I always knew in the back of my head that online (sports) gambling was a thing, but I didn't realize how . . . prevalent and easy it seems to be to access these days. After finding out some friends and family really getting into it and watching some of these, I think I will go back into my blissful cave of ignorance.
I'm shocked at the amount of gambling you can do at home now with your phone. A friend was at my house the other day and told me about how you could basically just put your credit card on your phone and bankrupt yourself from your couch
I guess I'm old, what's the 2nd video? Never seen that before.
Slots scare me, way too random. And blackjack can be fun, but you can run bad there, too.
I've had a friend get carried away with gambling blackjack before. It's scary. I had to stop him from continuing throwing money. It's a dark place to be.
I played OLG's online blackjack and while it's supposedly regulated, and I was playing about $0.50-$2 a hand, I swear I lost about 20 hands in a row, which is improbable. I'm in no way a gambler and generally go with the expectation of losing but this was annoying to think could happen, which it did. Online gambling is quite concerning in general, but I guess coming out of the pandemic, the government is looking at alternate ways of revenue, even at the cost of social problems. While I have no idea what the answer is, the current state of affairs where they have their checkbox marked for doing their due diligence by putting a link to "if you have a gambling problem click here", is not enough.
That last video, I don't understand just spinning slots for hours and hours. The game is setup over time so the house always wins. The longer you play, the more the odds favour that 95% ratio, or whatever they are taking. You are pretty much guaranteeing yourself a loss. But I guess the math gets blurrier when you add in your streaming revenue. Maybe it's enough to offset losses? Obviously not the 10 million on this one.
I've never understood gambling that kind of money. I have gambled, but would set hard limits. When I was in Vegas, I had $100/day for whatever sort of gambling I wanted, and got all the gambling fix I could want playing nickel or quarter slots.
I just can't fathom risking that kind of money. Even the middle one, 50K, would be a huge change/bump in my life plans...how the hell can someone gamble that? The other two? 1 mill and 10 mill? I just...I don't get it.
Isn't half the fun of gambling the experience of going to the venue itself? The flashy lights. The dinging on jackpot bells. Cocktail waitresses walking around serving drinks. A buffet in some corner. People smoking cigarettes while playing slots.
Sitting at home on your couch at home playing slots on your laptop or phone for real money just seems so lame. More sad than anything.
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Isn't half the fun of gambling the experience of going to the venue itself? The flashy lights. The dinging on jackpot bells. Cocktail waitresses walking around serving drinks. A buffet in some corner. People smoking cigarettes while playing slots.
Sitting at home on your couch at home playing slots on your laptop or phone for real money just seems so lame. More sad than anything.
It is sad, because they may have started their addiction at the casino, but why leave the house when you can get the same adrenaline hit at home?
I played OLG's online blackjack and while it's supposedly regulated, and I was playing about $0.50-$2 a hand, I swear I lost about 20 hands in a row, which is improbable. I'm in no way a gambler and generally go with the expectation of losing but this was annoying to think could happen, which it did. Online gambling is quite concerning in general, but I guess coming out of the pandemic, the government is looking at alternate ways of revenue, even at the cost of social problems. While I have no idea what the answer is, the current state of affairs where they have their checkbox marked for doing their due diligence by putting a link to "if you have a gambling problem click here", is not enough.
Are you talking animated BJ Or live dealer? I wouldn’t play the animated but I’ve played live dealer a few times while drunk with friends and had similar results as the casino.
Are you talking animated BJ Or live dealer? I wouldn’t play the animated but I’ve played live dealer a few times while drunk with friends and had similar results as the casino.
It was animated. Myself and the "dealer", that's it. Terrible stuff really. I'm sure it's vetted, but I'm also skeptical given my experience.
It is sad, because they may have started their addiction at the casino, but why leave the house when you can get the same adrenaline hit at home?
I think an even bigger issue is that a lot of these new online gamblers probably didn't start at the casino. Loot-boxes in video games. Cryptocurrency gambling. Meme stocks on Reddit. These type of streams. We saw it with the NHL this year and their gambling commercials. Heck even Pokemon cards. There's a lot of gambling that is being viewed, if not targeted, at a demographic too young to even go to the casino.
