gambling

Encyclopedia

gambling or gaming, betting of money or valuables on, and often participation in, games of chance (some involving degrees of skill). In England and in the United States, gambling was not a common-law crime if conducted privately. Even in colonial America, however, gambling was liable to rankle public opinion because it was often associated with rowdy activities and could produce debtors who would burden society.

In the United States, state laws largely govern gambling. Some states prohibit public wagers or betting by minors, while others allow wagering up to a certain amount. In some states parimutuel betting on horse races at the tracks is legal; several states permit parimutuel betting on dog races and jai alai games, and most states operate or participate in daily and weekly lotteries. Though all of these state-sanctioned forms may conflict with public opinion on the moral and economic worth of gambling, all provide state and local governments with large revenues. The first legalized offtrack betting system (OTB) in the United States opened in New York City in 1971.

Nevada was the first state to sanction many types of gambling, with casinos operating slot machines, card games, and various games of chance. For many years, Nevada (joined in 1978 by Atlantic City, N.J.) was the only place in the United States where casinos were legal; by the late 1990s, 27 states allowed them. Some states, however, particularly those along the Mississippi River, restrict casino gambling to riverboats. Following the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, states were required to permit on reservations any type of gambling that was permitted off-reservation. Since that time, tribes throughout the country have opened legal gambling establishments, often greatly enhancing their economy and that of the area where they live, but reservation gambling still produces only a small percentage of all gambling revenues in the country. In the late 1990s, concerns over compulsive gambling (said to affect up to 3% of adult Americans) and the social effects of the mushrooming gambling economy—which had grown by 1,600% since the mid-1970s, with revenues of some $50 billion—brought increased government attention.

In recent years, betting on sports such as baseball, basketball, boxing, and football, although illegal in most states, has increased tremendously. Several countries in the Caribbean have established offshore sports betting and on-line casinos, patronized principally by Americans, despite the fact that Internet sports betting is illegal under the federal Wire Wager Act (1994) and all Internet gambling is illegal under many state laws. Organized sport, although haunted by the memory of the Black Sox scandal of the 1919 World Series and college basketball scandals (1951, 1961), has done little to discourage betting, and instances of professional gamblers attempting to fix the outcome of sporting events still occur. It is also common for network television and newspapers not only to publicize odds but also to employ oddsmaking experts. For sporting events, gambling brokers (popularly, bookies) usually establish two sets of odds, one for each side of the bet, so that they profit no matter what the outcome of the contest.

 

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/

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WordNet

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun gambling has one meaning:

Meaning #1: the act of playing for stakes in the hope of winning (including the payment of a price for a chance to win a prize)
Synonyms: gaming, play

The adjective gambling has one meaning:

Meaning #1: preoccupied with the pursuit of pleasure and especially games of chance
Synonyms: dissipated, betting, card-playing, sporting

 

WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

Wikipedia

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gambling

Gambling (or betting) is any behavior involving the risk of money or valuables on the outcome of a game, contest, or other event in which the outcome of that activity is partially or totally dependent upon chance.

Though for many it is a form of recreation, gambling, like any behavior which involves variation in brain chemistry, can become a psychologically addictive and harmful behavior in some people. Reinforcement phenomena may also make gamblers persist in gambling even though they are losing. Because of the negative connotations of the word, casinos and race tracks often use the euphemism "gaming" to describe the recreational gambling activities they offer.

Gambling may also refer to engaging in any high-risk behavior in which decisions are made based upon incomplete knowledge. (For example, high-risk stock investments, difficult and potentially costly ventures, or even personal relationships.)

Gambling games are believed to predate recorded history, with gambling games recorded in virtually all of the ancient civilizations. Gambling is strictly prohibited in Islamic nations.

Legal aspects

Because of the generally negative religious view as well as various perceived social costs, gambling is subject to some form of censure on most legal jurisdictions. In particular, in many (most?) cases, wagers are not recognised in law as contracts and any consequent losses are debts of honour, unenforcable by legal process. Thus the enforcement of large gambling debts is often taken over by organized crime, using violent methods. Because contracts of insurance have many features in common with wagers, legislation generally makes a distinction, typically that any agreement in which either one of the parties has an interest in the outcome bet upon, beyond the specific financial terms, is a contract of insurance. Thus a bet on whether one's house will burn down is a contract of insurance as there is an independent interest in the security of one's home.

Furthermore, gambling is either banned or heavily controlled (licensed) in many jurisdictions. Such regulation generally leads to gambling tourism and illegal gambling. The latter is often controlled through organized crime. Such involvement frequently brings the activity under even more severe moral censure and leads to calls for greater regulation. Conversely, the close involvement in governments (through regulation and gambling taxation) has led to a close connection between many governments and gambling organisations, where legal gambling provides much government revenue.

Types of casino gambling

Fixed-odds gambling

Fixed-odds gambling and Parimutuel gambling are frequently offered at or on the following kinds of events:

  • In addition many bookmakers offer odds on a number of non-sports related outcomes, e.g. the direction of various financial indices, whether snow will fall on Christmas Day, the winner of television competitions such as Big Brother, etc.

    • See Sports betting below.

    Non-casino gambling games

    Other types of casino betting

    One can also bet with another person that a statement is true or false, or that a specified event will happen (a "back bet") or will not happen (a "lay bet") within a specified time. This is done in particular when two people have opposing views of what is true or will happen and are each rather certain. Not only do the parties hope to gain from the bet, they place the bet also to demonstrate how certain they are about the issue. A requirement is that it is possible to determine who was right. Sometimes the amount bet is nominal, winning being the important point.

