of people who are. For many of them, betting on the sports they enjoy watching is just a natural progression.
The second main reason is that sports betting is very straightforward. You can start placing wagers with just a limited amount of background knowledge and still have a chance of winning money, especially when betting on sports that you truly understand. Now, winning money CONSISTENTLY is a different matter. That does require a lot more knowledge and a lot more effort. An understanding of the sports you wager on definitely helps, but it's not enough to be successful in the long run. You also need to learn and develop certain skills.
Introduction To Gambling
There's no need to worry about all of that when starting out. It's just something to bear in mind if your long-term goal is to be a profitable bettor. And even if you're only interested in having some fun, it's important to know that winning doesn't come easy.
As straightforward as sports betting is, there are several advantages to learning more about what's involved before putting your money at risk. This introduction to sports betting is the ideal place to do that. This is designed for complete beginners. We plan to teach you everything you need to know to have the best possible sports betting experience.
Our introduction is divided into three distinct sections. The first section features some essential information to consider before you even get started. It will help you to decide whether sports betting is right for you, and it provides you with insight as to how everything works. The second section is basically a step-by-step guide to actually getting started, and the third section focuses on teaching you some basic betting skills that will really help.
