Gambling for fun, is it a lie that we tell ourselves?

[Kelward]

I'm being tempted to agree with you that gambling for fun is a lie we tell ourselves to make us feel better in the midst of losses. I don't really condemn the proponents of such since its a strategy for reducing the pain of losing.  But the reality is that no one gamble for fun. The primary reason for gambling is money and more money. Remove the money from gambling and see how many of those championing gambling for fun will still be there.

If you remove winnings from gambling, I wonder how many gamblers that will still come back to gamble, beyond having fun, there's a subtle challenge in our minds that we're coming back to win and recover lost money. Because we've told our selves that we're gambling for fun, it suppresses the feelings that we want to gamble to win, if not why would you have fun playing games that you have high probability of losing. The consolation that I see for reasonable gamblers is that they gamble the amount that they can afford to loose, so the frustration of eventual lose can reduce. The exceptions that I see are money bags who have enough money to throw away without minding, because they have it in surplus.

[inthelongrun]

I'm being tempted to agree with you that gambling for fun is a lie we tell ourselves to make us feel better in the midst of losses. I don't really condemn the proponents of such since its a strategy for reducing the pain of losing.  But the reality is that no one gamble for fun. The primary reason for gambling is money and more money. Remove the money from gambling and see how many of those championing gambling for fun will still be there.

If you remove winnings from gambling, I wonder how many gamblers that will still come back to gamble, beyond having fun, there's a subtle challenge in our minds that we're coming back to win and recover lost money. Because we've told our selves that we're gambling for fun, it suppresses the feelings that we want to gamble to win, if not why would you have fun playing games that you have high probability of losing. The consolation that I see for reasonable gamblers is that they gamble the amount that they can afford to loose, so the frustration of eventual lose can reduce. The exceptions that I see are money bags who have enough money to throw away without minding, because they have it in surplus.

You talked a lot but I wonder if you already have decent gambling experience. Or have you ever been to a land-based casino? Otherwise, why listen to you? Do you even understand how the house edge works? Do you know the rate of house edge on the different games? But I understand that only people with extra money and have the kind of risk tolerance should gamble. Maybe gambling is not fit for you.

Remove the winning from gambling and there are still some people who will play. It's like going to a movie house or a computer gaming cafe. Some people call it illogical since we can watch movies at home or play games at home. But it's the experience. People simply just have different tastes in entertainment.

[taufik123]

-snip-
A healthy mindset will enable gamblers to gamble healthily, not too follow their ambitions to win big and follow their emotions just for the sake of money, gamblers must be able to enjoy the game so they are not too careless in managing the tempo of the bets made, the point is to remain in proper control therefore It is important to control yourself so as not to get trapped and addicted to gambling.

The important advice is self-control, which will give control to everything done when gambling.
But it is quite difficult for beginners who are starting to get into gambling with the money they have.
I myself, even when I started playing just to try, the money I deposited ran out quickly because I didn't have any strategy and liked some of the games available.

Now I prefer football betting because it's more real, and I can watch my favorite clubs play and while placing a little bet try to guess who's going to win.

The tempo of the bet must be set and should not use all the money, there must be a tempo or strategy that must be applied so that you have control over everything that is done including how to use money to gamble.
Start slowly and do gambling like just a game that can give profits or even losses and does not cross the limit or rules that have been made.

[junder]

It's probably a lie for someone like you OP, but not for me, because I know it's near impossible to beat the casino, that's why I believe that having fun and risking few dollars is the best approach to gambling, you think otherwise? Do you thing, but I can assure you that you will have stories to tell about how you lost a lot to gambling.

I have lost some money too but not a lot that could have gotten me sometime better, it's the type of money that I can give someone for free without expecting them to pay me back, it's not worth losing a lot to gambling and it's so possible to end up on this path if you strongly believe in gambling, I don't, and I don't want to, still I choose to enjoy some games risking very little amount of money.

Same with me, I find gambling fun because I don't count my losses, although deep inside I know that I already lose a lot of money as of now but due to the entertainment factor that gambling is bringing into my life, I'm still here because my big wins makes me smile everytime I remember them.

IMO, losing in gambling is not a problem since it's normal, and as long as we have a consistent source of income, either from our job or our own business, we will sure be living a satisfied life while ocassionally gambling as well, or maybe even regularly as long as we will not risk beyond our limit.

