The Silent Cost of Gambling: Time, focus, and Opportunities

[Synchronice]

There are always losses when gambling  and when people talk about losses, they almost always talk about money. They talk about how much was lost, how much they could have been won, or how close they were to hitting a big one. To me, money is only the visible part of the cost,  what about all the time, focus, and opportunities you have missed from chasing these bets?

1. Time is First Thing Gambling Takes

Money can sometimes be recovered. Time can’t,  One gambling session might not be that harmful, but the hours you have spent gambling over weeks and months are hours that you could have put towards learning a new skill, building a side hustle, or even taking care of yourself.

Gambling tricks people into feeling productive.  That's the biggest issue,  it tricks people into feeling like they are doing something productive.

2. Gambling Takes Attention From You and You Don’t Realize It

Even when you are not actively placing bets,  gambling is always on the back of people's minds. You think about how you could have won, you will lose and still think about how you could have played the game differently, you are always calculating your next move, this cycle of thinking creates a constant buzz in your head and takes your focus away. You will not be focus at work and doing schoolwork becomes a lot tougher, Over time, this mental exhaustion can be more damaging than the financial loss itself.

3. Missed Opportunities

This is where the cost becomes truly silent,  while time and focus are being consumed by gambling, other opportunities are lying in wait.

.Learning how to  trade or invest

.Time that you could have used to build a skill that slowly adds value to your life instead of taking from it.

.Networking or  improving one’s career

.Even investing in  Bitcoin instead of gambling.

In Crypto gambling, you are losing Bitcoin and with that, you are equally losing the potential that the Bitcoin could have in the future.

4.The Trap Of One More Bet

It's not the intention of gamblers to spend hours gambling. It usually starts with “just one bet.” Then, it becomes 20 bets. Then the order becomes factory where bet after bet after bet, it becomes a situation that you must do every single day, whether it is in the morning, the night, at lunch. It becomes so entraping that you start losing days and weeks of time that you are gambling. Ultimately you are investing time and it far outweighs the value of the outcome.

5. Why this Cost Is Hard to Measure

Casinos display account balances, big wins, and huge losses, but never display:

.Time spent

.Hours of mental frustrations

.Missing out on life

These are the things that the casino will not show or measure, and that’s why they are easily overlooked and ignored. But they are the things that are needed to differentiate someone who has an occasional gambling habit to someone who has a gambling problem that they can’t control.

Lastly:

This post is not about telling people to stop gambling,  people are free to do whatever they want. The post only explains that gambling takes more than money.  Sometimes we lose things that we do not realize are more valuable than money.

When many gamblers look back  they actually do not recall the money as much as they recall the time and mental  effort lost that could have been used to achieve something worthwhile.

What do you think is the most overlooked expense of gambling?

I do not agree with this opinion because that's not really the cost of gambling. That's the cost of gambling for gambling addicted person but not for someone who has money and does it for fun. There are too many famous and successful, ultra wealthy people who gamble and have a very high quality of life and are above the 99.99% of people in life. For example, Dana White, the owner of UFC gambles a lot but what did he lose? Money? Connections? Relationships? Ruined his business? He is doing very well. It's not a waste of time if I enjoy the process and get fun from it. If we follow that logic, then every activity that doesn't create a product and results in a loss and/or joy, is a waste of time but that's wrong because what's the point of life? To exist or to live? I guess, it's to live. You need to maintain a healthy habit in everything and you'll be fine.

[wiss19]

Spending 14 hours on a meaningless routine is definitely a waste of time. It’s like spending their time for gambling in demo mode that they get addicted to gamble without realizing it. People love to spend their time on what they like, which makes them unaware their routine is meaningless. If everyone could easily recognize meaningless routines they do and change that, their lives would be better for sure. Look at how many opportunities they miss because they stick to monotone routines and don’t want to explore new opportunities.

It’s common for people to spend time on things they enjoy, especially hobbies. If someone enjoys gambling, that can be normal too, but time management is important to avoid wasting too much time on it. Gambling can be part of life because many people aim for profit or even a jackpot. However, it’s not only time and money that can be lost through gambling we can also lose our emotions, especially positive ones.

Imagine spending 10-14 hours a day on learning anything, and I mean like literally anything. In 2 years, you would be master of it, and I do not mean like "good at it" I mean literally master of it and it requires only 2 years. For the question of why that sounds so easy, the answer would be, because people do not have the capacity to do something for 10-14 hours a day mostly due to personal reasons.

You could be bored of it, you could need money so go to work, or you could be incapable due to some other person reason. But if you can, that would be such a drastic difference.

[Agbe]

Time is very essential and it's valuable currency that cannot be regained after it's been spent, many gamblers only consider the amount of money that they have lost in gambling but they careless about the time they have lost forgetting that time is a key factor. Spending 2 to 5 hours on screen time gambling is not just a waste of money but all that time would have been put into good use to do something reasonable and profitable.

[Odogwu-Blockchain]

Time is very essential and it's valuable currency that cannot be regained after it's been spent, many gamblers only consider the amount of money that they have lost in gambling but they careless about the time they have lost forgetting that time is a key factor. Spending 2 to 5 hours on screen time gambling is not just a waste of money but all that time would have been put into good use to do something reasonable and profitable.

It's the reason why gambling, womanism and drugs have been considered to be a waste of time activities, because, the time spent on these habit doesn't yield better result at all, only lead to doom and disaster. Time is precious and must be spent wisely.

If time is spent on what truly matters, it compounds itself and yield profits even in your absent, what do I mean, if time is spent on building faceless automatic YouTube channel, the day you got tired and relaxed doesn't stop printing money, your previous video earns passively even when you are not working.

