Have you ever played a game at the gambling house before? How many times have you played? And how many times have you won?
Why do I always pick the wrong answer when I am guessing, a group of students also asked. They have lamented individually that when they guess from two competing answers, they have a higher chance of picking the wrong answers. But why is it so?
One day, I decided to complete a mock quiz I didn’t prepare for. The questions were strange-looking and the only thing I had was some residual knowledge about the questions and my guessing instincts. In the end, I was already feeling good that I had done pretty well until I scored myself. It was a whooping ‘F’. So I began wondering, why does guessing to questions almost always have a high probability of failure?
If you have attempted gambling, the error margin is equally as high as when you are guessing to those random quizzes. Even when you think you are sure about your choice, it almost always turns out an unexpected outcome. But as well as quizzes requiring selecting from a pool of multiple-choice questions, without thorough knowledge about the decision options available, or some high proof of certainty, the brain will always skew things up at some point. Why? Because you are relying on the power of guessing.
Here in this post, we will explore why gambling almost always goes wrong.
Are Some People Good At Guessing?
People bet on different things including sports like football, tennis, etc, weather, or certain other facts, and in most of these, they rely on their guessing power. Often, you hear people say they are really good at guessing this stuff. They have figured a way to win those bets and in turn, some huge cash prizes. But when you try, it always ends up at a loss. You ask, how do they do it?
Yes, some people are good at guessing. And this strong power of guessing may be related to their previous knowledge about the object at stake. They understand the patterns, trends and recent changes, say, in the football game, they are getting for. They know what has changed in the strengths of the teams that are playing the match, for example, the injured players, the new coach, and so on. This knowledge could prove handy and very instrumental. The same goes for other things you are guessing for, like that quiz you didn’t prepare for. You rely on some base, one information you already have about the subject. However, great guessers only understand one thing. They understand how to study patterns and match them to the new challenge.
The main problem here is that, whereas knowledge of facts is important for guessing, it can sometimes make the guessing process harder and slower, with greatly reduced chances of getting the correct answer, such that, because you know too much, you think too much and then, you confuse yourself with all the contrasting pieces of information.
But in all, being a good guesser means you have learned to follow the patterns and create a balance between luck and knowledge. Gambling is oftentimes a combination of luck and knowledge. The knowledge, like I have already mentioned, can be very instrumental but it is still a game of chance.
When gambling, do you really think the host wants you to win and take home all the cash? Never. They are also in for the business too. Your win is their loss and vice-versa. So, why should they let you win so easily? Even before you try gambling for the first time, most casinos already have things in place to lure you into the trap of attempting. These include the classy entrances, well-lit rooms and show of affluence that makes you feel pompous about yourself. The atmosphere is configured to show class and sophistication and to crown it up, free drink and food offers may be served. Now, you are primed well enough to try.
This may not be the case for online bet platforms, as you cannot be offered free drinks over the internet, but they offer great bonuses and keep you hooked with enticing games. When you win the first dime, you hop in for the next millions. And when you lose the first time, you hope to try to break even in subsequent ones. Do you see a chain here?
According to a post on 888casino.com, the first rule of gambling on a house game is that the casino has always won, and the players (collectively) have always lost. Players rely on hitting a lucky run, and as long as they have the humility to walk away they could end up on top. You will soon understand what I mean by the humility to walk away as I go on.
The betting house makes the uncertain odds already in their favour and increase the stake and the prize. But the players are enticed by the prize and then want to try their luck. But it doesn’t end there. The casino house puts things in place that will entice you, playing on your natural tendency for greed and hopefulness that you would soon break even. This goes on and on, and you keep losing more than you actually win.
888casino.com categorized losses in gambling into 3 categories and I believe understanding these levels of losses will enhance our understanding of why gambling always go wrong. What are these levels of losses?
Levels of Losses
Losing what you can afford to lose
The first level of loss is losing an amount you are comfortable with. You go in with $5, doesn’t look too big though. Then, you enjoy yourself playing with the roulette at the casino for a few hours and to merry with your seemingly affluent friends. You may lose the $5 or you may go home with much more, say a few dollars on top. In this case, the only risk is losing what you can afford to lose, which is really not much risk at all. And because it is affordable to lose, you keep playing until you win.
Recall what I quoted from 888casino.com, the first rule in gambling is “the gambling house has always won, and the players have always lost”. The few that would win are those that can break out from this general rule as exceptions, but these chances are kept on the lowest floor by the gambling house.
What this means is that you actually begin to win when you decide to walk away either before you try once or after the first try. When you leave the gambling or bet house, their rule of making you the loser always do not apply anymore. However, greed won’t allow anyone to walk away, would it?
Losing more than what you are happy with
This second level of loss is the one that actually causes you pain. After this loss, your whole day is ruined and you bottle up this loss for as long it would take for your Hurt heart to recover. These games are usually risk but the winnings are correspondingly high. You stake a $1000 for a potential win of $100,000. Can you beat that? Just imagine what happens if you breakthrough with that. You become more than $900,000 richer overnight. Not just that, nothing much was done except guessing randomly on some unreliable statistics. This greed to get where you did not really sow is what is mainly exploited by the betting houses and the outcome have proven to be catastrophic.
