I don't think it is as disappointing a thing for them as we think it is

Basically, we are projecting onto them our own feelings, i.e. how we ourselves would react if we encountered a loss (feeling embarrassed and frustrated). But if it were so, there wouldn't be "professional gamblers" (if there are any in the first place) as the impact of losses would quickly made them insane (not that I'm saying they are sane, but still)

The closest analogy in terms of losses and their impact is trading. If you know what you are doing, you can discard losses so that they don't affect you much. In other words, you already anticipate them and thus are psychologically prepared for them. In a way, you have already seen them with your mind's eye, and they don't put you down

I have to admit that I don't quite understand what you wanted to say

Regardless, to see things in their true light, we should take a correct position. More specifically, we shouldn't consider Bitcoin (as well as other cryptocurrencies) as money, or a currency (despite what their generic name suggests). That's probably why you arrive at something impossible as a conclusion or inference. Bitcoin (and other coins) is an asset, and more importantly, a speculative one at that. If you proceed from this assumption (discarding its currency aspect altogether), your conclusion should be consistent with the marginal utility basics

What you refer to here is called a withdrawal syndrome

In fact, this urge can be overcome with the help of certain drugs like sedatives or nootropics (think NZT-48 here) or external assistance and support (not even speaking of forced deprivation). But as you correctly point out later in your post, it is not possible for a gambling addict to get rid of his addiction on his own unless he goes through a sort of catharsis after which he becomes a different person inside, now immune to this addiction (and probably to any other addiction as well)


This is called a relapse

That reason itself doesn't stop gambling addicts from continuing with their self-destructive behaviors

So it necessarily is not the key reason why it stops people from turning into gambling addicts. In simple terms, it is merely an instance of rationalization, i.e. a process of constructing a seemingly good or logical explanation that we come up with, the one that let us stick to a conscious decision of not going on with playing

More likely, we just feel deep inside that we no longer obtain pleasure from this activity, and it becomes for us a waste of time (and money). On the other hand, gambling addicts, or just addicts in general, don't feel that way, and that's the primary reason why they cannot be reasoned with (pardon the pun). They just feel the urge to continue

It is good that you brought up the example of Dogecoin

So why can Dogecoin be interesting for the purposes of this thread? Well, it may be not for the currency aspect of it as such (as no one is using doges as a currency, let's be honest here), but for an aspect that still has nothing to do with sheer speculation, and that seems to be quite resonating with the idea presented here. What I mean to say is that Dogecoin is probably in the list of top 10 coins that have most real-life use and application if not just the most used cryptocurrency in this regard (however paradoxical and counterintuitive it may sound)

This coin is probably the best coin for gambling, and that is definitely not speculation. The implication is that such use will prop up its value no matter where the whole cryptocurrency market is going, especially when it's going down. Indeed, it is not free from the overwhelming impact that Bitcoin's price dynamic has over all other cryptocurrencies out there, but it still should be less pronounced. And what's more important here, the effect of this impact, or rather lack thereof, can be easily assessed numerically, for example, by using correlation metrics

I'm not a poker player myself (as a child I couldn't grasp its main idea, though it was probably the fault of those who tried to teach me it), so I can't comment on this in a constructive way. However, I also tend to think that people overestimate their capacity for reading the body language and facial expressions here as this idea seems to be coming mostly from the movies. Billions comes to mind instantly but there are probably a lot of other films "featuring" poker, and in a totally misguiding way (like they do with casinos in general)

I corrected the poll a little (without changing its major theme)

I remember Litecoin was used for that

Dogecoin was good too for moving wealth to and from exchanges, but not every major exchange out there (think Bitfinex here) accepted it (for example, Bitfinex still doesn't accept it despite a lot of shitcoins that they do). It would be good to see Litecoin added to Roobet.com too as it is also widespread, relatively cheap (both in terms of price and transaction costs) and fast as far as confirmation times are concerned. Most other casinos have it as well. Not sure why they don't add more coins

I stayed away from gambling for years

I guess the last time I gambled big was in early 2015, then I switched to active trading, which was just another form of gambling for me back in the day. These days I don't trade so much, partly because I don't overtrade (as was the case before) and partly because the market is no longer as wild and stormy as it was in 2015 through 2018. So now I can allow myself to gamble a little here and there testing different gambling strategies (mostly varieties of martingale) but not in a big way

The problem is more serious than that

You didn't get addicted but not because you knew it was bad. Addicts of whatever variety also know perfectly well that their addiction is bad and potentially ruinous but they can't do anything about it on their own. Also, you think you can control yourself but that's because you probably don't have a gambling mentality (or just a general predisposition to this or that form of addiction), so you find yourself in a position of making a rational decision (what you call control) but this is not always the case and certainly not the case with addicted individuals

It didn't fail due to its intrinsic faults, weaknesses, or flaws

In a sense, it was failed by external forces which its centralized nature couldn't resist or stand up to (this was probably its only "flaw"). So whether it could disrupt the global financial system if it were as resistant and invincible as decentralized currencies are remains open to discussion. But the very fact that it had to be publicly executed and shut down with the help of the big guns in the US Congress speaks much for itself if you ask me

In fact, the house does actually care, and it wants you, and every other player for that matter, to win as the longer you play, the more fees they will collect. They are not interested in either you losing or losing you (whatever comes, or doesn't come, first). It is just the essence of the game, a zero-sum game, that you win and then someone else necessarily has to lose, or vice versa. It is the same with trading as exchanges in general are interested in you earning dough as the more you earn, the longer you stay in the game (pardon the pun)

Really simple, isn't it?

