Gambling Article

I wanted to talk to you about how you can eliminate gambling problems. People out there have thrown away their life with this horrible addiction. The real issue is that no one really knows how to really get rid of the problem. It isn’t like this is a drug or anything along those lines that require you to have a detox, to get the dependency out of your system. Going cold turkey may seem like a great approach to take, but you’re not actually solving anything. Deep down inside of you, a gambler lives and that will always be there. I’m going to show you how to eliminate gambling problems.

Addiction is a convenient word for us. It’s this unconscious control over ourselves, which sort of relieves us from responsibility because it isn’t us, it’s the addiction. The real issue isn’t the addiction, but the pay off you get from gambling. I’m not talking about money, but the psychological pay off. You don’t just do things, you do things for a pay off. It might give you a rush. It might help you avoid other problems in your life. It could be just a case of peer pressure and not being able to say no. Whatever it is, you have to be able to identify it.

If you want to eliminate gambling problems than you have to give yourself that psychological pay off. If you’re looking for a rush, than get a hobby that gives you a rush. If you’re using a gambling problem to cover up another problem in your life, than you have to deal with that problem. No more running away from it. If you’re giving into peer pressure than you just need to get a backbone and start saying no. This is the only way to fix this problem.

Learn Ways to Stop Gambling

Shortly after the advent of the internet, the question of the legality of online gambling followed. Until the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that was attached to the Safe Port Act and signed into law October 2006, the government had done little to stop it. However, the UIGEA is a far cry from eradicating an institution that is more accepted and popular then ever, and one that so many enjoy.

We can all see proof that the perception of gambling is shifting towards tolerance through the increasing number of states that have laws allowing slot parlors and casinos. Other states are working on new legislation to allow card games to make up for lost revenue as neighboring states finally open slot parlors. Poker is now televised as a sport on multiple channels throughout the year.

“Judged by the dollars spent, gambling is now more popular in America than baseball, the movies, and Disneyland-combined,” said Timothy L. O’Brien in his 1998 book “Bad Bet.” Gambling has actually been part of life in America ever since the colonial days. As long as the game was regarded suitable for gentlemen, gambling was considered a proper diversion from life.

The Virginia Company of London was the first to use a lottery to raise money for its venture in the New World. Later all 13 colonies were running lotteries, usually more than one. Colonist felt obligated to play, like buying your son’s raffle tickets. Some of these lotteries assisted in the establishment of several of America’s oldest and most prestigious universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth and William and Mary.

From riverboats to saloons during the gold rush, gambling thrived as entertainment as well as a way for the establishments’ owners to earn an income in the Wild West. Gambling has similar aspects one could easily associate with those laying the outline of our country on the frontier: risk, opportunity and essence of adventure.

The rise of professional sports during the 1900s, along with the popularity of college football and basketball, increased the popularity of sports wagering in the United States. Today football (NFL and NCAA), basketball (NBA and NCAA) and Major League Baseball all have major television contracts. These contracts assisted in the transformation of the sports wagering industry into a one hundred million dollar a year business. Now the NCAA and some members of congress would like to make wagering on all amateur sports illegal no matter the state.

Their supporters say it is necessary to protect the student athletes and the integrity of the games. To validate their position on gambling, the NCAA released part of a study called the National Study on Collegiate Sports Wagering and Associated Health Risk on Wednesday May 12, 2004. The study surveyed 21,000 college student athletes nationwide. According to the NCAA’s study, 35% of male student athletes and 10% of female athletes had wagered on college sports in the previous year. It goes on to state that gambling money has influence the outcome of collegiate games.

According to the survey, 2.3% college athletes were asked to manipulate games, 1.1% of football players have accepted money for a sub par performance, and 1.4% actually acknowledged that they altered their play on the field to affect the outcome of a game.

In 2004, Bill Saum, director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities for the NCAA, was waving this survey as proof for the need to make wagering on college sports a thing of the past. Saum was not alone. In two separate bills to be introduced in 2003, Sen. John McClain, R-Ari, and Rep. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., tried to make it law by amending the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. All involved believed it was needed to protect the athletes and the integrity of college sports.

This legislation, which would have been practically unenforceable, would have done nothing to eliminate the 1.1% of football players that reportedly accepted money. This law only penalizes the legit sportsbooks. Las Vegas sportsbooks are not the ones confronting these students. Obviously, these players were working with a bookie, sometime also a student, which in itself is illegal. No matter if Senator McClain or Representative Graham would have gathered enough support for one of their bills to pass successfully through congress, one would have still been able to call his local bookie or use an <a href=”http://oddsonbetting.net/online-sportsbook-deposit-bonus-and-review/”>online sportsbook</a> to place a bet.

Congress has tried many times through out America’s existence to criminalizing gambling through some form of prohibition. These attempts have never eliminated gambling. It only obliges it to flourish underground where it is estimated most of today’s sport wagering exists. These new bills will only encourage the same outcome.

