Have you ever lost a friendship over an off bet?

[Ishicryptic]

I have not gotten into a serious bet with a friend, by serious I mean betting significant amount of money that can cause rift between. The only times I have bet with a friend is when it is with something easily redeemable like buying me a bottle of beer or something simple. I know that side bet can be very problematic and can separate friends. Gambling should be focused on the casinos whose business it is to honor all payments of genuine winnings in the platform.                                                                                                                                                

I likewise don't make serious bets with friends because I know from experience that monetary matters can cause problems between friends, if I feel like to gamble I will visit a casino. I can do a simple chalange with a friend where I know that the loser will provide what we agreed and it has to be what we both know that we can afford to loose. It's mostly paying for drinks nothing serious and we can laugh and move on but I suppose if friends bet on significant amounts it can lead to problems if the losing party refused to honor agreement. I know that most serious bets that happens outside a casino always have witnesses and the parties involved will put down their stakes before they start the game, after which the price is handed over to the winner immediately.

[julerz12]

Has this ever happened to you?

Yes, but not to the extent of forever losing a friend because of it. I grew up with a couple of childhood friends, and we practically bet on everything.
When we were kids, we bet our lunches over whatever competition piques our interest, who jumps highest, who makes it first to the top of that hill, etc.
When we become teens, we start using small amounts of cash, placing bets when playing Pool (cue sports) and cards.
That same group of people is now adults, and still, we make bets, but now, on sports events like Basketball, Boxing matches, and even MMA fights. When some of my friends lose, of course, they'll be upset, but then again, that would quickly be turned into jokes and laughter, probably because we, as a group of friends, don't take these bets seriously. It's part of our core group moments, moments that we enjoy no matter the outcome.
So I guess it all depends on how you and your group of friends feel about those bets you've placed and if that one friend left you because he lost a bet, then he was never truly your friend.

[rbynxx]

I’ve heard many stories about friends betting on a game at home, where one person couldn’t accept the loss and refused to honor the bet. After that, the friendship was never the same. Has this ever happened to you? Do you think off bets with friends are harmless fun, or are they risky for the friendship itself? Personally, I try as much as possible to avoid playing this way, not because I don’t trust the people around me, but because I don’t see the meaning of gambling that way in the presence of online platforms.

I think I'll pass it up if it's just not that huge amount and if you are really the best of friends you'd probably be over at it for a day or two and just let it go and move on. Off bets some of the times was just some kind of who are right or wrong and there could be some kind of heat discussion that may brew but I don't think I'll risk my friendship over an off bet. It's more like a siblings fight to be honest.

[Y3shot]

I’ve heard many stories about friends betting on a game at home, where one person couldn’t accept the loss and refused to honor the bet. After that, the friendship was never the same. Has this ever happened to you? Do you think off bets with friends are harmless fun, or are they risky for the friendship itself? Personally, I try as much as possible to avoid playing this way, not because I don’t trust the people around me, but because I don’t see the meaning of gambling that way in the presence of online platforms.

It is only someone who is desperate and doesn't understand gambling who will behave this way. Gambling is unpredictable, and you don't need to rely on anyone to win because there is no guarantee of winning.

Gambling is unpredictable, and even if you played a game that was predicted by someone and it ended in a loss, there is no need to be angry or to the extent of ending a friendship. Even if someone convinces you to play their game, it doesn't mean you should act funny if the outcome didn't come out as expected. Gambling is not certain, and anything can happen.

[danherbias07]

I have never experienced this kind of situation, but I do believe it will depend on the friendship.

Many groups go for a one-pot and place it all in one team or player to bet for. Now, if the friendship is real, then the split of funds won't be an issue. I did try riding a side bet on a player/friend before, and it was a local card game. The requirement is to get a high pair of red cards, and I am winning it many times. He did envy me for winning a lot of times and said his hands were lucky, so he did place a bet on the sidebet himself, and then I walked away.
After that, he lost all his money, and I treated him to some snacks and drinks while discussing the game.

Also, every year, there's one neighbor who places a bet against me in the NBA Finals, and we are still friends to this day. I think it had been 5 years of doing that, and it became our traditional thing. We don't place money as bets, though. The stake is a treat on who will pay for the drinks.

[panjul07]

For me, betting offline with friends just doesn’t make sense.

If there’s already a betting platform, what’s the point? Why involve people when I can just place the bet directly on the platform and be done with it?

The answer is simple "for fun", I used to bet against friends for various different sports matches (usually football).
As long as the amount to bet is not too big or at least we both can accept it then it will be never a problem.
Here we used to watch sports match together, actually the bet is made just to make more fun while watching the match.
It does make senses for us, because the main point is not to make money.