I think that's how it should be, gambling doesn't have to count the losses that have occurred and this happens to people who gamble whose aim is just to have fun like you, most of those who gamble because their aim is to make money or double their money, by This usually makes their emotions uncontrollable when they lose and want to chase a win that can cover the losses they have made. because in my opinion a different view of gambling can lead to certain things, viewing it as entertainment alone probably won't cause problems in the future, but if you view gambling as a way to double your money, maybe this will make them stressed because the percentage of losses in gambling is higher. Gamblers are more likely to lose than to win.
I agree with you, losing in gambling is a normal thing because in gambling, in my opinion, there are only losses and wins, but the percentage of wins is smaller than the percentage of losses, and in my opinion, luck will determine whether you win or lose in gambling.

[mirakal]

Remove the winning from gambling and there are still some people who will play. It's like going to a movie house or a computer gaming cafe. Some people call it illogical since we can watch movies at home or play games at home. But it's the experience. People simply just have different tastes in entertainment.

Not applicable for me because the reason why I am gambling is to win. Although I know myself that winning is unlikely in the long run, but I am still gambling because I'm enjoying the moment I win. If there's no winning in gambling, then it's not called gambling anymore, because it's a gamble, we gamble money for a reward, just like a business, we gamble by investing to be successful, here we gamble to win.

I find people insane when they are still gambling despite knowing they have no chance of winning.

[maydna]

It's not easy to admit that we have lost money when gambling, but we can still consider it a fun activity. But we should be able to do it, especially if we use gambling just for fun and not to make money. Perhaps we need to reduce gambling activities so that we won't think long about the losses we experience and just think it is normal to experience losses from gambling. And as long as we just want to gamble without any desire to win the gambling game, I think it is still acceptable that we have fun from gambling. Maybe relaxing and gambling can relieve our tension after finishing a day's activities. By trying to accept whatever happens after we finish gambling, we will still be able to return to gambling even though we will return after some time, maybe a week or a month. But that's okay because our goal in gambling is only to get entertainment.

[Lorence.xD]

Remove the winning from gambling and there are still some people who will play. It's like going to a movie house or a computer gaming cafe. Some people call it illogical since we can watch movies at home or play games at home. But it's the experience. People simply just have different tastes in entertainment.

Not applicable for me because the reason why I am gambling is to win. Although I know myself that winning is unlikely in the long run, but I am still gambling because I'm enjoying the moment I win. If there's no winning in gambling, then it's not called gambling anymore, because it's a gamble, we gamble money for a reward, just like a business, we gamble by investing to be successful, here we gamble to win.

I find people insane when they are still gambling despite knowing they have no chance of winning.

Most people literally gamble to win, you cannot deny that as a gambler you would not want to win and take profits. Gambling is pure luck, we already know that the chances of winning are pretty low but when you win, your money could be doubled up or tripled, so we are still hoping to win and might get the timing of the probability of winning. It is indeed insane that people who gamble knowing the fact that they have no chance of winning keep continuing, the reason is for fun. I mean there's no fun in losing cause the one who's gonna benefit is the house itself. We might have different ways of entertainment, we just need to be responsible and limit ourselves, cause it might cause addiction in the long term knowing the fact that it doesn't do anything good but still we continue.

[skarais]

The average gambler does it to win money, having fun at gambling is the second goal after money.
I can say that because most gamblers have the same mindset, even if there is research then I am very sure that the main goal of the average gambler is money. I'm not really sure how many gamblers do it for fun, whereas here many do it for the money. I don't see this being a problem as long as they gamble responsibly, but if they fail to do so then they should be prepared to face dire consequences.

[coin-investor]

I know that it's said that you should gamble the amount that you can afford to loose, but will you call it a true fun when you know that there's a higher probability of losing your bet?

If you're not comfortable with that fact and you cannot have fun knowing that there's a big probability of losing then don't gamble, casinos are business operated to make profit its not cheap to set up an online casinos the cost is too big and this is not a cash cow of people, though some people tries to make it as their cash cow.

You can try the easy way and that is by accepting that your chance is 50/50 and have fun with the games or the hard by trying to make the casino you're cash cow but expect to get disappointed because the house has an edge and that edge will play out anytime, so if you're already winning and you think that calling a day is a good idea then do so, or you could lose your winning and will have to chase your losses and eventually get disappointed.

[sompitonov]

The average gambler does it to win money, having fun at gambling is the second goal after money.
I can say that because most gamblers have the same mindset, even if there is research then I am very sure that the main goal of the average gambler is money. I'm not really sure how many gamblers do it for fun, whereas here many do it for the money. I don't see this being a problem as long as they gamble responsibly, but if they fail to do so then they should be prepared to face dire consequences.

