I remember in school doing statistics and probability. There was a question to calculate the probability and chances of winning a bet, and we got a near zero answer. I then asked my teacher if that means the person is actually going to lose. She confirmed yes, and warned us that this is why you have to be careful with gambling and being in debt as a result, and being involved with loans sharks who prey on those with gambling problems.
I’ve personally witnessed what gambling does to a person and their loved ones so I despise it. A lot of the gambling are rigged and so you are more likely to lose.
I tell people that if they’re going to gamble, do the ones with more likelihood of success. Poker is rarely rigged, if ever, because it is based on pure psychology of the players. Investing and stock trading has a more established science, despite the occasional stock manipulation. Although, if one invests in more reputable companies with long term growth and only put in the amount of money the person is willing to lose, hardly anybody goes bankrupt with investing.
Humans are very bad with statistics. Even ones that know the statistics can let their emotions lead them when gambling.
Humans overly weight very very good and very very bad things happening and those stick in our brains. High risk and high reward are where our brains get stuck because of our built in risk aversion.
Case in point: Lotteries. It’s 289 million to 1 chance you’ll win $10 million. Meaning that in stats, it’s an expected value of loss on every ticket you buy should be $1 since we can’t lose 99.9995 cents (or whatever the math is). But how often do people say well, can’t win if you don’t play?" like fools and play their same numbers for the 84,000th time?
When I go to Vegas, I put aside $60, 3 times in the trip, i’ll put $20 through a slot machine. If I’m ever up more than $10, I stop and keep that 30, spend it on food or something for the fam.
I broke even once, up 60 once, and down 60 a few times.
I remember in school doing statistics and probability. There was a question to calculate the probability and chances of winning a bet, and we got a near zero answer. I then asked my teacher if that means the person is actually going to lose. She confirmed yes, and warned us that this is why you have to be careful with gambling and being in debt as a result, and being involved with loans sharks who prey on those with gambling problems.
I’ve personally witnessed what gambling does to a person and their loved ones so I despise it. A lot of the gambling are rigged and so you are more likely to lose.
I tell people that if they’re going to gamble, do the ones with more likelihood of success. Poker is rarely rigged, if ever, because it is based on pure psychology of the players. Investing and stock trading has a more established science, despite the occasional stock manipulation. Although, if one invests in more reputable companies with long term growth and only put in the amount of money the person is willing to lose, hardly anybody goes bankrupt with investing.
Humans are very bad with statistics. Even ones that know the statistics can let their emotions lead them when gambling.
Humans overly weight very very good and very very bad things happening and those stick in our brains. High risk and high reward are where our brains get stuck because of our built in risk aversion.
Case in point: Lotteries. It’s 289 million to 1 chance you’ll win $10 million. Meaning that in stats, it’s an expected value of loss on every ticket you buy should be $1 since we can’t lose 99.9995 cents (or whatever the math is). But how often do people say well, can’t win if you don’t play?" like fools and play their same numbers for the 84,000th time?
At least the earnings from the sales of lottery tickets go to charities.
They already played 84,000 times? That means they have a 288,916,000 to 1 chance to win!
When I go to Vegas, I put aside $60, 3 times in the trip, i’ll put $20 through a slot machine. If I’m ever up more than $10, I stop and keep that 30, spend it on food or something for the fam.
I broke even once, up 60 once, and down 60 a few times.
My wife and I are fantastic gamblers. We always get more value in free drinks than we lose gambling.