Why do we lose at gambling?

[vennali]

"Hello fellow degens.

I was going through a post about losing and how gambling should strictly be for entertainment. You treat it as such and you cannot get too hurt gambling. It is great advice and I will not argue against it, especially if you do not care about winning and just want to pass time or bet on your team. However, for me if I didn't think I could profit I wouldn't do it because losing isn't fun. And I mean that strictly from a long-term perspective. Of course you cannot win everyday but weeks, months, or years of losing should make any sane person quit.

I wanted to think about things I've done which have made me lose at gambling. Here is my list:

    Winners Demand an Edge: That was a quote from a poker book I once read called 'The Psychology of Poker'. If you want to win, playing casino games with a house edge is a big no-no. In sports betting, it means getting the best of the number by having multiple books. In poker, it means finding soft games you can beat. Ultimately it means if you are putting yourself into a position where losing is inevitable, don't do it! Also you need to maximize your EV whenever possible.

    Bankroll Management: I think a conservative bankroll to have is 50X and bet between 1-2 units. If you lose say half, in poker you move down a level. In sports betting, you lower your bets. Also, you cannot build it up if you are constantly taking money out of it. I have definitely broken this rule a million times.

    Bridge-Jumping: In horse betting this is a term for betting on a heavy favorite to show and collecting your 5% (say you bet $200, it returns $210). It works well until your horse doesn't hit the board and you need to win the next 20 to break-even. I tried this strategy to clear bonuses and it blew up in my face. In sports betting it means betting heavy ML favorites for a small return. Don't do it!

    Parlays: Parlays are money makers for casinos. If you are trying to win, don't do them. Even with correlated parlays, I would argue they should only be done infrequently and for .5 unit or less. You are still introducing variance into your bankroll, which means you need a bigger bankroll for the inevitable swings. Not doing any parlays I think is the best advice.

    Betting for Action: Not every event is profitable so you need to pick your spots. I love the Blazers but I will not bet them if I don't think the bet is +EV. Only bet after you have done your research and feel it is a good bet. Don't bet just because something is on.

    Chasing losses: This is the worst one for me personally. When I lose, I tilt (goes for poker too). You cannot win chasing losses where you bet because you are pissed and want to get your money back. You can get your money back but it might take a couple days or even a week. The old cliche is true, this is a marathon and not a sprint. Don't tilt.

    Betting Locks: This breaks rule #2 which inevitably leads to rule #6. You see something you think is a lock so you bet some stupid amount like half your bankroll. It loses, you tilt and bet the remainder on something you only feel lukewarm about and it loses. And you are down to zero, having to sell HJs on the corner to rebuild your bankroll. Okay, that last part isn't true...right? But seriously, if you stick to good bankroll management, one bet losing shouldn't piss you off or winning one bet should not make you extremely happy.

I appreciate any comments and please let me know if you can add anything else that makes us lose."

this was posted on reddit by u/jmotrain.

I agree with everything he says and thought it would be very helpful for fellow degens here. Thoughts?

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[just_Alice]

All 7 apply to me, I'm afraid  

The worst one and the one I do most frequently is also "chasing losses", I tried a lot of strategies (especially in dice) that are basically build on this rule, e.g. Martingale strategy: it is designed to chase your losses, that's the whole point of it, the way I see it. It never worked for me, I always ended up losing in the end with this approach.

Also, there's another one for me, it's like the opposite of the rule "chasing losses" and somewhat similar to "betting locks", I'd call it "chasing wins".
 
Whenever I win big I get this feeling like "finally, the luck is on my side", which is completely wrong, there's no such thing as luck, there's pure probability.

But, nevertheless, emotions make us do stupid things, so with this feeling, I start making risky bets with lower odds to increase the win or increase the bet itself, even though the logical move would be to decrease the bet after the win.

It doesn't always work, however, it's better than to do the opposite and it's more logical, even though the laws of probability tell us that the outcome isn't dependent on history, and each time the probability is the same if conditions and rules are the same.

[2double0]

Chasing losses has been the best example that suits everyone's situation including me. I try to chase my losses and sometimes even double my portfolio, but greed never lets me stop at that point and I decide to gamble further and when I get under my capital again, I try to chase my loss with higher bets and lose all of it.

