I agree, any company in today's world needs to do financial forecasts. Casinos don't differ in that form from other companies. Without reliable forecasts what the costs, what the expected deposit and withdrawals, what returns and what the taxes will be, a casino can just gamble to make a profit. Forecasts are also be a good tool to help in identifying the optimal strategy for the next month. For example, if higher withdrawals are expected in the future than it would make sense to offer a new promotion and attract new customers. The most important step for a successful casino is to keep existing customers happy and active. Every casino can run a promotion for new gamblers and attract a lot of one time depositors, but what helps to keep the casino profitable is that the gamblers play regularly. For that a casino need to have some benefits, like a ranking for VIP players, the more they gamble the higher their rake. Also it's important to have an fast responding customer support team that helps gamblers with all their problems.

I agree with you, while the total amount of mined bitcoins will eventually reach 21m, it doesn't mean that the world has full access to all these 21m. Due to theft and people losing access to their wallets the number of available bitcoins will be lower. That shouldn't be a big concern right now though. You could argue that the price should be higher, but that's just a matter of time.  The finite numbers of Bitcoins is what will make the price rise over time. As long as new bitcoins are being mined there exists a minimum price for bitcoins, given by the energy and running cost of miners. We are of course well above that price. So the rise in mining cost together with the halving means that prices have to rise more and more. At the moment its hard to say what the real price is, because the world is facing such uncertain times.

For me it feels wierd to trade with borrowed money. I am not an expert in trading, so the risk of losing money in a trade is there and I can't imagine how I would feel if that money I lost wasn't even mine. For a very successful traders it can make sense to trade with borrowed money, because they leverage their returns like that. Similar to how the hedge funds operate, take a cheap loan and multiply your profits. The problem is that the risk of the trade multiplys also. Taking out loans means we need to repay the interest and if we didn't make a return for a while we could be forced to close out our position and be screwed. When trading only with our own equity we have more freedom, in times of falling prices we could just sit out the dip and wait for prices to recover. Interest rates are still cheap at the moment, what makes loans seem cheap right now. But interest rates have to rise to fight the higher inflation, which will make refinancing more expensive in the future. The only way were I could consider trade with borrowed money was if it is from family or very close friends. I would share all profits with them and make sure that they understand before there is a risk they could lose some of the money.

I understand the problem we face online when it comes to KYC. For the majority it's another step where they have to share personal information online, it's seems unnecessary because the majority is honest and would not engage in illegal activities. Only a small fraction misuse the Internet for their illegal purposes. It's like a paradox, to make the Internet a safer place, it becomes more risky for the individual. Every time we share our personal information online, it gets stored and could be stolen in case of a security breach. Unfortunately I don't see any way around it in the future. The number of transactions humans are doing online is going to keep rising. More and more things will be bought and sold online. Casinos are a natural part of that. For that also the need to better identify ourselves online will grow.

I fully agree with you, Drake should not be blamed if someone tries to copy his bets and then loses money. Drake has a huge follower base and for him to share his betting slips is a form of advertising not a tip to make some free money. When it comes to sports betting there is no guaranteed win, and even though Drake is famous it doesn't mean he has insider information. Everybody should make up his own mind before blindly following celebrities, it is on ourselves to act responsible when it comes to gambling. Like you said Drake is not telling anyone to use their own money and gamble. For him betting a few hundred thousand USD is not much, he has enough money. In my opinion it's still great to see such famous Rappers like Drake to be part of the crypto world. It shows how far crypto currencies and online casinos have come in the last few years. Even the top celebrities are not afraid to give their name for advertising campaign. I am sure in the future we will see even more celebrities to join the crypto and gambling community.

Should be interesting games today. How much did you bet on them? I am always a bit reluctant to bet on these medium tier matches as I am not following the teams too much. Cowana Gaming I have seen before, they are pretty strong and should win today. Next week Cowana Gaming is playing against BIG, I would put my money here on BIG, they are a much stronger team. My favourites are still Alternate aTTaX, even though they are not performing as good this tourney. This is going to be a close match next week against Partydaddlers. Today vs Masonic should be easier for aTTaX.

