Perception, a driving factor for gambling activities

[Sticky Bomb]

Perception is simply the way something is viewed, more like the opinion held by people about a particular subject depending on how it appears to them.

In gambling, our perception drives our actions towards it which includes but are not limited to the examples below:

• People who view gambling as entertainment tends to gamble with limits and have a budget. They tend to see it in the same vein as going to parks, swimming or seeing a movie, More like a recreational object. This is obviously the right perception.
• People who view it as a way of making money tends to treat it as a solution to financial hardship and often throw in everything in it including but not limited to finances and valuable time.
• People who view gambling as risky or harmful tends to avoid it totally and further victimize people currently into it since they think it is only associated with addiction, financial problems, family and societal problems.

How someone views gambling affects the following:

• How often they gamble.
• The funds allocated to it.
• The timing of engagement and the length of time spent therein.
• Their ability to recognize harm early and act decisively.

I believe the wrong perceptions of gambling are the root causes of excessive gambling and negative energy from the society towards it.

So next time you see someone gambling wrongly, you try to change his perception towards it first because if he embraces the right perception, he would be more receptive to responsible gambling practices.

What do you think?

[Haunebu]

I disagree op. Most gamblers couldn't care less about any of that stuff since their one and only focus when it comes to gambling is making more and more and more money no matter what. Some smart ones know when to stop, but the dumb ones don't.

They themselves are the only ones capable of changing their perceptions towards gambling regardless of what anyone tells them at the end of the day.

[Hardyrobust]

 yes you are right the way we view or see something will determine how we will approach it. Those that see gambling as a means or source of income easily get addicted to gambling. However those that see gambling as a means of entertainment can also be addicted to gambling so the most important thing here is self discipline. Gambling shouldn't be an everyday thing if we can be able to control how often we do gamble, no matter how we see it , it won't be a problem to use and the society.
Changing how an addict see gambling maybe very hard especially when they are seeing as a means or source of income.

[bitbollo]

I don't see all of these differences between players and reasons they are gambling.
They want to have fun as you can see mostly on forum or maybe just see a players that I know... Just in few countries/cultures they want to "earn money" with this. If you think realistic its really hard to make money in this way...

[Cryptmuster]

Perception is simply the way something is viewed, more like the opinion held by people about a particular subject depending on how it appears to them.

In gambling, our perception drives our actions towards it e.g

• People who view gambling as entertainment tends to gamble with limits and have a budget. They tend to see it in the same vein as going to parks, swimming or seeing a movie, More like a recreational object. This is obviously the right perception.
• People who view it as a way of making money tends to treat it as a solution to financial hardship and often throw in everything in it including but not limited to finances and valuable time.
• People who view gambling as risky or harmful tends to avoid it totally and further victimize people currently into it since they think it is only associated with addiction, financial problems, family and societal problems.

How someone views gambling affects the following:

• How often they gamble.
• The funds allocated to it.
• The timing of engagement and the length of time spent therein.
• Their ability to recognize harm early and act decisively.

I believe the wrong perceptions of gambling are the root causes of excessive gambling and negative energy from the society towards it.

So next time you see someone gambling wrongly, you try to change his perception towards it first because if he embraces the right perception, he would be more receptive to responsible gambling practices.

What do you think?

It's difficult to say how gamblers view gambling, but I think it's a little different. There are disciplined people who value order, and whether they gamble for fun or for profit, they'll have their own strategy, a set of rules, a clear budget, and adhere to risk management. Then there are those who lack order they're a mess everywhere, in their homes, their finances, and their heads. Such people will gamble chaotically, even if they're gambling for fun or for other reasons, and they're more prone to financial losses because they're poor at management and planning.

[Sticky Bomb]

I disagree op. Most gamblers couldn't care less about any of that stuff since their one and only focus when it comes to gambling is making more and more and more money no matter what.

You're agreeing to this point in the OP.