[XCANA]

Chasing losses has been the best example that suits everyone's situation including me. I try to chase my losses and sometimes even double my portfolio, but greed never lets me stop at that point and I decide to gamble further and when I get under my capital again, I try to chase my loss with higher bets and lose all of it.

Those of us who are indicted on this will be more becasue the spirit of greed's has done more harm to millions of gamblers than we think, most of my winnings are quite okay compare to my gambling portfolio but becasue of me chasing looses always get me rekt.

Also, separating my emotions from gambling is one of the hardest am yet to conquer, i usually put into play my emotions during gambling and mostly lose out.

[agustina2]

You should give some inputs too on one of the listed above so that it won't be turned out you just copy the thread and paste it here.

Not doing any parlays I think is the best advice.

Totally disagree here. Parlays aren't really a money-making betting strategy but there are cases where there are bets that worth doing a parlay especially if you have knowledge on those set of games.

Won a few parlays before because of my knowledge. It's not a sure win but knowledge about those available bets is an advantage and can increase our chance of winning.

[jostorres]

Chasing losses has been the best example that suits everyone's situation including me. I try to chase my losses and sometimes even double my portfolio, but greed never lets me stop at that point and I decide to gamble further and when I get under my capital again, I try to chase my loss with higher bets and lose all of it.

I can relate myself with you because when we are chasing loses there usually comes a time when we actually end up covering our losses but then we start thinking of making some extra and that's where the end usually occurs. I remember playing a few months back when I lost around $40 and to recover them I deposited like $200 and I was quite happy to recover by sports betting and was sitting pretty at around $280 but then I just kept betting for some reason and lost everything.

I believe the cycle of recovering loss works like this - Loss -> Deposit more -> Recover -> Play more -> Bust everything -> Get mad lol .

[2double0]

I can relate myself with you because when we are chasing loses there usually comes a time when we actually end up covering our losses but then we start thinking of making some extra and that's where the end usually occurs. I remember playing a few months back when I lost around $40 and to recover them I deposited like $200 and I was quite happy to recover by sports betting and was sitting pretty at around $280 but then I just kept betting for some reason and lost everything.

I believe the cycle of recovering loss works like this - Loss -> Deposit more -> Recover -> Play more -> Bust everything -> Get mad lol .

I don't deposit more but lose it like 50% lost, so I don't stop and keep trying to get back my bankroll and sometimes make 400% of the remaining bankroll which is 200% of initial bankroll. Yeah I get mad a lot when I lose everything. I have prepared a chart and have written almost all my mistakes that I commit during gambling but I am still unable to follow them and there is just one reason that makes me chase my losses - greed. We cannot control our emotions when we gamble and it pinches in our mind to stand up, try again to win back the loss and then withdraw. My problem is that I never withdraw even after winning back my bankroll.

[TimeTeller]

I can relate myself with you because when we are chasing loses there usually comes a time when we actually end up covering our losses but then we start thinking of making some extra and that's where the end usually occurs. I remember playing a few months back when I lost around $40 and to recover them I deposited like $200 and I was quite happy to recover by sports betting and was sitting pretty at around $280 but then I just kept betting for some reason and lost everything.

I believe the cycle of recovering loss works like this - Loss -> Deposit more -> Recover -> Play more -> Bust everything -> Get mad lol .

I don't deposit more but lose it like 50% lost, so I don't stop and keep trying to get back my bankroll and sometimes make 400% of the remaining bankroll which is 200% of initial bankroll. Yeah I get mad a lot when I lose everything. I have prepared a chart and have written almost all my mistakes that I commit during gambling but I am still unable to follow them and there is just one reason that makes me chase my losses - greed. We cannot control our emotions when we gamble and it pinches in our mind to stand up, try again to win back the loss and then withdraw. My problem is that I never withdraw even after winning back my bankroll.

I think we are all guilty of that. Chasing losses as we are hoping that we will get back our money and win.
But for me, I only have specific bankroll for every game. So when I lost it all, it means, it is time to stop my game for that moment.
No depositing again but wait  for the time that I have extra funds for my gambling.
This is how I cut further losses in gambling. I just allot funds for gambling. After that, stop.
But the bad thing is, I don't usually withdraw when I am winning, I continue to play up until I lost it all.

[Silberman]

"Hello fellow degens.

