What Causes Gambling Addiction?
Gambling is like any other escapist activity. For instance, people attempt to get away from the world by gambling. When someone has money at risk, it gets the blood flowing. It’s an adrenaline rush because you know there’s something on the line. When it comes to an addict, there might be a lot on the line.
If you look at addictive gamblers, they often have a few common traits. One is that they’re not conformists. They don’t like the standard life because they find it mundane. They need more excitement. Another common trait is that they’re dreamers. For example, some gamblers are also risk-takers in the business world. A third common trait is that many addictive gamblers are introverts. They feel they don’t fit into society as well as other people. Gambling gives them an excuse to fit in. Think about a regular at a live poker room. This person doesn’t have to initiate conversation. They simply sit at a table and the conversation comes to them. Social skills are thrown out the window.
While all the above traits describe the common addictive gambler, anyone is susceptible to this often downward spiral. There are some people who win with gambling, but these are extremely strategic individuals with superb money management skills and discipline. Without realizing it, most addictive gamblers are playing to lose. This might sound outlandish when you first read it, but if you look a little deeper, you will understand. What is the first thing an addictive gambler does when he has money at his disposal? He gambles it. Therefore, if he wins a lot of money, he’s only going to keep gambling until the money is gone. There is no ultimate goal or destination because his number one use for the money is gambling. When a gambler loses money, he does everything he can to make that money back. A wise and disciplined gambler will use winnings for a vacation or to help pay off his mortgage and cut back on risk when in the hole, but these people are few and far between.
In the sports betting world, professionals are rare, but they’re out there. Ironically, these are often people who once had a gambling addiction and then learned to control it. These professional gamblers also don’t play the same way the average gambler does. They look for hedges at every corner. For example, if one sportsbook has the Patriots – 4 and a sportsbook down the road has the Jets + 6 down the road, they’re going to bet both sides. If they put $500 on each side, they’re risking $50 to win $1,000. They also hedge bets through parlays, teasers and money lines. They want less risk and higher reward.
You will find even more professional gamblers in the world of online poker. Once again, these are often people who originally got crushed and used to be addictive gamblers. Through trial and error, they learned how to destroy their opponents. The best part about online poker is that there are many poker games to choose from. Therefore, a good pro will see which game is currently featuring the most fish and attack.
Online Gambling – Indulge in Fun
If you are drawn on to the thrills and excitements of life, you can find it in bounties on the Internet. For the thrill seekers, there are ample online gambling websites that are flourishing and are ever ready to provide you with fun and excitement on the Internet.
Online gambling basically means you can gamble on Internet to earn money. The most popular online gambling games include games like online casinos, online sports betting (such as fantasy football), online poker, online bingo, online roulette. You name it and you have it on the Internet. And they are such a fun to be played. And if you get lucky and earn money on it, then you feel like coming back and playing it again and again.
There are various paid websites that wholly cater to online gambling and there are others as well that give you the provision of the free registration. You can easily locate these websites in one of your search engines to find some of the best online gambling websites.
You can also win bonuses with some of these deals that can turn out to be highly profitable as well. However you ought to be prudent enough as not to put a fortune at stake in such kind of websites. These should be used for either fun or recreational business and you can get a better benefit of these websites.
Online Gambling [http://www.rupizcompare.co.uk/gambling/online-gambling.aspx] should also be done with utmost care and precautions. You must acquaint yourself about the laws of your country before you get yourself registered into any of these online gambling websites. As some countries are really strict as far as the online gambling is concerned and it is banned in many countries as well.
So, indulge in the fun provided by these online gambling websites and make the best use of it.
Football Gambling
Football has one of the largest fan followings in the world. This makes it a popular choice among gamblers. NFL football games are internationally renowned and betting is not restricted to the US. Sports gambling, especially football, is famous for two reasons, firstly because of the passion involved in the game and secondly because sports betting is a skill wager. This makes it predictable and thus lucrative for gambling professionals.
The Internet has made betting on games even easier because it provides the opportunity to gamble from anywhere around the world. A gambler can sit at home and wager on any game that takes place at any location around the world. This provides opportunities for real-time betting, which was not possible a decade ago. Furthermore, as betting on sports is illegal in many states, offshore betting has increased in popularity.