    List of notable wagers

    Gambling on horse races

    One of the most widespread forms of gambling is betting on horse races. The most common types of horse race betting involve betting on races between thoroughbreds or between standardbreds.

    Wagering may be conducted in parimutuel pools, or bookmakers may take bets personally. Parimutuel wagers pay off at prices determined by support in the wagering pools, while bookmakers pay off either at the odds offered at the time the bet was taken or at the median odds offered by track bookmakers at the time the race started.

    In Canada and the United States, the most common types of bet on horse races are:

    • · win–to succeed the bettor must pick the horse which wins the race.
    • · place–the bettor must pick a horse which finishes either first or second.
    • · show–the bettor must pick a horse which finishes first, second, or third.
    • · exacta, perfecta, or exactor–the bettor must pick the two horses which finish first and second and specify which will finish first
    • · quinella or quiniela–the bettor must pick the two horses which finish first and second, but need not specify which will finish first.
    • · trifecta or triactor–the bettor must pick the three horses which finish first, second, and third and specify which will finish first and second
    • · double– the bettor must pick the winners of two successive races; most race tracks in Canada and the United States take double wagers on the first two races on the program (the daily double) and on the last two (the late double).
    • · triple–the bettor must pick the winners of three successive races; many tracks offer rolling triples, or triples on any three successive races on the program.
    • · sweep–the bettor must pick the winners of four or more successive races.
  • Win, place and show wagers are known as straight bets, and the remaining wagers as exotic bets. Bettors usually make multiple wagers on exotic bets. A box is a multiple wager in which all possible combinations of a group of horses in the same race are bet. A key is a multiple wager in which a single horse in one race is bet in one position with all possible combinations of other selected horses in a single race. A wheel consists of betting all horses in one race of a bet involving two or more races. For example a 1-all daily double wheel bets the 1-horse in the first race with every horse in the second.

    • In Canada and the United States exotic wagers are made on horses running at the same track on the same program. In the United Kingdom bookmakers offer exotic wagers on horses at differenet tracks. The most common is probably the Yankee, in which the bettor tries to pick the winner of four races. This bet also includes subsidiary wagers on smaller combinations of the chosen horses; for example, if only two of the four horses win, the bettor still collects for their double. A Trixie requires trying to pick three winners, and a Canadian or Super Yankee trying to pick five; these also include subsidiary bets. The nap is a term used to mark the best bet of the day.

    A parlay (US) or accumulator (UK) is a series of bets in which the winnings from one race are bet on the next in order until either the bettor loses or the series is completed successfully.

    Sports betting

    Betting on team sports is an important service industry in many countries. For example, football pools are played by millions of Britons every week.

    In Canada and the United States sports betting is usually illegal (Nevada offers full sports betting and the Canadian provinces offer Sport Select, which is government-run sports parlay betting). However, millions engage in it despite its illegality.

    In Canada and the United States the most popular sports bets are made:

    • · against the spread; that is, the bettor wagers either that the favoured team will win by a specified number of points or that it will not. Betting the favourite is called giving the points and betting the underdog taking the points. See point spread.
    • · against odds; the most popular types of bets against odds are simple bets that a team will win and over-under bets, which are bets on the total points, runs, or goals scored by both teams. In making an over-under bet, the bettor wagers that the total will be higher or lower than a total specified by the bookmaker.
    • · against a combination of odds and spread
  • In sports betting a parlay is a bet that two or more teams will all win. In the United States one of the most common forms of sports betting is the parlay card, on which bettors wager on the outcomes of two or more games. If all their picks win, they collect. Most such betting occurs in workplaces.

    • Staking systems

    Many staking systems have been formulated in an attempt to "beat the bookie" but it is still widely accepted that there is no staking system that can make an unprofitable system profitable over time. Below are several widely used systems along with a brief explanation and risk analysis:

    • · Fixed stakes – a traditional system of staking the same amount on each selection. This method is good for conservative punters if the stake is kept below 5% of the bank.
    • · Fixed profits – the stakes vary based on the odds to ensure the same profit from each winning selection. This method is very good for conservative punters, although if the profitability of one's bets is independent of the odds the bettor is simply reducing his or her cash flow.
    • · Due-column betting – A variation on fixed profits betting in which the bettor sets a target profit and then calculates a bet size that will make this profit, adding any losses to the target. For example, to make a target of $100 profit a bettor would wager $50 at odds of 2 to 1. If the bet loses, the target becomes $150. If the next bet is also at odds of 2 to 1, the wager therefore becomes $75. This type of wagering is ruinous in the long run..
    • · Kelly (optimal) – fair odds (in the European/decimal format) need to be estimated by the punter and then the stake can be calculated using
    • Stake= (Odds/(Fair odds-1))/(Odds-1) Many times used with a divider (most commonly 4 or 8) depending on your bankroll (for betting)
    • This system was developed for baccarat but is widely recommended for horserace betting. In betting horseraces the stake is further adjusted to allow for inaccuracy in estimating fair odds. Computer simulations (http://www.coolth.com/optimal.htm) suggest that in betting horseraces Kelly betting increases losses during losing streaks, that it fails to demonstrate superiority over fixed stakes betting until large numbers of bets have been made (a drawback in horserace betting because the bettor usually has no reasonable expectation that any betting advantage he or she has will last over a long series of bets), and that its profitability has been exaggerated by the use of inappropriate statistical analyses.
    • · Martingale – A system based on staking enough each time to recover losses from previous bet(s) until you get a winner. The Martingale is a guaranteed way to failure - the only way it would work is if you have an unlimited bankroll, your bookmaker has no limit on the size of bets and you are immortal!

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