Very weird to specify "bitcoiner" in the title of the thread, when we all share very common needs every day - depending on where you live in the world. Most people pay rent or a mortgage, have to pay energy & water costs, then allowing a certain amount for food & clothing, you have to keep your method of transport maintained unless you are walking everywhere. Everyone is capable of sticking this sort of information into a spreadsheet to help them plan every month and make sure they have enough money coming in to cover their expenses. You need to cut back back or earn more otherwise.

It depends what you mean by "virtual games"? Are you on about non-factual based sports betting that is generated on demand by casinos to give the impression of an actual sports match? If so, I have zero sympathy for the players because you have just as much luck playing slots or putting all your money on red at roulette. Such virtual games are absolutely meaningless and will be engineered to pay out to the casino only. If you want to bet on sports games then do the real thing so you cannot be mislead. I cannot fathom how anyone gets entertainment from betting on a virtual horse race, that as you say can tantalize you with a win until the last second and then result in a bad outcome for you, because you were pre-defined as a losing bet from the outset.

I think you're reading too much into this. People are often blatantly transparent and where you may consider it to be some grand strategy of manipulation, more often than not it's just their pure narcissistic behavior on display. If you consider that such people surround themselves with "yes men" type people, then they are unlikely to hear much negative feedback and often end up in an echo chamber of their own making. However it depends what level of "celebrity" you're talking about, as they are quite distinct from billionaires, as some of them only built their supposed "reputation" through the drama that they create. Then you get unique examples like Kanye West, who are both mega rich and court controversy quite often, but still have little sense to show for all their money.

Part of the problem here is the people are fooled into thinking that 90% of people who place bets are losers. That implies that 1 out of 10 people are winners, which many gamblers would be happy to take. In reality, for most non-skill based games you will find that 99.9% of people are losers, or a figure closer to that. As it comes down to simple math at the end of the day, take slot games for instance - people see a RTP figure of 95% and think that means they have a big chance of winning, but really it means you will on average lose 5% of your bet each time you gamble and ultimately it will drain away your balance until it reaches zero. Sport bets also have a comfortable buffer, or margin of error, built in for bookmakers who are equally very shrewd and constantly improving their prediction software to outplay you.

Erm, no, you seem very confused by your asset classes which is usually a recipe for disaster when it comes to "investing". I say investing in quotes because one of the first rules you need to learn is to become familiar with your asset of any kind and be able to assess it properly. Cryptocurrency is not real estate, the clue is in the name of it - it's a currency or possibly even a commodity. Real estate is generally considered to be land or buildings which can come in many forms. Any sensible crypto buyer knows and appreciates it is high risk with the potential for high reward. This is much less apparent with most real estate, which has had a long time to equalize to it's currently traded value and while it may continue to appreciate in value, it will be over a longer time frame.

If you've gotten to the point where someone has called you out as being addicted to gambling, then you might want to sit up and listen. It's only something that someone who sees you regularly or who you share a lot of information with that will be likely to identify such a problem. If it's from someone random, maybe they're just projecting or you've not explained your situation adequately enough. However you should always be trying to learn and take assess new knowledge throughout life, sometimes we sleep walk into such a issues. It could be the wake up call that you need or that other people have been too scared or reluctant to highlight to you. Take a step back and think if you do need to change your ways.

This is such a beautiful ending and a perfect example of how Elon is not any extra special kind of genius. He got lucky with his original Paypal investment, which as the biggest web based payment processor for such a long time was a license to print money. He then took the huge amounts he made from that company and was able to spend it on hiring many other super intelligence people in various fields, who then turned out actual useful products that made a lot more money. Unfortunately his ego grew so large and he cannot stand being insulted, he talked himself into paying twice the price he should have for Twitter and then tried his hardest to weasel out of it. Unfortunately he did not realize how powerful the business laws were where Twitter was incorporated, so he couldn't back out and has now run it into the ground.