• People who view it as a way of making money tends to treat it as a solution to financial hardship and often throw in everything in it including but not limited to finances and valuable time.

how come you still disagree? Remember too the perceptions are not limited only to the examples given, there are many more perceptions that people use to engage in gambling.

They themselves are the only ones capable of changing their perceptions towards gambling regardless of what anyone tells them at the end of the day.

Sure, change of perception is very possible among gamblers, I remember joining this forum and learning about gambling for fun which changed my perception totally about gambling which I viewed as a source of income earlier

[Botnake]

People who view it as a way of making money tends to treat it as a solution to financial hardship and often throw in everything in it including but not limited to finances and valuable time.

It’s not wrong to have that kind of perception. What’s usually wrong is the strategy we use while thinking that way.

If someone really wants to treat gambling as a way to make a living, then they also need to think the way professionals do. The first step is choosing the right game. Obviously, that shouldn’t include games with a house edge, because you’re never going to win long term there.

A lot of people fail not because their perception is wrong, but because their method is.
They have the right idea in mind, but they start with the wrong approach.

[joeperry]

So next time you see someone gambling wrongly, you try to change his perception towards it first because if he embraces the right perception, he would be more receptive to responsible gambling practices.

What do you think?

I'm in no position to change perception of others if I see it wrong unless they are close friends or family, since after all we don't know what they are undergoing to or what's their perspective or back story. But I do agree on what you've said, it actually depends on the person's goal on how he view gambling. We can't really judge people on the funds they allocated to it since we have different bankrolls and assents, some people might spend millions of dollars but for them it's just a $100 like most of us, and some of us deposit $100 but to them it's literally a whole month's worth of salary.

[TypoTonic]

I believe the wrong perceptions of gambling are the root causes of excessive gambling and negative energy from the society towards it.

There are influencers and content creators who are being paid by casinos to promote gambling, in such a way that makes it look exciting, to bring in as much players as they can. They usually attract people by uploading big wins to their social media, which affects the perception of their viewers about gambling. Quoting what you wrote:

-snip- view it as a way of making money tends to treat it as a solution to financial hardship

If only they use their platform to educate their viewers about responsible gambling instead, it would've been so much better.

[Cointxz]

I believe the wrong perceptions of gambling are the root causes of excessive gambling and negative energy from the society towards it.

Most of the time it’s not about perception it’s more on the psychological effect of gambling for resulting to addiction due to crave on profit satisfaction.

Safe with addiction on drugs, cigarettes and other stuff. They know that what they are doing have negative effects yet they keep doing it because they get satisfaction that later on turn to addiction that can’t be controlled.

[Orpichukwu]

There are influencers and content creators who are being paid by casinos to promote gambling, in such a way that makes it look exciting, to bring in as much players as they can. They usually attract people by uploading big wins to their social media, which affects the perception of their viewers about gambling. If only they use their platform to educate their viewers about responsible gambling instead, it would've been so much better.

Those are content creators and influencers who take advantage of the audience they have, and in most cases, some of them don't really know much about gambling but only have to accept the offer because they get paid; if not, I don't see why someone who knows exactly what gambling is will accept to send out the wrong message to their audience, knowing fully well that it's misleading, and those audiences who listen and consume whatever they see, which shapes their perception without due research, have their own path of blame to take.

[Emjay24]

You are correct to a large extent, perception is everything. If I see things in a particular way, then how I behave towards that thing would be in line with my perception. Let me stress my point with a little digression, I once met a group of boys smoking cannabis and interacting with them, one of them said and I quote

"Whatever you wish for it to do for you before you smoke it would be the end result, If you wish for happiness, after smoking it you'll be happy, same with motivation and sexual performance".

It only dawned on me that the lads perception of cannabis is as a problem solver and they run to it when they are in physical or emotional need. Same too applies to our gambling habits, what we perceive gambling to be directly or indirectly motivates our actions towards it.

