Netflix's Money, Explained: E04 Gambling

[Obito]

I think gambling here is referring to casino gambling where games are more or less luck-based. If so, that would be a lot different from day trading. When you're on a slot machine, for example, the main thing that you do is to pull that lever, cross your fingers, and hope that you'd hit the jackpot. That's not what day trading is about. If that's what a day trader does, he/she better quit. There is a need to analyze in day trading. There's nothing to analyze in luck-based casino games.

Isn't online gambling luck based or should I say odd based like any physical casino? The daytrading stuff needs an analytical skill unlike gambling where you really rely on odds instead of your skills. There's a lot to analyze in a "luck based" casino, it's called statistics and probability.

[rhomelmabini]

Overall it will still depends on the individual who's mental state gonna be twisted or has no further knowledge how the system works with gambling or trading. The one thing lacks to those who gets addicted are their discipline over it, if you are a discipline gambler for trader then you're winning over their system.

I believe that those "hooks" gets even more in the online world especially if we subscribe from them. But as I say that will still depend on the individual if they'll get hook on it or take those "hooks" as an opportunity to learn more about it especially on trading.

[Karartma1]

Thank you for posting this. I cancelled my Netflix account a few month ago, so I don't see anymore when new documentaries are being uploaded. To be honest, the most shows that interest me are about finance and economics.That is also why I switched to curiosity steams. Hope they will add this series too. When it comes to money we can all learn more.

If you're committed to learn about finance and economics best sources to get the knowledge from are good old books. If you start from the Bitcoin Standard (Ammous) you'll then get really deep into the money mechanics. I suggest you find that book and from there you can expand your knowledge with a few other interesting books.
Read the reviews and see it for yourself
https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/1119473861/ref=acr_dp_hist_5?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=five_star&reviewerType=all_reviews#reviews-filter-bar
Good you trashed your Netflix's sub: wise choice.

[Peanutswar]

I'm also a fan of watching different movies and series related to gambling and action with science and calculations today Netflix is one of the top tier giving movies related to those gambling and some of those are documentaries this gives us an insight into gambling in real life and not just only on the winning game as we saw on the movies.

Gambling is one of the top mind games among others it depends on your skillset to survive the game if you can not make any move to your game play there's nothing to received which is losing your funds.

[iv4n]

...
One thing that we are all familiar with is the psychology that the gambling industry has evaluated to keep their customer to gamble by using the so-called "hooks". These hooks are something that will make people sit for long hours while making their gambling experience more enjoyable and enticing to make a lot of money.
...

First of all, we are people, not "fishes"! For me, it's simple, as a human we can choose what we wish to do with our time/energy/money! You can't fall under influence of something that you don't like! And if you like something, you will be interested in learning more about it, you will practice it... it's something I find normal! Do you like to paint or play dices it's your own business, for both you need money/time/energy/knowledge/many other things that can help you to be better than others!

Gambling or any other industry will try to keep their customers happy and satisfied if they wish to grow! The ones who are more creative, who are ready to go that "extra" mile for their business will have more success!!! You have many examples of that... if you are selling something you can't have just one product, sooner or later the market will be saturated, you need to develop other interesting stuff, you need to expand your offer or you will look at how others are doing that while you falling down!

[Fundamentals Of]

Overall it will still depends on the individual who's mental state gonna be twisted or has no further knowledge how the system works with gambling or trading. The one thing lacks to those who gets addicted are their discipline over it, if you are a discipline gambler for trader then you're winning over their system.

Discipline does not mean you are winning. Discipline does not mean you are winning over their system. I personally consider myself a disciplined gambler but I am not winning, much less winning over their system. I am still losing but my discipline is keeping my loss in a tolerable amount. I am still going back to gambling even though my losses are already piling up. Meaning to say I am still hooked. Because it was fun. But that is definitely a part of what entices gamblers to come back even if they know that they more likely to lose than win.

[Kakmakr]

I watched it too, but I was a bit disappointed that they did not go a little deeper into the tricks used by casinos to get people to gamble more and more. The people in the industry says... "The best kind of gambler for a casino is a drunk gambler." - The drunk gambler are more likely to bet higher and lose track of how much they have gambled, so some casinos offer alcoholic drinks for free to people in the casino.  

You will also never see windows and clocks in a casino, because they want you to lose track of time. You also get a "Free Room" in the Hotel, because they do not want you to go home. They also introduce "Player's Club Levels" ..so the more you play the higher you move up the levels. (The best benefits are at the top levels, so all the players want to climb the ladder and they spend more money to get there)

These are just some of the tricks used.... and they did not even cover any of them.  