[bakasabo]

First I would like to start by saying that I dont think a person has many friends in general or can call any person he knows as a friend. A true friends would never argue about money. Moving from that, I cant say that gambling was reason to end friendship, nor I can say I had stopped communicating with someone because of gambling. I can only say there are people I have stopped communicating because of money (proper to say they have stopped replying on my calls and messaged).

[Zlantann]

I’ve heard many stories about friends betting on a game at home, where one person couldn’t accept the loss and refused to honor the bet. After that, the friendship was never the same. Has this ever happened to you? Do you think off bets with friends are harmless fun, or are they risky for the friendship itself? Personally, I try as much as possible to avoid playing this way, not because I don’t trust the people around me, but because I don’t see the meaning of gambling that way in the presence of online platforms.

Financial transactions strains relationship easily than any other factor. Over time, I have placed bets with friends in different sports games, and it has never caused any problem. But I have seen friends and relatives fight dirty because of the refusal of one party to honour the bets. Disagreement could also occur when the rules are not clear or misunderstood.

With the convenience online casinos offer, it will be needless to risk one's relationship by placing bets with relatives. It will be more convenient to use reputable casinos than haviing misundertsanding with your relatives.   

[xenomorfo]

I?ve heard many stories about friends betting on a game at home, where one person couldn?t accept the loss and refused to honor the bet. After that, the friendship was never the same. Has this ever happened to you? Do you think off bets with friends are harmless fun, or are they risky for the friendship itself? Personally, I try as much as possible to avoid playing this way, not because I don?t trust the people around me, but because I don?t see the meaning of gambling that way in the presence of online platforms.

This is a bad thing. When you make a bet you must always honor what you have bet, even if it is a little money, because otherwise it makes no sense. Even when we play poker, we play with little money, but damn, you have to put that money in and you have to honor the money you put in.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

We cant predict what a bet may turn into, but as always expected, we should know that its either we win a bet or lose it, gambling is not what many of us like taking along with others influencing our games, that is why decisions are mostly taken alone in the bet we take, just to avoid any further drama that may transpired when the expectations couldn't be meant, gambling is all about what we can decide on for ourself, without third party influence except we choose to allow it.

[Muba20]

I’ve heard many stories about friends betting on a game at home, where one person couldn’t accept the loss and refused to honor the bet. After that, the friendship was never the same. Has this ever happened to you? Do you think off bets with friends are harmless fun, or are they risky for the friendship itself? Personally, I try as much as possible to avoid playing this way, not because I don’t trust the people around me, but because I don’t see the meaning of gambling that way in the presence of online platforms.

If such bets are placed between friends offline, there is a high possibility of losing the relationship. Such a situation is created among gamblers that they can feel very ashamed if they lose. Sometimes, after losing, they can also make various excuses to pay the bet money. Maybe if you had won, you would have given the money to him nicely, but now after someone else wins, they are reluctant to pay it. They are bringing various kinds of mistakes to the fore. Moreover, it also happens that a friend does not have money and still places a bet. If he wins, he will take the winning money and if he loses, he will interpret the bet as a mistake for some reason. That is why such bets should definitely be avoided.

[Shishir99]

I’ve heard many stories about friends betting on a game at home, where one person couldn’t accept the loss and refused to honor the bet. After that, the friendship was never the same. Has this ever happened to you? Do you think off bets with friends are harmless fun, or are they risky for the friendship itself? Personally, I try as much as possible to avoid playing this way, not because I don’t trust the people around me, but because I don’t see the meaning of gambling that way in the presence of online platforms.

I remember those days, man, when I used to play cricket with my friends, and we were placing bets on every match. It was more than 15 years ago when we were kids. I think we were betting 2 cents per match, and we used to play 2 overs per match. I batted, and he bowled, and then he batted, and I bowled. That is how we were playing when we were kids. The fun part is, in most cases, we did not pay each other. I don't remember how much it was in total. Even though some of us paid sometimes, we have a friend who never paid a single cent. LOL.

15 years later, today, we work in different places. We don't see each other, and we don't even remember the betting or the money. We talk sometimes, miss each other, and we are still friends.

[ZeroVinsonN]

I’ve heard many stories about friends betting on a game at home, where one person couldn’t accept the loss and refused to honor the bet. After that, the friendship was never the same. Has this ever happened to you? Do you think off bets with friends are harmless fun, or are they risky for the friendship itself? Personally, I try as much as possible to avoid playing this way, not because I don’t trust the people around me, but because I don’t see the meaning of gambling that way in the presence of online platforms.