That's a bit of a random question considering there are thousands of different lottery systems out there that all have different rules. What lottery are you talking about in particular? Of course they should honor your casino win if the ticket is valid. The prize will most likely be paid out automatically to your account and it would seem rather unusual if you have to claim it first, just going by how most other casino games work. However it won't really matter all that much to a casino to sit on your money, because they already earned their commission by selling the initial tickets and have made a profit from that process already. I have seen cases where certain casinos or payment providers will charge a dormant fee so it's worth staying on top of these things.

There are plenty of people out there who earn far more than their knowledge allows. Some people have mastered the art of manipulation and being able to say the right thing, or even engineer better positions off the hard work of the people below them. While you should definitely always aim to expand your skills, often the best way to move up the salary ladder is to move companies and chase the money. However you need to weigh up all the pros and cons, because sometimes the grass is not greener on the other side - you might be better off and less stressed, with a lower salary. Life is definitely not all about making money, even things like having a shorter commute can make a huge difference to your quality of life.

Like anything in life, if you do too much of one thing and it starts to consume all of your time - then you have crossed the line into a damaging addiction. There is nothing wrong with most people and their relationship with gambling, they might choose to walk into a casino every couple years knowing they're expecting to lose $50, or others might even be content with playing the lottery every week which is a low level form of gambling that can even be a bit therapeutic because it allows them to dream of fabulous riches they have a infinitely small chance of winning. You're right though, it's freeing once you step away from such addictions and you should make sure to completely stop or you might be drawn back in.

Things are always solvable but you need to talk to the people you love about it, not hide away and bottle it up all alone - that makes you do silly and irrational things. It's bad that you consider "unlawful and unethical" to be an acceptable course of action, I have way more respect for somebody who cleans toilets for a living than I do for people like trashy phone scammers or thieves. However, somebody that comes out with that sort of statement has already decided that they would stoop so low. What good will it be when you get caught and sent away for a long time to prison, your wife and kids will end up in an even worse position, that's if you don't annoy the wrong person and end up dead instead.

This is my take on the Utopia software platform

As anyone in the Bitcoin community should be aware, you should be very careful downloading any software on to a device that hosts any wallets containing large sums – that’s just a common sense approach. That being said, this does feel like a substantial application that someone (probably a large group) has put a lot of effort in. I feel their website could perhaps be improved to convey where the organization or company behind it is based, because sometimes a lack of anonymity from the developers helps to keep them honest, however it requires a very fine balance because they don’t want to be personally targeted either.

Anyway, on to the functionality of the software. I was looking for ways to spend the funds, but have struggled to do so yet. It feels like they are still in the earlier stages and trying to gain traction, because a critical mass of people is required for it to become a self-sustaining ecosystem. What really attracted me were the Poker and Chess options, which look to be of a high enough quality to grow in future once more players come in.

I like the community functions within the app, like the map where people can create local room offerings for various purposes, like P2P escrow, which could gain trust over time. The fact that you can communicate through side channels and private messages all help.

It has a lot of potential and feels very much like a smoothed, finished product, now they just have to build out the market place and side offerings. Once they figure out a solid strategy to get lots of users returning and feeling safe with using the software, it can really go far. There are always doors opening in the market, as we see with the current exodus of Twitter users who are facing viewing restrictions right now, so it may be in a position to capitalize on such swings.

As an end user, it would be nice to have a couple extra places to spend the coins that were kindly given, even if it’s just through some sort of basic games like Dice or a lottery, where many users pool their cash into an automated program, which will at some point (hourly, weekly, monthly, etc.) cash out to a randomly picked winner.
Security and transparency are going to be huge concerns for people in the cryptocurrency space, so any steps that can be taken to alleviate those fears will be well spent. It should also be highlighted up front, in the most prominent manner, that the program is using your computer resources in the background to help sustain and diversify the network.

