When you’re writing for a gambling blog, it’s easy to get bogged down in some of the minutia of advanced zyngaqq gambling topics. But sometimes it’s better to cover some of the most basic of subjects.
This blog is obviously about gambling in general, and my colleagues and I have covered almost every aspect of the subject you can think of—from how card counting works to how the house edge in a casino game is calculated. Today I’m going to back up and cover the basics of what gambling is and how gambling works.
What Do We Mean When We Talk About Gambling?
You’re gambling when you risk something valuable on an event that might or might happen. If you lose a gamble, you lose whatever you were risking. When you win, you get paid off with a prize. The amount that you risk versus the prize amount is agreed to before you place your wager.
When people gamble on a roll of the dice at the craps table, a spin of the roulette wheel, or a hand of poker, they’re risking money to win more money. The payoffs for the various bets on craps or roulette are standard. In games like poker, though, the payoff amount changes based on how much action you see in each hand.
People gamble on all kinds of things. We cover casino games extensively on this site. But people also gamble between themselves playing card games like spades or bridge at home. They might bet on the outcome of a game of billiards or darts at the local bar. Bingo games and lottery games count, too.
It’s the placing of a bet that makes an activity “gambling”. You’ll sometimes see people claim that poker isn’t gambling if you play well because of the skill element. That’s a potentially interesting argument, but I disagree. Just because you have the edge doesn’t mean you’re not risking your money.
And if you’re risking your money on the chance to win more money, you’re gambling.
What’s the Difference Between “Gaming” and “Gambling”?
“Gaming” is an expression with multiple meanings. I hear it used most often to describe people who are into video games. I’ve also heard it used to refer to other types of games people play—board games, roleplaying games, and card games.
In the context of “gambling”, “gaming” refers to legal casino gambling. It’s a term popularized by the industry itself. “Gaming” sounds like less of a sin or seedy experience than the word “gambling”. This is largely a United States convention; other countries don’t necessarily have the same connotations for gambling.
England, for example, has offered multiple legal gambling activities for years. In the United States, the only legal sports books are in Nevada. But in England, you can find a sports book on almost any street corner. This is an example of a broader difference between European sensibilities about behavior and America’s more Puritanical sensibilities.
Gambling is huge business throughout the word, though. In 2014, the market in its entirety represented $423 billion worldwide. Lotteries represent the largest gambling activity in the world, too. In fact, almost 1/3 of the worldwide gambling market is made up of people playing the lottery.
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