What about online poker?


In fact, I've been thinking about that, so now I finally decided to make a point. And my point is that since we can make dice provably fair (actually, more like provably unfair but I'm more concerned with the provable part here), it must also be possible to make poker provably fair too. For example, we could deal cards using the EOS mainnet in the same way decentralized casinos write bets to the blockchain and obtain roll outcomes from there as well. Now that we have dealt the cards in a provably random way which cannot be rigged by the malicious casino operator, we can also make online poker great again

What do you guys think?

Yes, that's where greed will most certainly kick in

In other words, something unexpected happens (as otherwise you wouldn't be playing for personal enjoyment only), and that instantly kicks you out from the cozy environment you set up for yourself. But that's not something which you can't notice (as it is going to "rock your world up"). And since you do notice the inescapable change in your attitude, you can't remain in that frame anymore, so your only option is to stop gambling and run (without looking back)

Actually, that depends on a scale of the whale, so to speak

It can be said that whales come in all forms and sizes, but what's even more important here is the fact that the ability to manipulate prices in a meaningful (read, profitable) way trickles down to whales of a smaller caliber in thinner markets. In other words, people whom we would never consider whales under different circumstances now can move the price, i.e. behave in exactly the same way as we would expect a real whale to behave. The bottom line is that it still remains a matter of perspective (more specifically, of zooming in and discerning the smaller whales acting like the big ones)

As they call it, from shithouse to penthouse and back again

Personally, I can think of only one kind of a real-life scenario when a billionaire would turn into a homeless person (purely hypothetical cases aside). This may happen when the billionaire in question was either born into wealth and not properly raised ("born with a silver spoon in his mouth"), or was given all that wealth by some strange twist of luck (think lottery or even gambling itself here)

So if that billionaire made himself into a billionaire "from ground up" (think Bill Gates here, though he comes from a very well-to-do family), it is highly unlikely that he will turn into a gambling addict and then move to live under the bridge because this sweet "spot" in his mind is already taken up by something else (most certainly, by that something which made him into a billionaire in the first place)

That's to be expected

Honestly, I wasn't a frequent visitor to the Gambling section of the forum till some time ago (though I remember the times when people were comparing casinos open for outside investments), but there may have been dozens of these that went belly up soon after the launch. The most obvious reason for that is the lack of proper bankroll management which ruined so many casinos out there

But it is definitely not the only cause of them shutting down as you correctly point out. Even if you have sufficient technical expertise in the field (I mean all that incomprehensible stuff with probabilities and what not), this doesn't guarantee success. You should also be able to make your casino attractive to the community so that people like playing there. And it goes well beyond simple knowing how to calculate probabilities (even if it is not simple)

But here's the catch

What you just said is equally applicable to the US dollar itself (and technically, that can be one of the reasons, if not the primary reason, why the American establishment are so hellbent on bringing it down or nipping it in the bud). Even if the dollar makes the whole of Libra, the latter being used instead of the former (after all, this is exactly what Libra aims for) means that the dollar will be losing ground. To sum it up, it is not about China alone as it is more about undermining the whole dollar hegemony as such in a really astonishing and even paradoxical way (with Libra itself being only a stable coin based on the American dollar)

Yeah, I definitely like your poetic phrase

But the matter is more mundane than you make it look, and therefore requires a more practical and earthly approach (read, something actually working). The thing is, you don't necessarily need to have the strongest mindset to avoid chasing losses. All you need is a proper perspective and attitude. In simple words, as long as you play for fun and personal amusement, you won't be inclined to chase losses

However, if you do feel inclined to start off on that path after having encountered an embarrassing streak of losing rolls, you are obviously no longer playing for fun as the pleasure you felt from the process itself now turns into something else, namely the hunt for profits and certain results. This is the tipping point where you should stop and think whether it is what you are looking for in the game

From my perspective, things look a little bit different

We have recently seen a surge in volatility of Bitcoin prices, and that has a simple explanation as well as a straightforward implication and an obvious conclusion. The explanation is that these bouts of volatility are due to markets becoming thin (what can be seen by declining trading volumes)

Then, the implication is that with thin markets it takes less liquidity to move them in the desired direction, be it up or down, or even preventing such moves (as this is also a possibility and an option). All that leads us to a conclusion that Bitcoin is in fact getting easier to manipulate as trading volumes decline

Let's admit it, major fiat currencies are pretty solid (as in rock-solid)

I mean currencies like the US dollar, Euro, Swiss frank, maybe a couple others. Indeed, they are all strictly inflationary in the long term, but the inflation rates in the range of 2-3% yearly are quite bearable and don't make a lot of difference within the timespan of a few years

Things are quite different with the rest of the bunch but as long as you can save your money in these "hard" currencies (by diversifying your cash portfolio), you can consider yourself more or less protected. The point is, whether Bitcoin will be a safe haven in case of a global financial meltdown remains an entirely open question