Problem gambling is harmful to psychological and physical health. People who live with this addiction may experience depression, migraine, distress, intestinal disorders, and other anxiety-related problems. As with other addictions, the consequences of gambling can lead to feelings of despondency and helplessness.
In reality, Gambling should never be about winning big money. It should be about enjoying yourself while you try your luck and some skill.
Poker and Fantasy games are considered “skill games”, but you risk losing money there as well. That is why it is important that you understand Gambling, its psychology, and if you want to gamble, only use it as a recreational tool.
Recreational Gambling – dos and don’ts
Mark DeVol and Dr. Mike, the hosts of the highly regarded, can be credited with coining the term “recreational gambling”.
The term Recreational Gambling is used to describe people who consider gambling to be a non significant activity. They play occasionally, taking account of their financial limits and knowing how to end the game in a controlled way. They accept that they might lose money and do not play on in order to recover their losses.
Gambling should make you excited, happy that you did something different, something unique, not because you won a lot of money. In other case, you should also not be depressed about losing money.
Eddie Miroslav, the founder of online casinos Primedice and Stake.com says “the phrase bitcoin gambling should be viewed as a sport is in many ways simply correct”. The Australian compares gambling and investing in Cryptocurrencies to cricket. “You’ll be bowled a no-ball which may give you a free hit. Or you may be beaten all ends up, clean bowled”.
You need to know when to let go.
BUT LETTING GO IS NOT EASY. How many of us have chased after our losses in margin trading on exchanges such as Bitmex? Forced liquidation of a position is one of the worst ways to lose precious Cryptocurrencies.
Miroslav says they try to make it easy on Stake.com for players to take control of their situation. A player can choose to be banned for 24 hours from the platform. 24 hours is a good cooling period to learn to not chase after the losses or not to rebet the profits.
Know the Martingale
Many gambling scams are based on something called the Martingale betting system. Not all of them use it directly, but many of them use some variation of it. The thing that’s important to understand is that the math behind the Martingale looks good. But it has a fatal flaw that eventually makes the entire thing collapse.
Here’s how the Martingale system works.
The first thing you do is decide what you want to play. The best bets are ones that offer even money payouts, like roulette. You start a series of bets with a base bet, which is usually a low amount. If you win this wager, you collect your profit and make the same size bet again. Every time you win, you go back to the base bet on the next bet.
When you lose a bet, you double your bet for the next bet. You keep doubling after losses until you win. Every time you win, you cover your previous losses and have a profit equal to your base bet.
When you lose a bet, you double your bet for the next bet. You keep doubling after losses until you win. Every time you win, you cover your previous losses and have a profit equal to your base bet.
The truth is that you can use the Martingale and make a small profit for a while. You might even get lucky and win the first several times you use the system.
But eventually, you lose so many bets in a row that your entire bankroll is cleaned out. When this happens, you end up losing more than you win in the long run.
The other bad thing that can happen using the Martingale is when you can’t make bets large enough to keep doubling. Casinos have maximum bet limits on their games, and this can keep you from making the bets you need to make.
You need to learn as much as you can about the Martingale system and all of the different ways it can be used. Look for signs of this system in any gambling opportunity, whether it’s a system or something else.
Anything that uses the Martingale or something like it will eventually fail.
Don’t be fooled by numbers that look like they show a profit. I cover fuzzy math in another section, but the bottom line is that people can use math to show all kinds of things that aren’t really true. Just because someone says something is profitable doesn’t mean it’s true.
A Loan Is a Business Transaction
It seems like poker players are the worst, but you can find this in any form of gambling. If you spend much time in the casino, the odds are good that people you know who gamble will eventually ask you for a loan. Though I’ve only done it two times, I’ve received a short-term loan from people I know a couple times when I didn’t bring enough money to the casino.
It’s entirely up to you whether you loan other gamblers money or not, but the safest thing to do is never loan money.
If you do decide to make a loan of any size to a gambler, you need to treat it exactly like a business transaction. This is because it is an actual business transaction.
When you go to the bank and get a loan, you not only have to sign a bunch of papers, you also agree to pay it back on a set schedule and have to pay interest. You usually also have to put something of value up as collateral.
It’s up to you whether or not to charge interest if you make a loan, but you need to get all of the terms down in writing. Both parties need to have a clear understanding of what’s expected.
Even if you have everything documented, it probably won’t stand up in court, but you should still do it. The fact is that if you loan money to a gambler, you might never get it back. You should always remember this when someone asks you for a loan.
Do you need to write everything down if someone you know well needs $20 for a day? Probably not, but each person has their own comfort level. You should think about your comfort level now so that you don’t need to try to come up with it when someone asks you.
Here’s how I handle it, but you have to decide on your own numbers.
The first thing you do is decide what you want to play. The best bets are ones that offer even money payouts, like roulette. You start a series of bets with a base bet, which is usually a low amount. If you win this wager, you collect your profit and make the same size bet again. Every time you win, you go back to the base bet on the next bet.
When you lose a bet, you double your bet for the next bet. You keep doubling after losses until you win. Every time you win, you cover your previous losses and have a profit equal to your base bet.
If I don’t know you other than just gambling close to you, I’m not giving you any money. I might buy you a meal, but you aren’t getting any cash.
If we have some sort of a relationship and I generally trust you or think you’re a pretty good person, I’ll loan you $20 to $50 without much thought. When I loan money in this way, I don’t worry about it if I never get it back. If I don’t get repaid, I never give the person another cent, but it’s low enough that I don’t stress about it.
If we have a long-standing relationship and I trust you 100% and you need money, I’ll give you any amount up to what I can afford. The list of people that fits this category is small.
This changes somewhat if someone I know puts up something of value to guarantee the loan. This is where things start getting written down and payment schedules get discussed.
The best way to protect yourself from a scam is to never loan money to anyone. No matter what the situation is, simply don’t do it.
My dad has a great policy about loans. He never makes a loan, but if someone asks him for a loan and it’s reasonable and the person has a real need, he just gives it to them. He tells them that it’s a gift, and all he asks is that they repay the gift to someone else that needs help when they can afford to do so in the future.
Gambling is fun!