Why do people compare betting and investing in bitcoin (in terms of risk)?

[Latviand]

Simply because investing has risks, the same as betting in a gamble. Having both no assurance of the profit makes them similar. On investment, there could be a pattern that an investor would see which made him engage into investment, probably profit. In gambling, despite of the loss, a gambler would still play because of the same pattern, the possibility to regain the loss and earn profit.

I think mostly because it is an online investment, maybe if it was probably an offline investment on something more physical, they will have a different view towards it,
Btc is a digital currency used online, so I can understand when some people will have this perception, personally, I think some people don't take online stuff too serious or they see it as gambling.

Depends on the kind of investment. If it is Gold or other stocks in the market, wherein the price are not that active but consistent, profit will be earned but it would take time. In gambling and other online investment, most people who engage to these things are aiming for profit go be earned in short term.

Because they have been introduced with bitcoin in a wrong way. This is happening all around the world and very few people know the inner bitcoin which has a lot of utility than fiat. Most people knows BTC as a money making/losing machine.

This is right. The first thing that would come to their mind is profit from investing. If I am not wrong, Bitcoin is made in order to be used as a digital currency, due to its advantages in particular with blockchain technology. But given that there are people who made huge profit due to its active market value, we really cannot blame them for being interested to also, earn profit from investing to Bitcoin. But it has risk, it is a matter of picking your own poison.

[100bitcoin]

@OP Did you know you can invest in Bankroll of betting websites as well?

[bitbunnny]

When you invest in Bitcoin you are always exposed to certain risks and you need a bit of luck too that everything with your investment goes as it planned.
However, I wouldn't compare investing in Bitcoin with beting and gambling, this is not the same thing.
Gambling depends on pure luck and investing takes certain knowledge, experience and skills, you can't invest in Bitcoin by pure guessing.

[Utoy101]

The truth is, lot of people see bitcoin as a virtual currency just for taking profit and not the other side of it that aim to provide the world with a decentralized financial system. Every investments option is associated with risk and cryptocurrency is not exempted. Lots of people will tell you that the downtrend of cryptocurrency market since the last quarter of 2017 has made investments in cryptocurrency same as other gambling options when it comes to risk.

Of course,  investment in these two options are far different from eachother in every aspect as betting is a direct gambling while cryptocurrency can be term an investment option with the tendency to appreciate due to development of more utility. The only similar thing between the two is prediction
 

[Destroyeroff98]

I don't really understand why people see bitcoin as betting. That's what most people believe; they have this mindset that investing in bitcoin is more like playing a bet. But is that true? Capital NO!
I had a conversation with two of my siblings who both know that I'm into cryptocurrency. The older one was asking how much he would earn if he invested about 1,500$ worth of bitcoin. (Tho, I gave him a good explanation that it doesn't work that way). But then, my other sibling was saying that bitcoin is more like betting. Well, I ended up proving my point and here's it:
Betting is risky and so is investing in bitcoin. However, there's a big bridge between them. When you bet, your money is highly at stake than when you invest in bitcoin. This is because when you bet and lose, YOU LOSE ALL YOU STAKED. On the other hand, YOU CAN NEVER LOSE ALL IF YOU INVEST IN BITCOIN. Bitcoin can't just fall to zero. That's impossible. Tho it may need a long growth for one to gain, it should never be compared with betting (in terms of risk).

I partially agree with you. But in fact, you buy Bitcoin and bet that the price will rise.
If you trade on Forex, then you can also bet on lowering the price.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Most people who compare "Investing in Bitcoin" to “gambling/betting" are totally ignorant about Bitcoin/trading.
Betting is totally depended on luck-you can't deny that. On the other hand, Investing in Bitcoin doesn't work like that. You get more profit the more you invest in Bitcoin and if you are able to gain knowledge about trading then you can predict when prices may rise or fall. There is no risk investing in Bitcoin you just have to be patient.

[alani123]

By investing principles, you should only invest part of your income after spending. With high risk assets, only a portion of that should go with them. Serious funds that I best in high risk investments maybe go in at 2% of their funds.

So if you are a working class person, spending 10% of your income in investment and let's even say 5% of that in BTC, then you put in so little that with the risk it carries is utterly pointless. Better put cash in a lottery ticket or a horse race every once in a while.

[Kelvinid]

They all both having of high risk but betting is more likely to have it more and more chance to empty our pocket than of Bitcoin investment. I'd likely not to engage in betting because I know it wasn't safe at all. They all both possible to have losing ends but in betting is most like it comes near and possibly it gives you big losses instantly unlike bitcoin investment where we can still recover if we can manage to hold our funds.

I like how OP clarifies it to your siblings and hopefully, they could get it and soon to become an investor rather than being in betting.