A lot of these Twitch gamblers were the type playing Fortnite not long ago.
xQc for example was the most watched streamer on Twitch in the last two years. He started off playing League of Legends and Overwatch, probably had a demographic consisting of many 14 year olds. Now according to him he's gambled hundreds of millions of dollars on stream. And he was being sponsored by the casino. Now as his demographic of viewers have aged, there's likely an unfortunate number who are addicted prior to even stepping into a casino.
Even a lot of these gambling streams/videos are fake with inflated numbers or bankrolls being backed by the casino with limited risk to the streamer. They get money from the casino sponsorship, views and donations, so they have limited risk even when you watch them lose a million (if it's real at all). Of course their viewers don't have the same safety nets.
Actually my YouTube suggestions are almost always gambling related. I do actively watch Poker streams, so fair enough, and I'll occasionally watch some type of huge priced trading card unboxing despite never playing. But for some reason I'm getting coin pushers now that can have a million views. They started off with "500 dollar buy ins" and are now trying to one up each other with "million dollar buy ins", it's about as real as WWE, but another weird ass gambling thing that kids are seeing.
I'm glad that some of the "think of the children" politicians have taken notice of the loot boxes and are enacting positive change, but even then it's not always happening:
I guess the goal could be to hedge your epic losses by making your youtube video go viral? Maybe that covers the house or something lol. I'd never touch this crap haha
I guess the goal could be to hedge your epic losses by making your youtube video go viral? Maybe that covers the house or something lol. I'd never touch this crap haha
As you bet higher and higher, you tend to get better odds (always losing odds though). High stakes betters will get "bonuses", access to special games, etc...
The thinking from the house is that if they take .2% of a million it's better than 2% of $1000.
These high end gamblers are likely making a lot of their cash through twitch, not youtube. They'll launch a live event, where they bet $1 million+...and yes, typically come out losing, although not as much as you'd think, as they'll only play games with preferred betting rates for high stakes gamblers.
There could also be shadier stuff going on, with the gambling sites providing sponsorship. You've also got money laundering issues with cryptocurrencies being used for gambling.
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I feel the prevalence of gacha games is really going to breed a new generation of gamblers and will become an even bigger problem later on. Gacha games is essentially gambling aimed at kids, and is taking advantage of human nature addictions for monetary gain.
A game like Genshin Impact has generated something like 3 billion in revenues so far, which is insane. Once they're older, some of those kids will probably move onto other gambling venues to fuel the addiction.
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I play Pokerstars sit and goes (holdem) from time to time, small buy ins. Tried their live blackjack tables once, pretty impressive technology. Did OK but concluded playing that way is a good way to lose lots of money.
I prefer the live games but too many casinos are using those auto shuffling machines and its turned me off even live blackjack.
The real live games are fun because you sit with people, can order a beverage, and have fun with your friends.
Drake is constantly making wild, huge parlay bets on his social media. I'm convinced this is an advertising scheme to associate status with making huge, incredibly stupid bets.
Gambling is the lowest form of degeneracy and exploitation, no one ever put 100 Grand worth of heroin in their arm in one night.
What I find particularly devastating about this form of gambling is how much info they can gather about you.
I read an article a few years back by a guy who was involved with creating software that would essentially allow the casino to track your behaviours. They could figure out your limits, let you win a couple hands when you were getting close to the edge, or determine when you had a bad beat and took a couple weeks off (then of course send you a coupon via email for a free night at their hotel). They could even tell through behaviour patters when somebody would go into rehab for their gambling addiction, which of course would trigger a physical mail campaign to their address.
This all relied on the casino signing the gambler up for a (heavily incentivized) loyalty program of sorts to track them. Of course, if the user goes the online route, that particular barrier is removed.
The difference between a guy who gambles to kill a couple hours and have some thrills and a guy who gambles to eliminate suffering in his life is vast. The companies that exploit this are no different than the drug dealer who hangs outside Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
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Online Gambling
