Recently our local lottery increased its minimum ticket price doubling it from 0.5€ to 1€ so buying multiple tickets became doubly more expensive in a single day. It's crazy that inflation became a chance to even increase lottery ticket prices...
Even before this development, I would never buy multiple tickets. The chances to win are so astronomically low that spending 0.5€ or 100€ makes not much of a difference. The only occasion I would buy multiple tickets is when I wanted to get tickets for multiple people for fun.

Talking with someone that is Muslim yesterday, it was suggested to me that many Muslims around the world might be using crypto to circumvent the strict treatment of gambling in predominantly Muslim countries.

It was an interesting concept to consider that since crypto can be used to conceal your spending, it is probably also used by people who want to gamble to avoid the consequences based on religious practices.

But the more interesting side of this is that some probably interpret gambling with crypto as permissible under religious rules. Not exactly 100% approved let's say but not explicitly forbidden either.

So what do you think about this? Does gambling with crypto mean that laws about gambling being Haram don't apply all the time?
I was thinking that of crypto is earned outside of one's regular job, for example as a reward for activities such as bounties or sweepstakes, then maybe gambling with these earnings insta Haram?

These concepts are interesting to me because most Christian people like me, while having our religion dictate that gambling is a very serious sin, most do it anyway. Basically most christians aren't very pious at all and don't follow religion rules at least in my experience. So using loopholes to circumvent religious rules when your country even endorsed certain casinos isn't needed that much. So it's interesting to observe these differences.

I will prefer to bet on win only with better odds than just win or draw.
Bookies tend to underestimate the odds on win or draw and even if you win you don't earn that much.
So I tend to prefer taking the risk personally.

Compared to the general population, I think that Bitcoin holders are more interested to take risks.
Simply holding an asset that is as volatile as BTC will mean someone has a high risk tolerance and likely therefore to also gamble.

So with all the freedom and lack of restrictions associated to BTC I think it was a very good environment for gambling to flourish. It has been a very good combo so far. Personally though I think that gsmblers that are accustomed to gambling with FIAT are more inconsiderate with how they gamble. Might just be me but bircoiners want to HODL more than anyone holding FIAT.

If I happen to talk with family or acquaintances about gambling I will only share certain aspects of it.
I will concede to talk about the social aspect of gambling like card game tables etc.
Other times we will talk about the athleticism of certain sport teams.

Talking about amounts gambled and winnings to me is a no go, because I know everyone's financial situation is different and honestly there's no need to flex finances to people that know you. It would be akin to sharing your net worth with everyone. Some people just don't take well to that. And gamblers sometimes have even worse reactions. At least that's my two cents.

This strategy's risk is that there are often great upsets in sports.

If this strategy was a successful one, you could just go to the NCCA basketball league and pick all the matches with low losing odds.
Among the hundreds of matches in this league, there are dozens like that. And since it's basketball one team has to win.

You could create a paroli with a dozen or so matches and combining all the odds it could easily be a 5X or even 10x altogether instead of 0.1x winnings. But the issue is that often these matches are swayed the other way and then the casino wins all of your pot...
Either betting or gambling, it's hard to beat the house.

Lotteries also have a big house edge. It's not related to the chances of winning actually, moreso to the Return To Player rate.
In theory lotteries have an unlimited house edge because usually the hugger reward is capped.
So if the reward is capped $100m and players have gambled $400m then the RTP rate becomes lower than if $105m was gambled.

Honestly lotteries are weird. Usually they're sort of monopolistic and aren't very transparent about specs like RTP,  house edge etc. For some lotteries that are especially popular players figure it out on their own though.

My biggest win for me on a personal level is managing to remain under a plan and enforce it for myself when gambling, effectively following simple rules to not exceed limits in betting amounts out of my financial comfort.

This is a big win for me considering that I managed to sustain winning and loosing all while having fun throughout. I can't recommend this enough to everyone. It makes you feel like a winner all the time. 😎

If a casino sees you won a lot they will probably try to get you to pass at least some form of KYC.
If you never want to get KYC'd you should really be reading the terms and conditions of the casino as well as last experiences of players online carefully before playing there.

Because in the event of the terms I cluding such requirements it's in their rights to enforce it, and they will usually bother when there are large amounts involved, regardless of small or big withdrawal.

The thing here is that local bet shops are much more restricted in what games they can host. You can buy lottery tickets at different lotteries, buy scratch cards, bet on live or virtual sports and the most interactive thing they're usually allowed to have is keno at best. These chance games have an RTP that is at best 60% (Keno) and lotteries have astronomical odds.

This is where the big money comes, but the most regular patrons are there to watch sports and bet all day, but usually with smaller amounts.
These restrictions make bet shops much less lucrative than a casino. Of course if one gets many customers it would be good to have some security. But usually they can't afford it. It highly depends on the occasion. In my country I've rarely every seen a bet shop have so many patrons at any given time that it would need security though.

There are certain licenses that are very easy to acquire actually and consequently don't mean all that much when it comes to the platform with the said license following any certain set of rules very strictly.

Of course, some license is better than nothing, as it means that the casino at least would care to spend a little to improve their image. But don't expect guarantees.
This is precisely the reason that if I want to bet a substantial amount I look at a casino's longstanding history and interaction with the community. Frankly these are much more valuable to a good casino operator and they would care much more to maintain their good trust instead of just being ruled by a state authority.

So really for me bitcointalk is one of the best tests, even higher than state casino licenses.

This is true, first and most important thing to do if someone has compulsive thoughts is to quit entirely if it's damaging their livelyhood.
However, anxiety can also be induced by other factors in someone's life such as family matters or work issues for instance.
There are so many things that can induce stress in an individual actually...

