Gambling Addiction Explained by John Woods

Author:John Woods
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-10-04T18:52:44+00:00

8. The Odds are never in your Favour.

The vast majority of people know in their heart of hearts that you cannot win when it comes to gambling. On the off chance you are one of the people struggling with the Illusion of Control, as I used to, and many compulsive gamblers do, please take in the stark truth of this next chapter. The odds are never in your favour and you cannot win.

As soon as you place a bet you have lost the only advantage you ever had over bookies, casinos, or any gambling establishments because the only way not to lose is not to bet. Occasionally you hear of someone who has won the first time they bet and walks away and never to bets again. The bookies and casinos are fine with that because they know that rarely ever happens in real life. Usually, even if someone wins in their first experiences with gambling, they figure why not do it again. as they have nothing to lose but the previous winnings and they might win again, why not, it was easy last time. But the longer you play the more you lose and its simple mathematics, not luck or skill, that determine this thanks to a thing called the Law of Large Numbers.

All the odds of any gambling activity are stacked against the gambler and are in favour of the casino. They are a business after all and their business is taking your money, they would not operate for long if they could not guarantee this. What is commonly known as the House Edge in casinos is the way they ensure this. Roulette for example is over 5% in their favour, even betting on red or black is not 50/50 as some people like to think because of the zero and double zero. Slots can be up to 15% in the casinos favour. Scratch cards are about 30% in their favour. Blackjack is the lowest at 2% or 0.5% if you know how to play the perfect strategy, but few people do and even less manage to stick to it, regardless, you will still lose overall. Whatever the casino game, the margin or house edge, is always there to varying degrees and always in their favour.

The Law of Large numbers basically states that the more you play the more the results will reflect the actual odds and percentages. Take roulette, as mentioned before it has over a 5% margin built into the casinos favour. So out of every £100 spent you lose £5 which you might think is not too bad but it all comes down to how long you play for and the casinos want you playing for a long time and placing bets in quick succession. Say a roulette table plays on average of 50 spins in an hour in a real casino, online will be much quicker. If you sit down with £100 and are playing level stakes at £5 a spin you are losing £10 or £15 per hour so over 4 hours play an actual loss of about £50, half of your money.

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