[dunfida]

It's like a pay to win tricks thus, this is where the saying goes as gambling is for entertainment purposes only and people would be spending a lot of money make them stay at the top while they display who's or what are the benefits they could get they entice a potential gamblers to reach the top rank. People would be eager to spend more money to climb up the rank but little did they know it's the trick of the casino how to hook a potential gamblers. Once they knew you are a potential gamblers they always have their eyes on you.

[jrrsparkles]

Do you really believe that, the strategies used by the gambling companies so called hooks will be revealed to the public?

Either this series was taken based on a book or some personal research but no one actually knows the hooks of gambling even if there is any because we are not seeing the gambling in 21st century or before which is happening for thousands of years.

[acroman08]

Do you really believe that, the strategies used by the gambling companies so called hooks will be revealed to the public?

it's not really a secret it's just that many gamblers don't know about it or even if they know, they would still fall for it one way or another. also, gambling companies aren't the only ones doing this kind of tactics. you'd be surprised that a simple grocery store is using the same thing to make you spend more on their store without even knowing it.

[jrrsparkles]

Do you really believe that, the strategies used by the gambling companies so called hooks will be revealed to the public?

it's not really a secret it's just that many gamblers don't know about it or even if they know, they would still fall for it one way or another. also, gambling companies aren't the only ones doing this kind of tactics. you'd be surprised that a simple grocery store is using the same thing to make you spend more on their store without even knowing it.

They lure you with freebies and lot of things but with gambling there is something which bring psychological effect that is why we want to keep betting again and again which is also some kind of addiction but people do this with their presence of mind so this can be distinguished as severe addiction as well.

[abel1337]

Do you really believe that, the strategies used by the gambling companies so called hooks will be revealed to the public?

it's not really a secret it's just that many gamblers don't know about it or even if they know, they would still fall for it one way or another. also, gambling companies aren't the only ones doing this kind of tactics. you'd be surprised that a simple grocery store is using the same thing to make you spend more on their store without even knowing it.

They lure you with freebies and lot of things but with gambling there is something which bring psychological effect that is why we want to keep betting again and again which is also some kind of addiction but people do this with their presence of mind so this can be distinguished as severe addiction as well.

That's right, Business operators are using psychology on setting up their business to gain the upper hand or to profit the customer more. Casino, Store shelves, Buffet placements are just some of the examples where this psychology stuff is used by a businessman. Most of the tricks are revealed in the public but the trick of it is so good that you can be a victim even you know how it works.

[Darker45]

I think gambling here is referring to casino gambling where games are more or less luck-based. If so, that would be a lot different from day trading. When you're on a slot machine, for example, the main thing that you do is to pull that lever, cross your fingers, and hope that you'd hit the jackpot. That's not what day trading is about. If that's what a day trader does, he/she better quit. There is a need to analyze in day trading. There's nothing to analyze in luck-based casino games.

Isn't online gambling luck based or should I say odd based like any physical casino? The daytrading stuff needs an analytical skill unlike gambling where you really rely on odds instead of your skills. There's a lot to analyze in a "luck based" casino, it's called statistics and probability.

Not necessarily. I mean online gambling does not depend solely on luck. Sports betting is online gambling and it does not depend on luck. It has odds but the odds are based on analysis. In terms of casino games, they are not all luck-based either. When you play roulette, slots, dice, and so on, you just have to rely on luck. But that is not necessarily the case when you play poker, for example, or blackjack. Some need skills on top of luck.

[electronicash]

some belief I got from the Episode. that's why we gamble.

a. Gambler's Fallacy one woman said that if she loses 4 spins, the 5th one must be big lol and this is from the episode itself and I quote the narrator "We keep playing because we believe a win is due and then surprise if it doesn't come."

b. Illusion of control which is the belief that you can increase your odds in the face of pure chance for the lottery players.

these two may probably exist as well in trader's mind. some of us keep losing money when betting the price could go up in a period of time and then eventually lose still. it's not even a binary option but simply the spot market.

[michellee]

Do you really believe that, the strategies used by the gambling companies so called hooks will be revealed to the public?

Either this series was taken based on a book or some personal research but no one actually knows the hooks of gambling even if there is any because we are not seeing the gambling in 21st century or before which is happening for thousands of years.

I think people who watched that movie is just for entertainment because if they can watch carefully, maybe they will get something beneficial from that movie. Although if they use the strategy or method from that movie, it will not guarantee them to win the games, giving them more experience. Besides that, maybe watching that movie can provide them with an idea of what will they need to do later.