I was going through a post about losing and how gambling should strictly be for entertainment. You treat it as such and you cannot get too hurt gambling. It is great advice and I will not argue against it, especially if you do not care about winning and just want to pass time or bet on your team. However, for me if I didn't think I could profit I wouldn't do it because losing isn't fun. And I mean that strictly from a long-term perspective. Of course you cannot win everyday but weeks, months, or years of losing should make any sane person quit.

I think one of the reasons people keep gambling despite the fact that we know that we're going to lose money over the long term is that unless you keep track of every single bet that you made in the casino you're not going to realize how much money you have lost over the months or the years, so you don't really feel like a loser, another reason for this is that if you have your gambling under control then the money you are losing while gambling is not really that different from the money that you could spend doing anything else in order to entertain yourself with a different activity, at least in gambling you have a chance to get even more money back than what you had at the beginning, which is a plus in the minds of many people.

[ReiMomo]

I felt guilty because I almost the same as what you have mentioned above and those 7 criteria that we mostly do and lose.

The words that help me to avoid depositing the big amount and I guess made us frustrated is that we don't have a limit, it should this, "gamble only an amount that you can afford" it's either win or loss at least, you will not chase your losses.

Why do we lose in gambling?
This proves that gambling isn't designed that you made always to win, it's just a kind of entertainment.

[chaser15]

Bridge-Jumping: In horse betting this is a term for betting on a heavy favorite to show and collecting your 5% (say you bet $200, it returns $210). It works well until your horse doesn't hit the board and you need to win the next 20 to break-even. I tried this strategy to clear bonuses and it blew up in my face. In sports betting it means betting heavy ML favorites for a small return. Don't do it!

This is already a basic rule. There's no money on heavy favorites so I don't get why others are still doing this.

Heavy favorites on sports betting sometimes only have an odds of less than @1.3. Won't risk a big bet for a small profit. And that kind of odds is not a safe bet if others looked at that way. Since I'm gambling, then take the risk at high odds or on fair odds like @1.8 above.

[KTChampions]

A good list, I think it will be useful for beginners to familiarize themselves with it. This will not help them win (since the reason for losing is always the same - the advantage of the casino and it cannot be eliminated), but at least they will better understand the principles of gambling and will be able to stretch the pleasure (especially with proper money management).

[goinmerry]

Betting for Action: Not every event is profitable so you need to pick your spots. I love the Blazers but I will not bet them if I don't think the bet is +EV. Only bet after you have done your research and feel it is a good bet. Don't bet just because something is on.

I'm not like this. Random betting might end up eating my whole funds.

I always stick to the sports that I have knowledge of. No need to jump on some special events since the goal is to make profits on every bet.

But maybe l will change my mind if ever there's something special or promotions on that event.

[ralle14]

Totally disagree here. Parlays aren't really a money-making betting strategy but there are cases where there are bets that worth doing a parlay especially if you have knowledge on those set of games.

Won a few parlays before because of my knowledge. It's not a sure win but knowledge about those available bets is an advantage and can increase our chance of winning.

A lot of us have won parlays before but like you've said it's not the best strategy even though we have the knowledge or information in each game and which team is likely going to win it could still backfire. If we look at the overall situation it's just not worth as each parlay loss adds up, knowing we could've turn most of our losing parlays in to profits or at least break even instead of losing straight up. Teasers on the other hand does help if you follow a certain criteria.

[jossiel]

Chasing losses: This is the worst one for me personally. When I lose, I tilt (goes for poker too). You cannot win chasing losses where you bet because you are pissed and want to get your money back. You can get your money back but it might take a couple days or even a week. The old cliche is true, this is a marathon and not a sprint. Don't tilt.

This is the most common reason why we lose. When we gamble and we lose for the first, second and nth time, there's only one goal that we all want to do. And that is to take back our losses and play again.

It keeps going and going until we will not realize it quickly that we're losing. This is for most of the games, dice, sports betting, poker and other casino games that are fun to play but when we have this mindset, it's really making us lose a lot.

[stomachgrowls]

Chasing losses: This is the worst one for me personally. When I lose, I tilt (goes for poker too). You cannot win chasing losses where you bet because you are pissed and want to get your money back. You can get your money back but it might take a couple days or even a week. The old cliche is true, this is a marathon and not a sprint. Don't tilt.

This is the most common reason why we lose. When we gamble and we lose for the first, second and nth time, there's only one goal that we all want to do. And that is to take back our losses and play again.