[Wakate]

Time is very essential and it's valuable currency that cannot be regained after it's been spent, many gamblers only consider the amount of money that they have lost in gambling but they careless about the time they have lost forgetting that time is a key factor. Spending 2 to 5 hours on screen time gambling is not just a waste of money but all that time would have been put into good use to do something reasonable and profitable.

Since time wait for nobody, many gamblers are very smart at taking advantage of the fund they have so that they can utilize it to increase their chances of making more money from gambling. Since their is no way a gambler can know when he is going to be profitable and when he is going to be unprofitable, some will want to gamble often to increase their chances of making profits.

[Emeraldo]

Nothing is ever done without a cost and gambling is not an exception while gambling you already know that it comes at a cost and weather you like it or not it will always either up in a lost or a win so one needs to know to what extent one can actually risk it.
Offcourse time and resources is been invested in gambling so persons gamble as long as everyday day and from morning till night and put in all there focus time and energy, probably they see it as a job and tend to look for ways to make daily profit as daily income but I think it's a dangerous path to thread one.

[AYOBA]

I think if someone leaves gambling to luck alone, they will be disappointed most of the time. In reality as people say, it is most important to take your time and keep a cool head when gambling. Otherwise you will not even realize when the opportunity is lost, I personally think that it is necessary to decide in advance how much to play and when to stop. Because if you lose control, the fun will decrease, on the contrary, the stress and losses will increase. If you want to enjoy it for a long time, it is wise to make a little tough decision.

A gambling it deserve an attention, because is lacking attention is what is leading some people lose control over themselves as some of the gamblers see it as a place they can come to and begin make quick money which is not like that, we all know that they can win in gambling but the losing is every higher than the winning that’s why it’s good for any gambling to have control over themselves.

A moment person lose control in the gambling they never understand themselves talk less of what the gambling. Because both the stress and losing, everything will be double multiplied by what they didn’t expected.

[Nwada001]

On the issue of missed opportunities, once a gambler starts identifying himself more as a gambler, that mentality automatically makes him lazy to seek other opportunities to make money. Relying only on gambling can be challenging and frustrating as the profits from gambling are not guaranteed. This whole situation affects his finances, emotions and relationships with friends and family.

Being a gambler does not actually mean the person should turn into a lazy person; only those who take gambling very seriously as a major source of income are the ones which fall under the line of lazy gamblers. They are always looking for excuses and fast means of making money, which they don't usually get. Instead, they end up dashing off their money in the form of staking high and expecting a higher reward.

[MRY]

I think if someone leaves gambling to luck alone, they will be disappointed most of the time. In reality as people say, it is most important to take your time and keep a cool head when gambling. Otherwise you will not even realize when the opportunity is lost, I personally think that it is necessary to decide in advance how much to play and when to stop. Because if you lose control, the fun will decrease, on the contrary, the stress and losses will increase. If you want to enjoy it for a long time, it is wise to make a little tough decision.

A gambling it deserve an attention, because is lacking attention is what is leading some people lose control over themselves as some of the gamblers see it as a place they can come to and begin make quick money which is not like that, we all know that they can win in gambling but the losing is every higher than the winning that’s why it’s good for any gambling to have control over themselves.

A moment person lose control in the gambling they never understand themselves talk less of what the gambling. Because both the stress and losing, everything will be double multiplied by what they didn’t expected.

You notice quite well that unless there is strict supervision chances are that one can easily get into the rut where the losses would only decrease and decrease. The fallacy of gambling table being a sure generator of income is one of the greatest mistakes that must be avoided by everybody. Loss of control over emotions will further deteriorate in case of tries to lose common sense due to the ultimate losses. We should understand that inner serenity is the main key to staying calm in the storms of uncertainty which most times appear without any earlier warning.

[Floxynice]

On the issue of missed opportunities, once a gambler starts identifying himself more as a gambler, that mentality automatically makes him lazy to seek other opportunities to make money. Relying only on gambling can be challenging and frustrating as the profits from gambling are not guaranteed. This whole situation affects his finances, emotions and relationships with friends and family.

Being a gambler does not actually mean the person should turn into a lazy person; only those who take gambling very seriously as a major source of income are the ones which fall under the line of lazy gamblers. They are always looking for excuses and fast means of making money, which they don't usually get. Instead, they end up dashing off their money in the form of staking high and expecting a higher reward.

I understand your point. I in my previous post wasn't implying that all gamblers are lazy. The concern is on gamblers who see gambling as a primary source of income. The problem starts from having only gambling as a source of income. With their kind of mindset, laziness gradually creeps in as they gamble hoping for a better day. Some even find it difficult to quit after losing so much to gambling. Their mindset, emotions and all about them have been affected either out of frustration or excitement.

[Lida93]

Only an irresponsible gambler will be affected by what you mentioned.
It takes me no more than 5 minutes to gamble, and I'm done with it. The only thing I'll do later on is to check the result.
I dont gamble when im working. I use only my free time. So neither time, focus, nor opportunity is lost when I gamble.
Well, many gamblers have fallen short of what you mentioned because of addiction.

This what I wanted to highlight but you have just made it easier for me so I would just buttress
A responsible gambler can be gambling and still make time for learning of any skill and businesses they wish to go into. If we talking about wasting our time by gambling then it's just like saying man shouldn't find time to catch fun when he has the free time to that. Maybe for the irresponsible gambler they can be found guilty of all that's addressed in the OP but it can't the case for responsible person who gambled with discipline.

[Maslate]

More than money, we can also lose a lot from gambling. But this only happens if you devote all your time into gambling without leaving time for your self-growth and development.

Simply put, if you are an irresponsible one, you will lost every opportunity and privilege that enters your life because you are too engrossed on how to make money and be greedy from gambling. But if you have set a time limit for your gambling activities, I don't think gambling will be a loss.