[rdbase]

My Netflix subscription just expired last week but since I was going to renew it anyways I will check this docu-film out.
Thanks for this as I had always wondered about how the brain functions in a high tension situation while it is in this environment.

I know when I lose I tend to always want to win my money back so this knee-jerk reaction is called rage betting according what others have called it on a gambling chat to me many of times.

It is a rather common occurrence among bettors in general.

[Smartprofit]

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14627090/

I recently watched the first 4 episodes of Netflix's "Money, Explained" and one of its episodes discusses the mechanism of how our brains work when gambling. Personally, the "Gambling" episode was an eye-opener for me as I have gained a lot of interesting facts and different collective opinions which might give us a different point of view.

The Gist of the episode:

The fourth episode is all about gambling, its history, the psychology behind it, the process of getting hooked into gambling as well the most alarming issue that I have heard where it says that day trading is just pure gambling.

One thing that we are all familiar with is the psychology that the gambling industry has evaluated to keep their customer to gamble by using the so-called "hooks". These hooks are something that will make people sit for long hours while making their gambling experience more enjoyable and enticing to make a lot of money. In effect, if these people have been "hooked", they will now fall under a mental state^[1] of total focus called the "The Zone". This means that the long hours of keeping people into gambling, the more money they can take out of other people's pockets.

These psychology tactics have also led other trading and investing company to use them to keep people unaware of the risk they are taking while being spammed with notifications of the current market sentiment, and an opportunity to get a free stock. Moreover, this episode also emphasizes that day trading is equivalent to gambling.

My take:

I am aware that the argument about day trading as gambling or not has been discussed often before and it could be tiring to prove a particular point due to its subjective nature. One could say that day trading is a combination of little to non T. A and pure luck, others would say that day trading could never equate to gambling since the ability to read charts and proper risk management would decrease the percentage of getting rekt.

It will just result in a never-ending comparison.

References:
[1] https://www.peaksports.com/sports-psychology-blog/mindsets-to-help-athletes-perform-in-the-zone/

Yes, in my opinion, trading on short time frames is the same as gambling. 

In fact, there are no patterns on short-term timeframes that a trader could use to make a profit.  The price can go up ... The price can go down ...

The game involves algorithmic bots.  The human brain cannot compete with algorithms.  Algorithms are faster.  Medium-term or long-term exchange trading is another matter ...

This is a completely different matter.  This kind of trading is not like gambling. 

Investing is even less like gambling.

[jrrsparkles]

Do you really believe that, the strategies used by the gambling companies so called hooks will be revealed to the public?

Either this series was taken based on a book or some personal research but no one actually knows the hooks of gambling even if there is any because we are not seeing the gambling in 21st century or before which is happening for thousands of years.

I think people who watched that movie is just for entertainment because if they can watch carefully, maybe they will get something beneficial from that movie. Although if they use the strategy or method from that movie, it will not guarantee them to win the games, giving them more experience. Besides that, maybe watching that movie can provide them with an idea of what will they need to do later.

A common man who don't have any knowledge about economics, finance and particularly gambling can get the idea if they watch this series but no one can entirely decides what is happening while gambling, it will happen for sure even if people know that hooks that is why people keep betting and never wants to stop their gambling urge.

[johhnyUA]

alarming issue that I have heard where it says that day trading is just pure gambling.

Can't argue with that. I have a friend who is enough skilled and famous trader, and he told me in fact the same, that day trading is a trading with very small risk/reward ratio and very small chance of success probability. So Netflix is right here 

[just_Alice]

If about psychology, yeah dopamine shot is the main reason of addiction both trading and gambling, the pleasure of winning big money in a short time. I find compulsion loop explanation is more straightforward:

a compulsion loop creates a three-part cycle: the anticipation of receiving some reward, the activity that must be completed to receive that reward, and the act of finally obtaining the reward.

Source.

The good news is we can break this loop by obtaining the reward aka dopamine by doing simple activity, such as cleaning up our room, posting on bitcointalk, walking a dog, etc. Just simple tasks to divert the craving and getting the dopamine anywhere else than the casino.

Oh, if only it was that simple. A simple activity like walking a dog gives one a very small dopamine release, that's nothing compared to what gambling can give to people, that's why it's so much more addictive. To activate the so-called "brain reward system" (which ensures dopamine release) you need a strong trigger, something thrilling. That's why the only way to overcome gambling addiction, for now, is either with the use of specific medications, that quench the excitement (e.g. mood stabilizers) or with switching to something else that also triggers dopamine release to the same extent (e.g. other exciting activity, or, again, medications, like serotonin reuptake inhibitors).