Gambling has always been a popular pastime throughout history, but it has always been a hobby that needs to be closely monitored to prevent addiction. Especially now it is so easy to get online and access a casino.
Tips for gambling responsibly
There are three golden rules to ensure a gambling environment is a responsible one.
- Don’t spend more than you can afford to lose
- Don’t chase your losses and
- Quit while you are ahead.
Perhaps rather than golden rules they should be gold, silver and bronze rules, as that is the order of their importance.
Spending more than you can afford on gambling is pretty obviously a daft idea, the dream of a big win can often over shadow the nightmare of a big loss.
It’s very important to stay vigilant when playing at a casino, especially when using an easy access casino. These are very popular now with mobile casinos such as MobileCasino.co.nz popping up everywere.
Although in essence, there isn’t too much difference between a land-based casino and an online casino apart from the obvious, it is much easier to log in and place bets at whatever time. Vigilance against your own temptation is key here.
The silver rule ‘Don’t chase your losses’ may not be as obvious.
Many people seem to think that being a £20 down suddenly means if they bet £20 on a colour on roulette then they will suddenly be back even, again this can soon lead to a £40 loss and so on. It stems from what is known as the Gamblers Fallacy. To think otherwise is to gamble irresponsibly.
Which brings us to the bronze rule ‘Quit while you are ahead’; it is a similar principle.
Just because you are winning doesn’t mean that you are likely to continue to win. At some point you will start to loose, it’s a fact.
There is no such thing as a winning streak; win or lose, it is all a matter of chance.
Quit while you are ahead or risk reversing the trend.
On a final note of caution, gambling should not be considered as an easy route to get yourself out of debt.
That said, ignoring debt problems really can be a recipe for disaster. The problems are unlikely to go away by themselves but they are equally unlikely to be resolved by turning to gambling.
If your need to borrow money is as a result of deeper financial difficulty you’re facing, that your outgoings are consistently exceeding your income, it may be time to take more structured action to tackle your debt problems, seeking professional debt advice if need be.
You can contact organisations such as the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, the National Debtline or the Consumer Credit Counselling Service to get some free, independent advice from the experts.
To recommend that gamblers only spend what they can afford, is itself daft assumption in real life. To not over-spend presupposes that the gambling consumer exactly knows his rate of consumer spending. FOBT’s / slots / pokies do not provide gamblers with a spending record that can reliably show all of their spending, usually.
A gambler in a venue will use cash in his pocket, his debit card, borrowed funds and even money left in his car glove-box…and his credit card if he is allowed. Thus he has no simple, clear way of finding his total gambling spending mostly…until it is way too late.
Gamblers need an ID card for gambling that tallies every amount actually spent…especially on slot machines that are so hypnotically addictive…that take a gambler’s mind off what he is spending.
How does any gambler ‘quit while you are ahead’ in real life context? MOSTLY the gambler is behind…and if he has a win then he re-spends…mostly out of desperation…then later out of addiction!
We need a system across the world like SIngapore uses. Every local gambler has ID / a spending record, is registered, pays a levy, can self-limit spending.. and his family can intervene to stop him spending.
Anything else is a cop out…intended to defy the odds!