I wonder if you still find these arbitrage opportunities today, or if they all disappeared. I know from stocks trading that arbitrage opportunities are short lived, because information flow today is so fast. As soon as a trader starts profiting of big trade, others will follow. In the sports betting world I would expect the bookies to identify these opportunities too.
Insider information is probably the only way to be always right in betting. Without it we need to rely on hedging or luck to save us. Luck will eventually run out and can cost us a lot of money. I like to make small very risky bets as a hedge. The investment is small with a potential big payout. Especially during big tournaments having multi segment hedges is a good idea. Betting on a few underdogs is relatively cheap and can help recover our money in case our favourite team doesn't make it.

Meta is a huge company, they have so many personal information through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and more. The whole company is build around gathering information and tailoring specific ads and information for individuals. All these algorithms could be used for gambling also. It should be very easy for them to categories people into adults and minors, and prevent minors from seeing any gambling content. There could be some out cries from parents who fear for their children, so maybe some additional KYC steps are needed. The gambling market is a large market and very profitable, I am sure Mark Zuckerberg would like to get a piece of it.

In my opinion the effects of sanctions on a superpower are even worse than on the smaller nations like Venezuela or North Korea. A superpower is usually strongly connected in international trade an relys on exports for the economic growth. Once many nations join in on the sanctions the trade will collapse and send the currency downwards. The lower currency makes imports more expensive, which will make force down the economy even more. In my opinion sanctions are important and should be applied, but the severity of them is a issue. The harder the sanctions the more the ordinary people are going to suffer. This might make people more radical and not change the desired politics. I would expect if you ask people in North Korea, Iran or Venezuela how they feel about the sanctions and their attitude towards the West, they will probably blame more the foreign countries than their own leaders.  

I understand bitcoins completely different from you. In my opinion there is buying and selling going on. The way you describe it sounds like there is one big entity behind bitcoins who controls everything. That is definitely not the case, there are tons of different miners out there, all around the world. The miners then sell the bitcoins to the investors and traders. There is not only one bitcoin exchange out there, and they are not all owned by the same person.  The bitcoin community is full of individuals that buy and sell bitcoins on regularly. Saying that there is no buying or no investing going on is not right. For me the numbers of my bitcoin wallet are not easy to remember, I can't store such long numbers in my mind, I need protection.

Looking objectively from above at the situation it was probably not as bad as it seemed at that moment. There is always a way out, a way towards recovery. But like you said, the brain tends to focus on one outcome and intensifies the negative feelings. I don't think it's right to put all the blame on the casinos and the gambling industry. There doctors and institutions that deal directly with gambling addictions, if he really wanted he could have gotten help. Unfortunately he didn't see a way out. Also his parents could have helped and try to convince him to see specialist doctors to better control his spending habits. The parents shouldn't help with paying the debt off, because that could look like a form of enabling. UK is a developed nation that has procedures in place for people who have taken on to much debt and can't repay it anymore. In my country this process takes 4-5 years, and after that all your debt will be written off. It's a tragedy and hopefully helps others in a similar situation to wake up and get help. 

It's been almost two years since the thread was opened and it didn't get a lot of attention here. The chess boom is still happening. I enjoy playing Blitz chess online and there always people to play against with. Most of my friends also enjoy playing chess from time to time. But none of us play for money, we only play for fun. All the big chess platforms are without betting on it. It seems that there is not so much demand for playing chess for money. The problem for me is that there is a big skill difference in players, it would be very easy for a professional chess player to win all the money. That is why all the chess platforms have Elo rankings in place. It needs to be a fair game for players to actually bet on it.

Both of the coin want to track a stable value of the USD. Like you said one decentralised and the other one not. I don't own any of these two, the only stable coin I invested in the past is USDT. It's the biggest stable coin, for me it gives some additional security for being the market leader. Usually I prefer decentralised systems , but when it comes to stable coins centralisation might be better. So if I had to choose one of the two coins I would probably go with Busd, as it's also regulated by the government.

I agree with you that why new trader or beginner shouldn't jump straight into day trading. There is a lot of risk involved and while there is a chance to make a big returns quicky, it can also mean a lot of money quickly. The biggest risk we face in day trading, is to over trade. Buying and selling without making a return after cost. Transactions cost can eat up a lot of the profits.
Waiting till 2023 for asset prices to hit rock bottom might not be the best strategy. Do we really expect the Russia Ukraine war to continue until 2023? I don't hope so. As soon as there is a ceasefire the world should be relieved and some normality should come back. It's going to take years for the conflict to be solved, but asset prices should rise again when there is light at the end of the tunnel. Being atleast partially invested now will let us profit from it.