I would still add that this is not a lie for fun, this story is more about hope. Moreover, many players do not deceive themselves, they sincerely believe that they have a great chance of winning and will definitely be lucky, and also that they will win the jackpot. They hope for this because they do not know the real chances of winning, but they have a great desire to win. If such a player is lucky, then he will eventually bring his big winnings to the same casino and lose it completely. And only after long losses will he begin to wonder why this happened and find out what chances he really had. And only after that, if he wants to play, he will probably deceive himself that it is for fun, but in reality he will want to win back.

[qwertyup23]

I'm being tempted to agree with you that gambling for fun is a lie we tell ourselves to make us feel better in the midst of losses. I don't really condemn the proponents of such since its a strategy for reducing the pain of losing.  But the reality is that no one gamble for fun. The primary reason for gambling is money and more money. Remove the money from gambling and see how many of those championing gambling for fun will still be there.

If you remove winnings from gambling, I wonder how many gamblers that will still come back to gamble, beyond having fun, there's a subtle challenge in our minds that we're coming back to win and recover lost money. Because we've told our selves that we're gambling for fun, it suppresses the feelings that we want to gamble to win, if not why would you have fun playing games that you have high probability of losing. The consolation that I see for reasonable gamblers is that they gamble the amount that they can afford to loose, so the frustration of eventual lose can reduce. The exceptions that I see are money bags who have enough money to throw away without minding, because they have it in surplus.

I do think that the profit aspect of gambling is what makes it entertaining in the first place. If you remove its monetary aspect, then there will be nothing to risk and bet against- thereby removing the "thrill" and adrenaline aspect of gambling.

Without any money involved, this will negate all the emotions that a person may feel when he/she bets. Imagine playing gambling without any money involved, what will you feel if there is no risk in the first place?

In conclusion, gambling is fun regardless on how you view it whether as a source of income or for entertainment.

[Makus]

I think the idea of gambling for fun doesn't apply to every gambler. There are some gambler who only finds the fun part in gambling when they experience wins, while there are some gamblers who see loss as a part of gambling. What I mean is, when you look at your over all gambling history and discover you are on the profit side, I bet you would feel you have been having fun, though there are times where you may feel bored of losing even if it's a small one but the fun mostly comes when you are on the winning side.

[Sanugarid]

I know for sure that if we take periodic account of how many times that we gamble, maybe weekly, monthly or yearly, we'll find out that the loses are far greater than the winnings, so I sometimes wonder how we can be indulging in something that we lose far more than we gain, in the name of having fun. I know that it's human nature to want to conquer, defeat, control and be the leader, yet we go into gambling knowing that the system doesn't give us a fair advantage of achieving these aims, yet we're happy to go back and likely be defeated again.

Perhaps deep down in our conscience, somewhere that we don't like to listen to, it still tells us the truth that the reason why we're going to gamble is to hopefully win money, not really to have fun.

I know that it's said that you should gamble the amount that you can afford to loose, but will you call it a true fun when you know that there's a higher probability of losing your bet?

I don't think so, gambling is really entertainment for me. I consider gambling like a game, not a source of income or anything else. I also often play online games like fps, rpg, rhythm games etc. And everything I play I spend money and reach 900$ to 1000$ in total each game.

I also don't gamble often even though it's fun to play because I also avoid becoming an addict. You just have to control yourself and the most important thing is that you are happy with what you are doing.

[Juse14]

Gambling for fun. Yes... that was my initial goal. but everything changed when I got a big win for the first time in the gambling I did, where I won many times the amount of money I bet. This big win can really change the paradigm of my thinking about gambling, to the point that gambling is a place to make a profit and gambling is a place to multiply money. Everything changed in an instant and I couldn't enjoy the gambling I was doing, unless I got a win. Where defeat becomes a regret and small wins continue to be missed... but the next day I still gamble even though I often get tired.

But not now, after I was able to realize all the mistakes I had made, slowly this made me better and wiser in playing gambling. Even though sometimes I still make careless things, it's not as frequent as before.

[Antotena]

I know for sure that if we take periodic account of how many times that we gamble, maybe weekly, monthly or yearly, we'll find out that the loses are far greater than the winnings, so I sometimes wonder how we can be indulging in something that we lose far more than we gain, in the name of having fun. I know that it's human nature to want to conquer, defeat, control and be the leader, yet we go into gambling knowing that the system doesn't give us a fair advantage of achieving these aims, yet we're happy to go back and likely be defeated again.

Before now, gambling use to be fun and entertainment, in the street you see popele roll dice to trick eachother into doubling money, it use to be fun and that was the genesis until the business is now everywhere. If not for marketing that some of them are poor in, I'm sure that we will see more than 100 different gambling platforms and that's because each one of them want to take over and be the leading company and the people using this platforms see it's as an opportunity to make money. Gambling is fun to some people but it's now a money making thing for many people.