I know my friends and none of them will ever be willing to provide the money after they've already lost the bet, the best thing we do is to involve a third party, this other friend of ours holds onto both our betting money until after whatever we stake on come to an end and a winner I identified them the third party middle man given all the money to the winning, something he even gets a small percentage like around 10% for holding onto the cash safely until after the bet was over, you have to be smart about these kinds of things.

[Wapfika]

We cant predict what a bet may turn into, but as always expected, we should know that its either we win a bet or lose it, gambling is not what many of us like taking along with others influencing our games, that is why decisions are mostly taken alone in the bet we take, just to avoid any further drama that may transpired when the expectations couldn't be meant, gambling is all about what we can decide on for ourself, without third party influence except we choose to allow it.

It’s not about a coop decision making on bet rather a bet against each other that involves a friend as your opponent in your bet.

This activity usually done in a friendly way but there’s a time that human emotion can’t be controlled in the face of loses and pride. I don’t experience betting against a friend but I understand that there might be repercussions if the bet becomes personal.

I knew a lot of story like this that a friend didn’t honor the bet.

[Cryptomultiplier]

We cant predict what a bet may turn into, but as always expected, we should know that its either we win a bet or lose it, gambling is not what many of us like taking along with others influencing our games, that is why decisions are mostly taken alone in the bet we take, just to avoid any further drama that may transpired when the expectations couldn't be meant, gambling is all about what we can decide on for ourself, without third party influence except we choose to allow it.

It’s not about a coop decision making on bet rather a bet against each other that involves a friend as your opponent in your bet.

This activity usually done in a friendly way but there’s a time that human emotion can’t be controlled in the face of loses and pride. I don’t experience betting against a friend but I understand that there might be repercussions if the bet becomes personal.

I knew a lot of story like this that a friend didn’t honor the bet.

I don't bet with friends or close associates because of the risk of money that's involved of which can cause disruption in the relationship. I have also seen it cause problems for friends who try it and where it works out fine, there's always the one matured among them that knows how to let go or ignore certain behaviors like arguments or heated words.
One of the reasons why online bets exist is to absolve such risk of betting that can destroy or ruin friendship. I don't do it even if I jokingly instigate it.

[Agbe]

I don't think I've ever gotten involved in something that deep, and I think that this happens based on the type of friends that you have. some friends wouldn't get offended even when you don't keep to your side of a bargain because it's all fun and games and not a business contract. it's so unwise to cut people off over an off bet, it is just a game and it's not really a big deal. The whole idea is for vibes and entertainment.

[Agbamoni]

Thanks to the internet and the forum, I have never experienced anything like that in my life. Although I have heard of many rumors about friends ending their realtionship from fighting, having arguments, conflict to stop talking to each other due to misunderstandings in gambling. Yeah, gambling can escalate if there is no third party in such scenrio. Eventually, to avoid conflicts between two friends who place a bet is to not take the bet seriously in the first place, or to avoid betting at all.

[Promocodeudo]

I have not lost any friend in such and I think is because I will be in such mean event with anyone I call my friend or friends, there are things we should be very careful about, these type of gambling lead into different things, not only argument, it can even cause fight and anything can happen.
Gambling should not be in this manner, if we value our friendship there are things we should not practice to avoid causing problems in our friendship, ordinarily to maintain friendship as we know is not easy, so if we must keep our friendship strong with whoever, we must learn how to keep off from many things, what happens to gambling normally, must engage in off bet with a friend when I know what may likely occur.

[sompitonov]

I haven't experienced this, but there was a time when I had a fight with a friend and he told me I couldn't win at poker with my bankroll and would be a loser. I thought I was a good player, but my overconfidence got in the way. I lost and was really angry about losing my deposit. Of course, it was my own fault, but I didn't really like the whole situation and I didn't really want to talk to my friend. Nevertheless, years have passed and we're very good friends. I'm glad we didn't have a big fight back then. Friendship is more important than all that nonsense, and finding a true friendship is very difficult, so it's important to cherish these moments; they're really important.

[Leahized]

I’ve heard many stories about friends betting on a game at home, where one person couldn’t accept the loss and refused to honor the bet. After that, the friendship was never the same. Has this ever happened to you? Do you think off bets with friends are harmless fun, or are they risky for the friendship itself? Personally, I try as much as possible to avoid playing this way, not because I don’t trust the people around me, but because I don’t see the meaning of gambling that way in the presence of online platforms.

To be honest, I have never bet like this. But sometimes I bet but buy food with that money and share it with everyone. I think this is the best way. But online betting is different, it can be done secretly. And my biggest fear is, we are the neighbors because they are the most critical and busy slandering. If friends take the off bet, both parties pool funds, and the losers take the money. But sometimes friendships can be lost. So in my opinion, Friends should not bet together like this.