[BitBakerr1]

OP you are correct if someone see gambling as a way of becoming rich he will surely gamble more and become addicted to gambling he will not have self control because he just wants to make money from gambling but those who see it as fun or entertaining will not gamble much they will only gamble when they want to have fun with gambling or when they want to entertain themselves and yes they will always have limit to gambling, the only reason why people get addicted to gambling is how they see gambling when you see it the right way you will never get addicted but when you don’t you get addicted so see gambling as an entertainment and not a way to become rich.

[viljy]

The types of perception that the OP classified cannot be unambiguously defined as correct or incorrect. Because it depends on the point of view. Moreover, please note that there is no generally accepted point of view here, since there is no majority opinion! This is proved very simply: there are approximately the same number of people in society (tens to hundreds of millions) who can be conditionally attributed to one of the types of perception.

That is, roughly speaking, 100 million gamblers who want to make money, 100 million gamblers who just spend their leisure time gambling, and 100 million ardent opponents of gambling. You may ask, but what about the rest of the people? The other billions of people are just deeply indifferent to gambling (they don't think about it at all), so their opinion cannot be taken into account, because it simply doesn't exist. Therefore, there is no right or wrong perception. It's like in the theory of relativity - everything depends on the observer there, here on the point of view on it.

[imthegreat]

Those types of gamblers who think that by topping up their deposit they can easily play within that amount are mistaken.  After all, when a gambler has very poor self-control, the numbers in their deposit are only a temporary limit. There's money in their wallet that can be used as a deposit. They can sell their car, borrow from relatives or friends. Therefore, all boundaries are only in our heads; it depends solely on our inner qualities how well we can uphold them against ourselves.

This is very difficult, and that's why it's good that so much effort is dedicated here to discussing the dangers of gambling, because all of this develops in us, and in the forum's guests, immunity to gambling addiction.

[Marykeller]

Our perception of whatever matters a lot. You can have a wrong perception of something, you expect that you can get it right on your own without being corrected.

Many of the gamblers we have today, what is killing them silently is the wrong perception they have of gambling. That's why you see them gambling now and then, as if their life depends on gambling. They want to recover their losses and attain a reasonable financial status through gambling.

[swogerino]

While in theory you are absolutely right in practice you are completely wrong and this for the simple reason that with your formula or definition of gambling you will not find a single gambler who has gambled for more than one year to fall in those definitions. I know this for sure and there is also a well known saying in gambling communities that goes "there are people who say that it is true that they cannot achieve control over gambling since they have been gambling a long time and there other people who are liars that claim otherwise". Based on this saying I agree like I said that those definitions only apply on theory and not really into the practical side of things.

[michellee]

Yes, that is right but I don't think it is easy to change his perception about gambling. Well, it is no problem if he can control himself but mostly will spend more money if they lose. They will says to themselves the next round is a win for them.

We can only advice that they are doing wrong in gambling and let them decide. We can't forces them to change their perception because they will not accept it easily. But we already advice them and the rest will be their responsibility.

[Sim_card]

Gambling can make you do otherwise, if you don't have the strong will of not going beyond your rules. Every gambler knows that you shouldn't gamble with an amount of money that you can afford to lose but before they know it, they'll gamble beyond their limits because they're after making profits. It's hard to convince someone gambling for profits not to chase his losses.

[Judith87403]

I definitely agree. Perception actually has role in shaping behavior. If gambling is only seen as entertainment, bettors are then able to set limits, accept losses, and even walk away. But if seen as means of income or solution yo financial issues, then it quickly becomes a pressure, desperation, and overcommitment. And if the society sees it just as a harmeful activity, then most times it leads to stigma rather than support, thereby pushing people even deeper instead of helping them change.

Haven said that, only perception can not be all that is needed. Design choices in products of gambling, individual self control, and stress financially equally matters a lot. Yet, altering perception is a solid point to  begin with. When one have understanding of what gambling really is and equally what it isn't habits that is responsible gets much easier to adopt to.