About The Author

Frank Benjamin writes about online sports betting for multiple websites including Odds on Betting. He is also the author of the popular betting guide, The Bettor’s Guide to Sports Investing.

An Overview

Gambling nowadays is not related to a mere recreation activity albeit it has now taken a new direction into business and industry. For some it’s a pleasure activity and for the others it is a lucrative business. Although gambling is not at all a new sport which has emerged in this century, it has been a favorite of our ancestors and the historians date back the involvement into this activity to prehistoric times. It has been factually proved that even the early caveman was a gambler.

Gambling to a layman would mean sport involving money and an easy way to multiply the same. Although being a part f this sport means staking of one thing or the other. History has witnessed several incidents where not only wealth and material objects were a part of this game but also one’s own identity or the ownership of a family member was staked.

Gambling activity in this century has taken a two dimensional outlook. With high paced lives and scarcity of time for almost everything, even recreation activities are time bound. To this new age life, Internet comfortably snuggles in and creates a position of its own, thus giving room to Online Gambling. As compared to traditional gambling practices where one has to be physically available in the arena of casino, online gambling gives us the comfort of gambling in the privacy of our homes or café.

To further elaborate on both the categories of gambling lets have a closer look into the basic features of both. Traditional gambling basically has three types of games involved namely the table games, random games and gaming machines. Almost all the categories in traditional gambling requires parting with physical cash and getting them converted into chips which are of various denominations and are then further used in the game. The only division of game which does not require conversion of cash into chips is that of slot machines. Here the gambler has to place a quarter into the slot machine and pull on the lever. There are still some games where cash is deposited, but that is mainly confined to games which involve huge jackpots. Generally in such games the basic deposit only sums up to a huge amounts.

Online gambling, on the other hand, is a relatively comfortable way of enjoying the game. Needless to say the reason for its manifold popularity goes to the time factor and the availability of pleasure at the click of a button. Moreover, in order to attract more and more people into online gambling the owners make their sites tempting by offering various payback schemes and added advantages to its members. All sorts of games can be selected by just logging on the website. Basically the games available in this form of gambling can be broadly divided into two categories, one in which a particular software needs to be downloaded and the other which can be played without it as well.

Comparative Analysis of Traditional Gambling and Online Gambling

Although online gambling is gaining momentum, traditional gambling is still the undisputed leader in the business. There are pros and cons in both forms of gambling and it depends upon the personal liking of each gambler as to which form suits his or her requirement.

In traditional gambling where one can find the adrenaline rising and pressure on one’s nerves, the same is a miss in online gambling to some extent. The pleasure of winning and celebrating can be only enjoyed in the traditional gambling. The drive behind playing it again and again lies in winning and celebrating, thus giving instant boost in business of the casino owners. Winning of one motivates thousands others to remain in the game. Thus if we see the involvement, pleasure and financial aspect of gambling, no doubt traditional gambling would take a lead into it.

Online gambling, on the other hand, suits one and all to the extent of people residing in remote areas where availability of an actual casino is a miss. All it requires is a basic internet connection and you are into the pleasure of the sport. It gives you the leverage of time and space. Another advantage of online gambling can be that one can enjoy huge payouts and bonuses, but along with it the companies keep a catch of not paying the entire earned amount in order to make the gambler play for long. The reason for making a player gamble for longer durations is that generally the longer you play the chances of you losing increase, thereby making the casino owners reap higher profit margins.

In terms of  business traditional gambling is favorable to the casino owners. They have all the tools and tactics available to make a gambler play and stay for long which in turn means that the odds increase in the favour of casino owners. But for a gambler, traditional form of gambling may be of loss at times as the earnings are lesser than the actual amount earned. Generally the payouts are in terms of  5 or 6  times the actual amount put at stake but the casinos pay out lesser and so results in visible loss.

Conclusion

Gambling in the eyes of gambler has its own dimensions which cannot be gauged by the critics. Form of gambling may have difference of opinions but the ultimate pleasure of sport cannot be undermined in either form of gambling.

On the other hand gambling as a line of business may mean totally different to the casino owners. They would have an altogether different stream of thoughts to analyze the two forms of gambling.

To sum up, both the forms of gambling have their own set of advantages and disadvantages and none of it can be said to be perfect. It totally depends upon the individual to choose from the options available which can satiate his or her desire.

The only common thing in both the streams is to set up individual limits and to keep his or her decisive powers strong so as to know when to draw the line.

Online Casino.

If you are from Canada and are looking for a place to gamble online, you have come to the right place. There are tons of different sites out there that offer an online gambling service to Canadian players but there are only a handful that really top the list. Below we are going to discuss some specifics to look for when choosing where to start your online gambling when looking for a Canadian-friendly site.

Obviously, the first thing that you need to make sure of is that the website that you are looking at accepts players from Canada. This should be a pretty easy thing to do, since the majority of gambling sites out there do. Canadian players have very few restrictions when it comes to gambling online. Unlike the U.S., there are not many complications when it comes to gambling legality. However, the Canadian government also doesn’t take the same stance as the U.K. in the sense of really being pro-gambling. What we do know is that it is not illegal by any means, so most gambling sites accommodate very well for Canadian players.