[pixie85]

I think mostly because it is an online investment, maybe if it was probably an offline investment on something more physical, they will have a different view towards it,
Btc is a digital currency used online, so I can understand when some people will have this perception, personally, I think some people don't take online stuff too serious or they see it as gambling.

Some people also have this attitude towards stocks and the forex market that it's not an investment but gambling. There are traditional investors who think that investing is buying a real share in a property like when you buy a share in a restaurant or a factory and you can decide what it does how it's run. That if you buy a small packet of something in the Internet it's not a real investment even if that packet represents 0.1% of a real company.

Gambling and investing were never the same and are not the same that's why we have different words for them.

[Saint-loup]

I think mostly because it is an online investment, maybe if it was probably an offline investment on something more physical, they will have a different view towards it,
Btc is a digital currency used online, so I can understand when some people will have this perception, personally, I think some people don't take online stuff too serious or they see it as gambling.

Some people also have this attitude towards stocks and the forex market that it's not an investment but gambling. There are traditional investors who think that investing is buying a real share in a property like when you buy a share in a restaurant or a factory and you can decide what it does how it's run. That if you buy a small packet of something in the Internet it's not a real investment even if that packet represents 0.1% of a real company.

Gambling and investing were never the same and are not the same that's why we have different words for them.

No I disagree with you because in gambling and in trading, there are the same amount of losers : at least 90% loses money while only less than 10% wins. You can find a Pareto proportion 80/20 in many business models but in gambling and in trading it's higher than that.

[FlightyPouch]

Thanks for that explanation. To be honest, I am one of those people that thinks that gambling is the same as risky as investing and with your explanation, I was cleared that it is not so thank you for that. I never view that point in the past and no one is really bothering me to explain that. It is somewhat embarrassing but still, I learned something and that is great.

[kezinaur14]

Because they have been introduced with bitcoin in a wrong way. This is happening all around the world and very few people know the inner bitcoin which has a lot of utility than fiat. Most people knows BTC as a money making/losing machine.

Yes, lots of people get talked about bitcoin as this very easy way to make lots of money if you have luck, you can clearly see the similitudes between a pitch like this and picture how people get introduced to betting initially.

I think most people anyway don't care about the tech that makes bitcoin possible, there's a need of simpler ways to interact with bitcoin, the simpler it is the more people will become a more permanent part of the market

[bhabygrim]

Now that you'be said it I guess they are both similar,
Both of them would need a proper knowledge and research about it in order to gain profit.
And both of them are unpredictable sometimes miracle could happen and change the whole game/market.

[TIDOVEE]

I don't really understand why people see bitcoin as betting. That's what most people believe; they have this mindset that investing in bitcoin is more like playing a bet. But is that true? Capital NO!
I had a conversation with two of my siblings who both know that I'm into cryptocurrency. The older one was asking how much he would earn if he invested about 1,500$ worth of bitcoin. (Tho, I gave him a good explanation that it doesn't work that way). But then, my other sibling was saying that bitcoin is more like betting. Well, I ended up proving my point and here's it:
Betting is risky and so is investing in bitcoin. However, there's a big bridge between them. When you bet, your money is highly at stake than when you invest in bitcoin. This is because when you bet and lose, YOU LOSE ALL YOU STAKED. On the other hand, YOU CAN NEVER LOSE ALL IF YOU INVEST IN BITCOIN. Bitcoin can't just fall to zero. That's impossible. Tho it may need a long growth for one to gain, it should never be compared with betting (in terms of risk).

Hmm, dude, let's get some things right. Though not all businesses are betting but almost all businesses involves risk, it is just that the risk rate may be varying. And of course bitcoin cannot fall to zero but one may loose much if the bitcoin price drops much. The only thing that can make consistent gain more established is, if one is really patient and not greedy. Like: anyone who has invested during the 2017 bull run and couldn't have the price as invested again. Could have just kindly waited till the next bullrun.

[rodskee]

I don't really understand why people see bitcoin as betting. That's what most people believe; they have this mindset that investing in bitcoin is more like playing a bet. But is that true? Capital NO!
I had a conversation with two of my siblings who both know that I'm into cryptocurrency. The older one was asking how much he would earn if he invested about 1,500$ worth of bitcoin. (Tho, I gave him a good explanation that it doesn't work that way). But then, my other sibling was saying that bitcoin is more like betting. Well, I ended up proving my point and here's it:
Betting is risky and so is investing in bitcoin. However, there's a big bridge between them. When you bet, your money is highly at stake than when you invest in bitcoin. This is because when you bet and lose, YOU LOSE ALL YOU STAKED. On the other hand, YOU CAN NEVER LOSE ALL IF YOU INVEST IN BITCOIN. Bitcoin can't just fall to zero. That's impossible. Tho it may need a long growth for one to gain, it should never be compared with betting (in terms of risk).