Perhaps deep down in our conscience, somewhere that we don't like to listen to, it still tells us the truth that the reason why we're going to gamble is to hopefully win money, not really to have fun.

I know that it's said that you should gamble the amount that you can afford to loose, but will you call it a true fun when you know that there's a higher probability of losing your bet?

What I found surprising about gambling these days is that even females and people that does real job now gamble because they want to make extra cash. They have main job that is paying well but they don't want to lose the opportunity of gambling money and that tells how serious and badly everyone is looking for a way to make money from gambling. It might be a fun thing maybe for some people that watch Premier League on weekends but let's not lie to each other, it's now about the money.

[bitbollo]

when people plays a trivial amounts (the value of 1 pizza, as we would say here in Italy... ) maybe playing just 1-2 days a month... maybe not every month....

It's clear that it's a simple way to spend your time in a fun way, so I don't see anything related to addiction here.
It's really difficult to think that some one is playing to "earn" (yes ok 2 pizzas can be the start of a glorious business) 

[ralle14]

Perhaps deep down in our conscience, somewhere that we don't like to listen to, it still tells us the truth that the reason why we're going to gamble is to hopefully win money, not really to have fun.

The real fun in gambling starts once you look at it in another way and focus less on the goal of winning money when it's mostly out of your control.

I know that it's said that you should gamble the amount that you can afford to loose, but will you call it a true fun when you know that there's a higher probability of losing your bet?

It's true if you only limit yourself to casino games because of the house edge, but not all forms of gambling have a house edge that lowers the win probability.

[Julien_Olynpic]

I've always been fascinated by the fact that people enjoy gambling even when they lose. I used to think, how is this possible? After all, losing a game should definitely not give a person positive emotions. After some time, I came to the conclusion that everything is a little more complicated. Yes, a person experiences a little disappointment about losing. But at the same time, if a person knows how to think, then one loss or a group of them gives a person statistics and the opportunity to test some of his hypotheses or simply increase experience. A person focuses his attention not on losing a relatively small amount, but on gaining experience. This is what he can remember.

[klidex]

So, what I usually say to people is, it is not by force to play gambling for fun, you could from time to time play for money, but make sure to not count the losses too important like I said before, make sure to enjoy the game, and be happy overall, whether in winning or losing, this is how to be a healthy gambler.

Yes, everyone has the right to choose to gamble for money or for fun as long as it is under proper control, there is no problem with that because usually people overdo it and become addicted to gambling because they gamble for money, which is different from gamblers who have fun even though we know Having fun in this case doesn't mean it's not for money, it just means changing our mindset so that it doesn't become our demand to win when gambling. I'm sure you understand the meaning.

A healthy mindset will enable gamblers to gamble healthily, not too follow their ambitions to win big and follow their emotions just for the sake of money, gamblers must be able to enjoy the game so they are not too careless in managing the tempo of the bets made, the point is to remain in proper control therefore It is important to control yourself so as not to get trapped and addicted to gambling.

Yes, these are all rights for gamblers and it is up to them to use them for what kind of purpose, in fact gambling addiction is not just about pursuing profit, but there are also gamblers who have fun and can become addicted, just like rich people who waste their money looking for pleasure, whether gambling. or as drug addicts, if they enjoy it too much this can lead to addiction. This applies to us even though we understand the purpose of gambling is pleasure. We must understand the limits and be able to control our thoughts so as not to overdo it.

Of course, every gambler must have a healthy and intelligent mindset. They must be able to use gambling wisely and not pursue any ambitions too much. Winning or losing is something we must accept because the most important thing is not to spend too much money on gambling because that is certain gambling is full of risks, therefore we must be able to control ourselves.

[Awaklara]

If you remove winnings from gambling, I wonder how many gamblers that will still come back to gamble, beyond having fun, there's a subtle challenge in our minds that we're coming back to win and recover lost money. Because we've told our selves that we're gambling for fun, it suppresses the feelings that we want to gamble to win, if not why would you have fun playing games that you have high probability of losing. The consolation that I see for reasonable gamblers is that they gamble the amount that they can afford to loose, so the frustration of eventual lose can reduce. The exceptions that I see are money bags who have enough money to throw away without minding, because they have it in surplus.

but if you enjoy the games you play at gambling, it will only make you bored. winnings are a bonus and the casino's attempt to keep its gamblers coming back.
the hope of winning, of course, there is. But don't make it an ambition to win. it will only make you regret if you experience a losing streak. do it wisely. Gambling is a game with capital. you pay for the game, not for the wins.