Referral bonuses are just meant to be a tiny extra bonus, but some people misconstrue them as a huge new avenue of earnings or a way to get back all the money they've lost (by introducing their friends who would likely lose money too). It definitely needs splitting into two different parts: the first being, those offers that are meant for genuine friends of the referrer, who are more likely to bet and use the trust off the original source as a means to make money for the casino, they are considered slightly more likely to be profitable players. Then there is the second group, that which affiliate marketers are there to target and may not qualify for most close friend referral offers - basically any candidate who is willing to follow a referral link but is otherwise unconnected with the referrer and who will probably be less profitable for the casino, that should be introduced via a different mechanism for a corresponding lower payout. Some people wrongly assume that linking a few friends via their referral link will make up for large amounts lost, which is unlikely to be the case.

Honestly it feels totally unrealistic to expect such a large shift in such a short period of time. There is a gradual shift over and the balance is definitely tipping towards electric cars, at least in the most developed countries around the world, but they are currently still super expensive and out of reach of most people. The second hand market in electric vehicles is still in it's infancy and the leaps in battery technology is excellent but varied. There is a whole swath of different charging technology that needs to become more standardized and masses of infrastructure needs a rethink to accommodate it. In many countries the actual ability to charge such a volume of electric cars seem so incomprehensible and difficult right now.

I think this is exactly the right place to bring this question up occasionally, we're not talking about every other thread here - these conversations are rather rare. They give an idea and hint to people who may be starting to consider whether they are gambling too much, or they might pick up a useful tip on how to gain back control in that scenario. They are perfectly harmless in that sense and offer a more rounded experience to the forum, it would be stranger if they were missing entirely. If you are not interested in the topic or feel like it doesn't apply to you, then simply avoid such discussions - it's not harming you at all and it's weird you'd even find them so strangely offensive or act like they are super common.

It's a bit silly to give your first example of "spend more, get more" without giving better background to why you would take that course of action. Most profitable companies out there follow one of two strategies to return profits back to shareholders - they either reinvest the profits to grow further, because they think they can allocate new capital effectively or they give profits back to the shareholders in the form of dividends. That's why when you buy into these companies, in the form of ownership via shares, then you are able to grow your own wealth because they pay out on a regular basis. So being very selective and buying into high quality companies can offer a great compounding effect on your wealth which is what the best investors do.

Bitcointalk Profile Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=339270
Bitcointalk Rank: Legendary
BTC address for payouts: bc1qertks0zw9vrmquzd6mg5q7d4a0xaj628fk4hdy
Utopia Public Key for CRP payouts: 2AD444AC3EC97B9836B8C562A584B9487A8E0E76879B172C29DEB36BA374741E

It's nice to see the mathematical breakdown on the welcome bonus equation because it's rarely highlighted here. However as soon as I see you must wager x amount of times to unlock the cash, it instantly turns me off the offer because, as you've highlighted, you are almost guaranteed to lose any potential money you might have "unlocked" by having to risk it repeatedly. If anything it is the casino trying to form a habit behavior in you and get you familiar with all of their gambling offerings. Then you start to wonder, can I even withdraw my money at this point or you might just overdo it and forget that you start wagering your own initial deposit after you burn through the whole amount given away on the initial wagering offer. Just best to avoid anything with more than a simple 1x or 2x wagering requirement, if any at all.

It's a curious idea, a totally paper and coin free society, but it does feel like a bit a bit dangerous in some ways - like what happens if a solar flare knocked out all electronics, but really at that point the world will descend into chaos so it wouldn't matter anyway. There should definitely be an ability for anyone, I'm mainly thinking of the most disadvantaged or vulnerable people, to be able to access a way that they can store money like anyone else. Each bank should be required to offer a basic bank account for free, along with the ability to get a card or other payment mechanism without question. That would allow people like the homeless the ability to access all the normal payment methods that everyone else is using.

Really it is surprising and a good reminder of the laws in America. To me it feels like this is one area where they get the laws right by being higher than European countries might generally be. 21 is a good age because I think 18 year olds are still not fully aware of all the financial traps in the world and can have their mind warped a bit by the actions of gambling. I'd agree that 21 is a good point to permit it, maybe even higher if you wanted to protect these younger generations who likely have more more productive things they could be spending their money on. Of course it's well known that casinos / bookmakers do not want to target people under 18 because it is illegal in pretty much every jurisdiction.