Hmm, dude, let's get some things right. Though not all businesses are betting but almost all businesses involves risk, it is just that the risk rate may be varying. And of course bitcoin cannot fall to zero but one may loose much if the bitcoin price drops much. The only thing that can make consistent gain more established is, if one is really patient and not greedy. Like: anyone who has invested during the 2017 bull run and couldn't have the price as invested again. Could have just kindly waited till the next bullrun.

you have come so far from the topic,OP is just pointing the difference about Investing and Betting and he Clearly mentioned about the Idea of betting like to gamble while In investing at least even if the price falls to zero still you have the currency on hold?though this is very impossible to happen as Bitcoin will for sure grow in future,we have been here for years and witnessed how this Great currency move and all we need is Just a patience and capacity to Keep holding.

[thesmallgod]

It is the risk involved in both that make people to comparing both the same but the level of risk is not the same, Betting involve very high risk while trading bitcoin involvess moderate risk. When you throw a bet, you can lose all your money within a few minutes but it is not like that in bitcoin trading. However, if you choose to invest your bitcoin in Ponzi schemes and other schemes that promise you ROI, I think your risk is as big as someone gambbling as well because the result of both are always similar

[Krislaw]

Yes, it can fall to zero , Yes it is Gambling,
or
let's say you purchased it at 20K
Now it is less than 10K for years, you lost over half your investment and years later still not recovered,

There are no guarantees, yes bitcoin can drop to zero any investment can, not realizing this can do you serious financial harm.
http://theconversation.com/five-reasons-bitcoin-could-enter-a-more-extreme-death-spiral-108766

Lol. Maybe you don't get what I'm saying. Let me try to be more elaborate.

Like you said;

let's say you purchased it at 20K
Now it is less than 10K for years, you lost over half your investment

You lost over half.... Right? Cool.
Now here's the question; Do you lose over half or all when you're betting? You obviously lose all.

You said bitcoin can fall to zero? Well, you should understand that it can never happen within seconds, hours, day, weeks, or even months. Bitcoin would take a long time if it's price is going down. It cannot be sudden.
And once you see those red warnings, you could simply sell off and lose a little. Unlike betting in which you can lose even 10,000$ in a few minutes.

You can lose all at once when your prediction is against you in gambling(betting) but when it comes to trading, measures such as stop-loss can be put in place you can't loose all. It is also very difficult for a coin with high market cap and millions of dollars worth of trading volume to dump without you knowing.
Only few gambling sites offers the live cashout option for popular games like English premier league, France league and the rest. Your fate is being decided within 90 minutes in soccer betting while few only few minutes in some other games like virtual games.

[minersday]

I don't really understand why people see bitcoin as betting. That's what most people believe; they have this mindset that investing in bitcoin is more like playing a bet. But is that true? Capital NO!
I had a conversation with two of my siblings who both know that I'm into cryptocurrency. The older one was asking how much he would earn if he invested about 1,500$ worth of bitcoin. (Tho, I gave him a good explanation that it doesn't work that way). But then, my other sibling was saying that bitcoin is more like betting. Well, I ended up proving my point and here's it:
Betting is risky and so is investing in bitcoin. However, there's a big bridge between them. When you bet, your money is highly at stake than when you invest in bitcoin. This is because when you bet and lose, YOU LOSE ALL YOU STAKED. On the other hand, YOU CAN NEVER LOSE ALL IF YOU INVEST IN BITCOIN. Bitcoin can't just fall to zero. That's impossible. Tho it may need a long growth for one to gain, it should never be compared with betting (in terms of risk).

The reason why some people see bitcoin as betting is that, the risk level in both bitcoin trading or investment and betting are very much equal. With betting you can't actually tell the outcome even with all the statistics. Bitcoin also has similar characteristics since you can actually tell the next possible market value. Both Bitcoin and betting share similar risk levels and their profit margins are also quite similar. But personally, betting is more risky than Bitcoin. With Betting, it is very high to lose all the money you invested in the bet.

[peter0425]

Now that you'be said it I guess they are both similar,
Both of them would need a proper knowledge and research about it in order to gain profit.
And both of them are unpredictable sometimes miracle could happen and change the whole game/market.

if you only read the topic?for sure you will not come to that idea,sometimes we nee to read the whole thread and not only the title because we will always brings inappropriate details.
they are not same in many ways aside from both involves our money at risk but in whole?they are now.

[wozzek23]

This is the problem I have with some people, even some of them on this forum. When people say that they lost everything in bitcoin, I keep wondering how that is even possible. Seriously, how do you even lose all your money in bitcoin, so you were not checking the price or what? And there is no way that bitcoin price will fall all at once and fall to zero.

There is a huge difference between bitcoin and gambling. Bitcoin is a pure investment, but the thing is that the risk involved is quite high than some other investments like gold, and that’s because bitcoin is still new and volatile. As time goes on it will become more stable and better than it is right now.