Another thing that you will want to look for is whether or not the gambling website that you inquire about accepts the method of deposit that you want. Some sites have very limited options available, while others have a wide array of options for their players to choose from. The bigger and better gambling sites usually have more of a variety, since they are targeting many players from different countries.

The last thing that we are going to mention is something that is based off of your own preference. Depending on what you are looking to do, whether it be sports/horse betting, casino gambling or playing poker, you will need to choose which site allows you to do that. There are several exceptional all-in-one gambling websites that allow you to do all of the above and even more. These sites are usually the best for people who are new to the online gambling or just want to try everything out.

All-in-all the most important thing is to do your research and find out first, which gambling sites actually accept players from Canada and whether or not the accommodate for your specific needs. Once you find all of that, it will be pretty easy to find a site that gives you the opportunity to gamble the way that you want. Once you do that, you can begin gambling online as soon as you sign up and deposit at that specific site.

The author of this article also has a website in which he ranks and reviews the internet’s best gambling sites including the best Canadian gambling websites. There you will find more in-depth information and reviews for each site.

I started out just like many of us: playing the fake money games online. One afternoon, I logged into my account to discover a real money balance of $5.00. With all the negative stigma society generally attaches to online gambling, I figured I probably would never put in a deposit with my own money, and this was a chance to see if I could make a few bucks and have some fun. I even played fake money limit hold’em for a couple weeks until I was beating it consistently so I could make the most out of my 5 bucks.

In December 2004 I jumped into the smallest game on the site: 10c/20c limit hold’em. With a lot of luck (and some help from the very loose games), I managed to slowly run my ‘bankroll’ into about $50, at which point I started playing $3 sit’n'go’s, which eventually became $7 and $10 sit’n'gos, and then $1/$2 limit. I was spending a lot of time reading strategy websites, most notably reading the limit hold’em articles (referenced at bottom). At this point (July 2005), my bankroll had reached about $600. I began to read a lot more about bonuses and rakeback, which are absolutely ESSENTIAL to any limit player, as I will outline below.

I began to forgo strategy in favour of hunting down the most lucrative bonuses. I was obsessed with the notion of ‘free money’ via bonuses, and my game (and bottom line) suffered as a result. I struggled playing tough $1/$2 and $2/$4 games at various sites, although I did slowly increase my bankroll. Eventually, I got sick of playing breaking even poker to earn bonus bucks, and I realized that I would never move beyond the small stakes games if I was putting ‘bonus whoring’ before improving my game, so I made a drastic change: I put bonus whoring behind me, and I took my $2,000 bankroll to the Party $3/$6 6max games, which were definitely a lot softer than the Absolute $1/$2 grind.

January 2006: I did very well for a couple months, and then broke even for the next couple. I moved up to $5/$10, and remained a slight winner. I made decent money, but the truth is I was a very mediocre player; bonuses and rakeback kept me barely profitable for a few months. At this point, my bankroll had grown to $16,000, but I compared my winrate to the disgusting amount of rake I was paying, and I decided to return to my bonus-whoring ways, albeit at the same stakes. I realized that a good rakeback deal could more than double my hourly rate, provided the tables remained soft. I did a lot of research on rakeback and bonus deals, which paid off immensely. I played at several sites through the summer and fall of 2006, eventually settling on a VERY profitable prop player deal at a major site, playing the $4/$8 and $6/$12 shorthanded limit games. After a few weeks, however, I became bored. I once again needed a change. Despite the fact that I was making significantly more with this prop deal than at any other site / game, I decided it was time to take a serious run at no limit hold’em. I had made some random, unsuccessful attempts at NL throughout my entire poker experience, but the variance of playing short-handed limit can be unbearable, and to quote a poker-playing friend of mine, “You’re the only person I’ve ever met that plays limit, bro”. I had saved a quote from a post that really stuck with me:

Change sites. Play (alot) less tables. Drop down in stakes (slightly). Think about each decesion. Post hands in strat forums. Limit yourself to a fairly small bankroll and move up in limits quickly (or down if you lose).

Do that for about a month (without falling back into old patterns) and you’ll want to shoot yourself for not doing it a year ago.

He wasn’t kidding. Around Christmas of 2006, I set aside $500 for a run at NLHE. I combined the above advice with my $5.00 limit approach: I started at the bottom, $25NL back at Party (before they had the penny tables ) I read everything I could get my hands on about NLHE, and I am very happy with my results thus far: I’m currently playing $200NL, and I haven’t played a single hand of limit since I deposited that $500 into Party. I am still learning new strategy and concepts about no limit (and poker in general, really) every time I sit down for a session, and my goal is to reach $600NL sometime this summer.

Enough about me. Here’s the meat of this post – if nothing else, please read the section on bonuses & rakeback.

Thanks to http://www.blackjake.net and http://www.casinoebooks.com I am a player that love the game and help gamblers.