Countries such as Britain have football (soccer) association gambling events that are held on a weekly basis. These games have a huge fan following and thus generate tremendous revenues. Another reason for increased revenues is that half time betting provides opportunities for gamblers to have an edge over bookmakers. This is because a bookmaker cannot follow the game meticulously and thus the line made available to the player may prove advantageous.
NFL picks and odds are available on the Internet and an interested player can bet via companies that specialize in this field. It was only a decade ago that players betted on football using white tickets, but now the Internet provides sportsbooks that can be accessed from anywhere around the world. The only process that a player has to go through is making the initial deposit on the Internet and start betting.
It is better to shop around when looking for the best NFL odds since different books release different numbers and NFL odds usually have a propensity to differ at each sports book.
Online Gambling
Internet Casinos Inc. (ICI), the world’s first online casino, started operating from August 18, 1995, with 18 different games. Since then more than 1,400 websites, mostly domiciled in small Caribbean islands, have given rise to an industry that grosses over $3 billion a year. In fact no business on the Internet earns more revenue than online gambling. Out of the estimated 14.5 million online gamblers, almost 30 per cent are from Asia.
A bet can be placed in minutes. Anyone with a credit card can set up an offshore currency account with a gambling site, leaving them free to place bets on sporting events like Wimbledon, cricket, horse racing and Formula One, or join a virtual casino to play slot machines, roulette, blackjack, poker etc. Companies like Flutter and Betmart accept bets on anything from who is going to win the Nobel Prize to whether Madonna is getting a divorce or not. Bets can range from a nickel to thousands of dollars and according to whether you win or lose the amount is automatically adjusted to your account. The final balance can then either be mailed to you or left for future bets.
The law relating to online gambling in India needs to be understood within the country’s socio-cultural context. At the outset, gambling, although not absolutely prohibited in India, does not receive express encouragement by policy makers. The Indian organized gambling industry is estimated to be worth around US$8 billion. While stringent laws have checked the proliferation of casinos and high street gaming centres as in many other countries, barring the state of Goa, the lottery business remains the most post popular form of gambling.
Though gambling is not illegal, it is a highly controlled and regulated activity. Modern India is a quasi-federal Constitutional democracy and the powers to legislate are distributed at the federal as well as the state levels. Gambling features in List II of the Constitution of India, this implies that the state governments have the authority to enact laws in order to regulate gambling in the respective states. Thus, there is no single law governing gambling in the entire country. Different states have different laws governing gambling in addition to the laws that have an application across the country. While some states have banned lotteries, other states allow state government lotteries marketed and distributed in other lottery playing and promoting states through private entities.
Regulation of gambling
The courts have defined gambling as ‘the payment of a price for a chance to win a prize’. The dominant element of skill or chance shall determine the nature of the game. A game may be deemed to be gambling if the element of chance or luck predominates in deciding its outcome. As a result, Indian courts have held that betting on horse racing and a few card games are not gambling. The right to undertake the business of gambling and lotteries is not considered as a fundamental right protected by the Constitution of India. It may however be pointed out that the state government run lotteries make significant contributions to the state exchequer of several state governments and the Union government, and hence there is a resistance to complete prohibition.
The following legislation is pertinent to gambling:
The Public Gaming Act, 1867
This Act provides punishment for public gambling and for keeping of a ‘common gaming house’. This Act also authorises the state governments to enact laws to regulate public gambling in their respective jurisdictions. The penal legislations in respective states have been amended in accordance with their policy on gambling. However, this legislation does not have any direct impact on online gambling unless a wide interpretation is given to the definition of common gaming house so as to include virtual forums as well.
The Indian Contract Act, 1872 (ICA)
The ICA is a codified umbrella legislation that governs all commercial contracts in India. Under the ICA, a wagering contract is the one which cannot be enforced. The Act lays down; ‘Agreements by way of wager are void, and no suit shall be brought for recovering anything alleged to be won on any wager or entrusted to any person to abide by the result of any game or other uncertain event on which any wager is made’. Gambling, lottery and prize games have held to be wagering contracts and thus void and unenforceable. While a wagering contract is not illegal, it cannot be enforced in a court of law. Thus, the courts will not entertain any cause of action that arises out of a wagering contract.
Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998
This Act provides a framework for organizing lotteries in the country. Under this Act, the state governments have been authorized to promote as well as prohibit lotteries within their territorial jurisdiction. This Act also provides for the manner in which the lotteries are to be conducted and prescribes punishment in case of breach of its provision. Lotteries not authorized by the state have been made an offence under the Indian Penal Code. Several non-lottery playing states, like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, have prohibited the sale of other state-government lotteries under this Act.
Offshore Gambling
Offshore gambling has become popular because of the tremendous opportunities that are made available to gamblers and gambling houses alike. The history of offshore gambling can be traced back to the 1990′s when a Caribbean island called Antigua (Barbuda) made online gambling legal. This resulted in a flood of gamblers especially from the US where the government tried in vain to make online gambling illegal. This decision was taken to control the problems caused due to gambling. On November 10 2004, the WTO (World Trade Organization) ruled in favor of the Antigua government. The accusation was that the Caribbean government was exporting the gambling business to the US. However, the WTO ruled that the US government acted against GATS (General Agreement in Trade and Services).
Offshore gambling is only possible because of the Internet, which provides unprecedented opportunities for gamblers. Online gambling is a very lucrative business since it can be operated even if the laws of a country do not permit it.
Other recent inventions such as tablet PCs and mobile phones have acted as catalysts in promoting offshore gambling. The main reason behind this is that people can gamble from anywhere in contrast to land based gambling. Conventional gambling forces gamblers to be present at a particular site. In offshore or on-line gambling, the gambler can play from anywhere around the world.
The licensing procedures have made the matter even more confusing since a company can get a license from one country, locate the server in another, and cater to the needs of customers from yet another country. Thus, the assortment of legalities and regulations make it impossible for governments around the world to curb or regulate offshore gambling activities.
Today the offshore gambling market is worth a whooping three hundred billion dollars out of which only twenty billion is legal.
Horse Racing Gambling for a Living
Imagine you have a son or daughter who is of college age or ready to go out into the world and find a job. This young adult comes to you and tells you that he or she has finally made a choice of career. You are happy for your off spring and ask what that career might be.
“I want to handicap horse races for a living,” he or she says.
How would you feel about that? If you are like most parents, you’d be disappointed and worried that your child had gone off the rails. A handicapper for a living? A professional gambler? That doesn’t sound very good if it is someone you love, someone you want to succeed in the world.
There are, however, many people who are trying to do just that as you are reading this. Sometimes it is because that person thinks it will be an easy life with lots of freedom and easy money. Others believe it is romantic to make a living with your wits and watch horse races each day.
For other people it is more of a necessity. They may not have many options in this bad economy and they have run out of other choices. In desperation they decide to try to make money betting on horse races, vowing to work at it like a job and to make it pay. Some people who sell racing tips or handicapping systems would have you believe that it isn’t even gambling if you have the right information. When a desperate person reads that line they often convince themselves that they aren’t really gambling, just learning how to invest.
Take a few tips from an old timer who has placed many a bet, handicapped many a race, and stood in the winners circle with his own horse a few times, betting on horse races is gambling and is risky. It can be thrilling, financially rewarding, and costly, too. If you are seriously going to try to make money on horse racing bets, get the facts and make a solid plan for your future.
Can anyone really make money playing the horses? In my opinion and based on my own experiences, yes. Is it easy, glamorous, or thrilling? Yes and no. The truth of it is that you will have to work very hard and the failure rate is very high. When you choose handicapping as a career you are not only gambling on horses, but your own future as well.
The way that most successful horse racing handicappers succeed is to immerse themselves into the game and live, eat, breath, and think horse racing. They also stick to a strict money management scheme and work harder than most people with a steady job. It is thrilling to win money by betting on horse races, but I can tell you from personal experience that it is gut wrenching to have a large bet on a horse and to need the money to pay your bills and see that horse lose by a nose.
Walking out the track with empty pockets and wondering how you’re going to make it is not fun. I wouldn’t change the way I’ve lived my life if I could because I’ve enjoyed the highs and learned from the lows, but on the other hand, I wouldn’t recommend the life of a horse player to someone else. I’m not trying to discourage you. I now make a living teaching other people how to handicap horse races and if no one plays the races, I’ll be out of a job. On the other hand, I like to see people succeed and the only way you’ll do it as a horse player is if you start with your eyes open and prepare yourself properly.