I agree with you, a good economy is very important for the people and families living in a country. A stagnant or declining economy is very bad and will likely result in political unrest and protests, demanding change and probably a change in power. The whole capitalism in the west is designed around the idea of growth. The inflation target is around 2%, which means that if the economy is not growing at a similar rate than the people are losing purchasing power. That's also why wages need to rise. It's very similar to the stock market, investors expect a rise in prices or dividends each year. If the price doesn't change for a few months something is wrong, investors lose confidence and prices will eventually fall. A large part of the investor sentiment is a projection of the future growth. It's very important for the government to start investing in the own country if growth is slowing down.

Good to hear that you are ready to go full into crypto currencies. I am not yet ready, because most of my bills are still in fiat money, even a loan I am repaying is also in fiat. Same goes for my salary. That is why for daily life I need to stick with fiat for now, but for my investing I am also full into cryptos. Haven't really bought any stock or other investments since I am back into cryptos. Especially now cryptos are so desirable because they offer much better inflation protection that our Fiat money. It still important what kind of crypto coins we are going to buy. Right now 10 doge coin are worth 1.11 USD, going up to 500k sounds a bit unrealistic to me. Doge is still a meme coin, so if they could go up to $1 and hold that price for a while it would already be amazing. Better not to invest all your money into Doge in my opinion. How about you spread out your money across a lot of different cryptos?

This is exactly my concern, in Russia not everybody is supporting Putin. The official approval rate of Putin was around 70%, which is of course not a correct number. So even in the worst case 30% are not supporting Putin and will still be hit hard by the sanctions. It's easy for us from the West to say that people should stand up to Putin, even if that leads to getting beaten up and worst case spend 10 years in jail.
The billionaires and oligarchs still have most of their money in Russia, they might lose some yachts, international money and properties. But their lifestyle within Russia probably won't charge much. It's the average citizen that is hurting he most. And will the sanctions really help and make them stand up to Putin or will they get angry at the West instead? I think there is a big possibilities that the sanctions backfire and make more people angry against the West. Which will push Russia even further into a corner.
I am against this war and hope that the peace deals will lead to a ceasefire soon.

That's not an easy question to answer. Mining bitcoins sounds nice, but it involves money and work to maintain it. It's not a system that you buy once and then the money flows in. The first thing is the hardware, the prices are still high and it will take time to make your money back. Also there could be problems or damages which require repair and mean downtime for the Miner. The second thing is energy, it depends on in which country you are and how much you have to pay for electricity. Now with he Ukraine Russia war, energy prices are likely to keep rising in the near future. The higher your operating cost the lower your profits.
In the end it comes down to how you look at the future bitcoin price. If you believe that the bitcoin price will rise again than buying bitcoins directly with your 40k, but if you expect falling prices than mining would be a better option. Personally I would invest rather than mine.

Gambling in the metaverse offers a lot of new possibilities and sounds very cool at first. Together with a VR setup this could be a whole new experience when it comes to gambling. Entering a virtual casino, interacting with your friends while playing your favourite games sounds pretty cool. Especially for games like poker where you play against others it would mean a big change. The question is would you be willing to get filmed while sitting on the couch and gambling. And all your friends could see how well or bad you are doing. For people who are big fans of social media that could be pretty cool. I am not so big into social media and it would feel a bit wierd if some friends I rarely talk to would contact me again after I won big one night.

Ohje dass klingt gar nicht so gut. War mir nicht bewusst dass die Front gegen Bitcoins immer noch so stark ist. Warum die Linken, Grünen und Sozialdemokraten zusammen so Druck gegen Cryptos machen verstehe ich nicht wirklich. Regulieren ist doch immer besser als einfach nur verbieten. Ein Verbot ist nie zu 100% und im Endeffekt bleibt die EU dann nur noch weiter zurück in Technologien. Bin froh dass wenigsten die Konservativen und Liberalen gegen ein Verbot sind. Kenne mich im EU Parlament nicht so gut aus, aber Konservative ist die stärkste Partei und Sozialdemokraten, Linke und Grüne haben keine Mehrheit moment. Also wenn jeder Abgeordneter seiner Partei folgt sollte der Verbots-Entwurf nicht durch kommen. Hoffen wir mal das Beste. Danke fürs sammeln und zusammenfassen der News.