Developing the mindset of gambling
The problem with most things we do is not in the things themselves but in their effects on our way of thinking. A man is developed along his line of thinking and ideologies and whereas, most gamblers may not realize that this change in mindset is a loss, it still poses a great risk to their productivity and personal development. But what is this mindset?
The mindset of getting something from nothing is considered the worst and most extreme of all the losses gamblers may experience. At this point, they simply have no more control over their desire to play bets, they now believe they can get free things without working for them. But what they forget is that life itself is not free. Before you reap, you first sow.
People that believe in free things are often those that would later remain stagnant or resort to some other forms of fraudulent businesses. This mindset of gambling takes away life as a whole from you and it is the third and greatest level of loss in gambling.
So, after all these, why does gambling always go wrong?
Why You Always Lose When Gambling
- Lack of understanding of the game
- Greed
- Second-guessing on yourself
- Thinking too much
- Letting emotions get in the way
Lack of Understanding of the Game
The game of betting has its odds already in favour of the betting house, against the gamblers. But if you are ever going to stand a chance to win a game, at the very least, you have to understand the patterns in the game. Say a football game, a strong team meets a weaker opponent, what are the records between these two teams in recent times? Understanding patterns that are unchanging can increase your chances of winning.
Sometimes, some betting houses and online platforms provide odds for each game. This odd could mean some real statistically probability values that you can calculate your odds of winning in that bet. However, you must never forget that probability is synonymous with chances/luck, and in the game of luck, anything is possible.
Greed
The greater the stakes, the grease the chances of winning. Greed applies to this in many different ways. First, greed may make the gambler go for extremely long-shot games that have a higher chance of not working out, simply because the potential winning is higher too. Because of this, the bet is ruined when this single game does not pull through.
Another way greed influences the outcomes of gambling is as follows. You keep trying when you do not win, not because you are naturally a determined person but because you are determined to recover your lost monies.
Second-Guessing on Yourself
Have you ever heard of the phrase ‘second-guessing on yourself?’ When you rely on your guessing power to make a decision, you are more likely to get confused about your own options. It’s like you created a multiple choice question for yourself and you are lost on which the correct answer should be. There are reasons to support one of the alternatives, and there are other reasons to support the contrary. The only problem is how to determine which reasons outweighs the other.
It would have gone seamlessly and interestingly in your favour if the rules and challenges were made by you. In reality, however, no matter how hard you guess on yourself, the correct option is already determined and there is nothing you can do to change it. You can only depend on luck to accurately hit the correct outcome.
Skewed Decision-making Process
A number of factors including previous losses and wins, greed, high expectations and the desire to do something different can make your decision skewed and grossly out of course. You may have chosen the odds you consider to have the best chances of pulling through, then you tell yourself, ‘what if there is a change this time?’ The betting process is already too skewed and complicated for you to make it worse by creating more puzzles on it.
Gamblers will continue to lose because they do not even realize that the nature of the game itself already interferes with their own decision-making process, and would keep trying to save their sinking ass.
Letting Emotions Get in the Way
There is hardly any event or action that emotions cannot corrupt. Emotions are internal energies that can make you more expressive and confident. They can also lead people to make rash decisions that they may not be able to account for once they are done.
Emotions build up in the game of gambling when your level of expectations for winning has risen so high. An answer to a question by JackAce (on Yahoo Answers) expressed that gambling is something you should do only to have fun, not to make money. JackAce also stated as follows: Keep gambling if you’re having fun but stop gambling if you can’t afford it or if you’re not having fun doing it.
Emotions crawl in when you have made gambling a source of livelihood. You cannot live off gambling, you must accept that. If you want to earn money, go set up some ventures or vocations or do something worth the time, because not only can’t gambling save you, it also skews your decisions further and drains you even more.
Just imagine the thought of having lost a game very recently. It could weigh you down like a heartbreak, especially when the guilts that a little different option could have been your breakthrough. This is an occurrence you would always meet in gambling because there is no way you’d go through gambling without experiencing those near-misses. The guilt following them can really be traumatizing.
How To Win The Gamble
If you have taken something home from the previous sections, that should be the hidden secret of winning a bet or gamble. This secret will be important to those who may have been trying hard to win to no avail. You have lost enough, it is time to show your breakthrough secret. If you have not already discovered the secret in this post, this may just be your last chance to do so.
Understanding patterns of games is very important to arrive at a decision that is very close to the expected outcome. And that means you will have to study the patterns well enough even before you play your first bet. However, understanding the patterns will, at best, get you closer to your expected outcome but does not guarantee your win, even though close enough.
To win your bet, you must understand the original intent of gambling, the plan of the betting house and the host. Just a recap, the betting house already makes you the loser and they, the winner. To win the gamble, you must pull off like a cloak, the desire to win and place your winning somewhere outside the games you play. In other words, you should not expect to win. But not expecting to win generally have two consequences;
- It is either you play the game just for the fun.
- Or you just walk away without expecting to win.
When you understand that the game was not built for you to win in the first place, you already defy their first rule, that they are the winner and you are the loser. It now removes you from the cage and places you as a winner for yourself. They are the winners, you are the winner too. This is only achievable when you show that you do not expect to win.