So if someone has already budgeted their gambling to a healthy level but stress still leads them to compulsive throughts, some workouts to reduce stress would be a good case on such scenarios. Of course nothing works for everyone so the safest option is to talk with a pro at any time.

For me it's not just an issue of terms of service. It's very much likely that certain sites also outright delete or negate referral commission in violation of their own terms of service.

Financial sites are more regulated and provide more honest trscking with their affiliate programs so I think it's less likely for them to cheat, but with gambling sites it's a bit like wild west.

This is the reason I gave been seeing those working with affiliate marketing promote a wide variety of platforms. The best affilist earnings can come from inviting people to a platform that becomes famous early but it's impossible to predict how good and popular a platform will be simply from being early. So the affiliate marketers will have an wide array of platforms to promote usually because sticking with just one can be risky for so many reasons.

Having problematic behaviors related to gambling, such as chasing profits, thinking you can best the house, that your luck will turn etc. has a lot to do with anxiety. In many countries there are readily available resources and public infrastructure though which people can seek and receive assistance for issues like addictions. But the sad truth is that many countries also lack the resources to provide such services to their local population.

So it's important to emphasize that while resources for self help can be good, they can also do more harm than good in certain occasions, so it's good to remind everyone that if available, the best option is to always work with professionals.

Now with that out of the way, I feel like it's important to recognize that anxiety contributed negatively to his one might approach gambling. First step with dealing with anxiety is to recognize it. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anxiety/symptoms-causes/syc-20350961

The way to deal with related thoughts when they emerge is to have a mental response that is full of logical arguments each time these feelings come up. Think of why anxiety isn't a reasonable feeling, think of your schedule, why it's not worth to gamble again etc. These can depend on each person's circumstances.

Personally I felt a lot better finding and reading a cognitive behavioral therapy book in my local library. I made prints of the most important pages and kept them with me for a while. Dealing with anxiety and keeping it managed can help with many aspects of life actually. Always best to combine written cognitive therapy resources with visits to s licensed professional if you can though. But even reading a CBT book alone can provide some helpful advice to dealing with anxiety.

Now when it comes to realizing that you are affected by physical symptoms of stress, there are also some exercises for that. You can look up breathing techniques, and see if these help you. Even the simplest form of breathing in from the nose and exhaling deeply and slowly while sitting down can be very helpful for some.

Feel free to share any tips if you have them.  

Το θέμα με το να τρέχεις το Bitcoin είναι να το τρέχεις σε έναν υπολογιστή που μπορεί να το σηκώσει και με κάποια άνεση.
Σε τελείως θεωρητικά πλαίσια ένα Raspberry pi μπορεί να το τρέξει, στην πράξη δεν έχει νόημα γιατί τα specs είναι τόσο χαμηλά που δεν θα μπορεί αν το τρέξει σωστά. Και επίσης με την έλλειψη τσιπ τα raspberry pi είναι δυσεύρετα και πολύ ακριβά ειδικά στην Ελλάδα. Άσε που τα εξαρτήματα στην τοπική αγορά είναι ανύπαρκτα.

Δεδομένου του ότι το να το τρέξεις σε ePi ανεβάζει πολύ το επίπεδο δυσκολίας, δεν πιστεύω πως είναι ρεαλιστικό να το προτείνουμε. Όλα αυτά έχουν συζητηθεί εκτενώς στην κοινότητα:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/13xj0ug/nobody_should_suggest_using_a_raspberry_pi_for/

Δεν είναι σωστή η αποποίηση ευθύνης λέγοντας πως όποιος θέλει να τρέξει ένα node μπορεί να το κάνει κυριολεκτικά στον πιο bare bones υπολογιστή που υπάρχει. Με τα έξοδα των εξαρτημάτων και μόνο παίρνεις server tower κιόλας... Αλλά το κόστος ρεύματος παραμένει μια σταθερά σε όλη την ώρα που σίγουρα θα εξακολουθήσει να επιρεάζει την αποκέντρωση του Bitcoin σε τοπικό επίπεδο.

This isn't only a risk with new casinos, it's also an existing risk with existing established casinos.

Cloudbet did something to me when they were already very reputable.
For you to get everything you are actually owed, you would need to go with a very very reputable casino but oftentimes an issue with these is that everyone has an account already. So it's hard to get proper leads.

For me one of the most important aspects of trusting a casino is interacting with the community in meaningful ways, so running interactive promotions that are lead by experienced community members us important.

But more than anything else, I want a proper implementation of provably fair games. You don't really have to trust the fairness of a casino if you can verify it yourself. As kf trusting a casino with bigger deposits it's good to have some time pass without accusations and resolutions to any issues that might arise.

I used to do affiliate for cloudbet and they showed me that I was among the top affiliates for their site, generating hundreds of leads.
But after they change their terms, I would get no revenue.
If you want to promote a crypto casino, I would recommend picking a trusted one without open and non-addressed allegations against them.

Yes it's true that a provider can not honor their affiliate commissions owed to you, but a trusted one would never do such a thing. So pick the provider you are promoting carefully.

Expecting short term gains of 50% on Bitcoin isn't something very realistic imho...
If anyone bought in the last month they bought at a local high so it's also very much likely that a retrace would be expected.
Anyone investing right now should be doing so with funds they won't need for a while imho. There's no guarantee that markets would keep doing that well. And with a potential retrace that could take a while too? It's a very risky bet to expect shirt term gains at the current levels in my opinion. If prices fall just a bit there's going to be resistance from anyone that just bought a short while ago, with the increased volumes and all.. 

I think any place that involves money and a many people should be held into high standards when it comes to security.
Casinos employ many security personnel. And I am sure the bigger betting stores would also be able to spend some money on security personnel. If they can afford it, they better do it imo. Having someone there just with presence can increase security quite a bit as people would be following the rules more thoroughly.