It keeps going and going until we will not realize it quickly that we're losing. This is for most of the games, dice, sports betting, poker and other casino games that are fun to play but when we have this mindset, it's really making us lose a lot.

One of the most common reason but there are people whom do deny that they arent chasing their losses and saying that they do just play out for enjoyment but the truth deep inside
is that they are thriving to make profits and trying to break even. 

Why we do lose in Gambling? Its simple "because we arent that lucky enough" neither you do play luck based ones or strategic ones then luck is one of the main factor for you to win.

Though, there are differences between the two in talking of chance or odds of winning basing off on what you are doing.Strategic can really be different.

[romero121]

Chasing losses: This is the worst one for me personally. When I lose, I tilt (goes for poker too). You cannot win chasing losses where you bet because you are pissed and want to get your money back. You can get your money back but it might take a couple days or even a week. The old cliche is true, this is a marathon and not a sprint. Don't tilt.

This is the most common reason why we lose. When we gamble and we lose for the first, second and nth time, there's only one goal that we all want to do. And that is to take back our losses and play again.

It keeps going and going until we will not realize it quickly that we're losing. This is for most of the games, dice, sports betting, poker and other casino games that are fun to play but when we have this mindset, it's really making us lose a lot.

Chasing the losses is the big thing that leads to massive loss. This happens much on casino games than sports betting, because the outcome is immediately known. When one goes in chase of the losses, automatically the player losses his control. This leads to increase in the Betting value, and finally have no chance of recovering. If the user think about it once, he'll not proceed further.

[imstillthebest]

Winners Demand an Edge: That was a quote from a poker book I once read called 'The Psychology of Poker'. If you want to win, playing casino games with a house edge is a big no-no. In sports betting, it means getting the best of the number by having multiple books. In poker, it means finding soft games you can beat. Ultimately it means if you are putting yourself into a position where losing is inevitable, don't do it! Also you need to maximize your EV whenever possible.

is there a trusted casino with zero house edge ? because all the trusted casino that we have today are all have an house edge but the house edge of them are not the same because there are casino that offer less than 1 % house edge and there are casino with games that have over 2 % house edge  . i have tried playing on different house edge and i can be able to win  but if we want to play gambling we need to prepare to loose and no need for us to ask our selves that why we loose because we dont ask our self why we win if we win

[maxreish]

We have different reasons why we lose. But I ended losing always because of my greediness. Yes, we are winning but we wanted to win more. Ending? Lose all funds.   that's the reality.
Although, huge bank roll is an advantage but we can't really beat the house and they always win. And strategies doesn't last long, too. You win at first but rage bets always there and beat you up.

What is the remedy? Self control. And setting 10% profit computed in your bank roll is easy to achieve if we aren't that greedy.

[Wexnident]

I was going through a post about losing and how gambling should strictly be for entertainment. You treat it as such and you cannot get too hurt gambling. It is great advice and I will not argue against it, especially if you do not care about winning and just want to pass time or bet on your team. However, for me if I didn't think I could profit I wouldn't do it because losing isn't fun. And I mean that strictly from a long-term perspective. Of course you cannot win everyday but weeks, months, or years of losing should make any sane person quit.

I'd actually disagree with this since the notion of "winning money" and "winning"  is completely different. See gambling money became an issue if your goal was to "win money". There's only a thin line between the two imo, but once someone goes past that, well there'd only be a single result, a gambling addict, though you're financial situation may prove to split that result into two, the other being a rich person being able to afford gambling like that.

On the topic of what's making you lose though, isn't the fact that we're already gambling result in us already losing? I mean, gambling fully defines the chances of you winning always being at 50/50. I suppose the only way for one to not really lose is to not play at all.

is there a trusted casino with zero house edge ? because all the trusted casino that we have today are all have an house edge but the house edge of them are not the same because there are casino that offer less than 1 % house edge and there are casino with games that have over 2 % house edge  . i have tried playing on different house edge and i can be able to win  but if we want to play gambling we need to prepare to loose and no need for us to ask our selves that why we loose because we dont ask our self why we win if we win

There have been cases like that in fact. Can't really find it right now, but there have been instances where rich people spend an enormous amount of money on gambling, lose, then the casino would invite them to play more but offering them zero house edge ("to make him play more"). Afaik that was an example real-life case of a gambler winning against the casino.