Topic: Why do we lose at gambling? (Read 384 times)

It wont be called gambling if someone wont able to lose because when we do mention or do talk about winning then theres always the other side which is losing.
Gambling is a business and they wont really be making out one if they wont able to make profits and of course there are lots of factors that would affect someones
winning rate or chances. Those things above are pretty common or which been really experienced by most specially that chasing losses behavior.
Everytime we do get engaged or do play gambling then its really hard to ignore that we wont really get affected on losing bets.Money is valuable and its just
normal for us to reach on that time but dont go overboard because if you do let yourself to lose control then you would definitely be losing up even more.

Losing is just the way gambling works, if you're not alosing, is it really gambling? At some point in your run you'll encounter losses, heck maybe a lot of them too. But if you realize that it is not about winning more but is about controlling yourself to lose less games, you'll start to see the difference. Not losing is winning, so if you keep your losses in check, perhaps through self-control or whatnot, best believe you'll be getting the dough!

The hardest thing that the average loser faces are their greed...
gamblers who lose on average when playing gambling must have gotten a 'winning time' when gambling but when their greed is stronger than their logic then all they do is continue gambling. stopping when winning is the best moment and opportunity to feel profitable.

In gambling, there are winners as well as losers. You can't keep your winning fund with you until you can control your greed. Loss is involved in everything but those who can control themselves from this loss can get good results everywhere. I myself have won many gambling games but due to my greed that winning money has ended up being lost. The gambler who can control his greed can win a lot of money while gambling. It doesn't matter which platform he is playing on.

Even if you take it as a way to kill time, you will still be losing money if you experience the losing streak which everybody does. Users who say they are only using TRX to gamble often thought of just Rolling the dice like maniacs never noticing how much they've lost actually. They think they are passing time but still chases the loss until 50K TRX gone on their wallet.  There is no quitting after that so why do we lose? Because we gamble.

I agree. I think there are lots of people like you and me who just keep going in the hope to recoup the loses. Clearly, this is not a very productive way and it is. better to just move on with a fresh and calm mind.

This is why I agree with the OP that gambling should be taken as something to pass time and have fun with, reasons such as to get rich isn't not going to end in the way you want. So, yeah, all the 7 points are right on!

The idea is that gambling is a zero-sum game and if someone is winning money, then someone is losing it. Every gambling game is built so that the casino will never lose and that is why in most cases the person who comes to the casino leaves with nothing. As you correctly noted winning will only help self-control and knowledge of game theory.

Well, I agree with most of the points but I am never too concerned with losing at gambling because its just a form of pure entertainment for me and its like asking someone who love watching movies, why do we lose money when we buy movie tickets? Its obvious these platforms are made to entertain us and yeah we can win but the overall outcome is quite obvious and that is why there is a house edge.

Chasing losses is something we do when we lost more than we expected or initially thought we would so my advice would be to just deposit what you are absolutely happy losing and in case you lose, just remember you meant to lose it and move on.

I reckon that I mentioned this to struggling gambling players about the cycle of winning/losing.

The problem with a winning/losing streak in gambling is it creates this illusion that a player must continue in order to win more or to recover his/her losses. In such circumstance, the player risks again himself and believes the fact that he may win again or recover his losses. However, the more you gamble, the more you increase the chances of putting yourself at this kind of cycle.

Gambling must be paired with discipline and self-control. The more you gamble with the mindset of recovering your losses, the result will most likely be you, losing more than what you expected.

Chasing losses is my main guy here. I don't know that the term for the strategy I am using is Martingale and I thought I would be able to take back my losses but that also came with a huge risk. We have these betting systems that we use but if you are playing games that entirely rely on luck, better not hope you'll get much of your money that you lost.

I am sure all gamblers have experienced losses when playing gambling, losing in gambling is a common thing. Because indeed the casino system is
made for gamblers who often suffer losses. So don't worry too much, as long as we use the money that we can afford to lose. In my opinion, there is
no need to stress if we experience losses when playing gambling. Because it is best to play gambling only as entertainment, and don't make gambling
a source of income.

All your comments are true, but gamblers that are losing still have one thing connected to them which is not greed. Some people are not greedy, like me I am not greedy but I still lose. I was losing until I total realized gambling is not a profession. I thought I can make it in life if I am gambling, but it only brought wrath upon me. Gambling should never be a profession, or bad mindset will set in even without the person knowing until he lose again, then blaming himself. Gambling should just be for fun, for entertainment, not even thinking to win but to have fun with quality predictions. Because the professional ones can lose while the outcome would have the better odds. Anything can just happen in gambling. I bet with low amount of money, I remember when I predict the correct scores and I won it, all because I use low amount that I did not even care to lose, but yet win.

Those are great advices which many experienced gamblers already know but unfortunately cannot abide by those let’s say boundaries.I am one of them and the reason I can’t follow the advices here is because I want to feel the adrenaline of slot machines and luck based games which you can’t if you abide by those boundaries.

You posts like you are not advertising gambling site and no idea how gambling works.

Yeah the House is indeed making Money from the gamblers but there are still wayrs to prevent losing more and that is the point of this Thread , He is not fixing about the mistakes but letting gambler to know the areas where they can possibly win over gambling.
Have you read the thread? or just a BS title ? who says you will never lose? this is the problem in some advertiser now in which just posting without knowledge in thread  they are replying.
Quit? or you mean stop for a while?

So are you trying to fix your mistakes you made on the list to win more? It is not going to happen. No matter what "startegies" or "techniques" you use, you will always lose in the long run since the house always wins due to the house edge.
So stop thinking that you will no longer "lose" if you manage to counter the problems you have faced before. You will still lose if you keep on playing. So make sure once you make your profit (or enough loss), cashin your profits and quit.

This hit me in my frailest body part. 
Yes, it's the worst of all.
I did it in dice, sports betting or even just our local card games here in our country.

You just want to get it all back so you double the bet to get a bit of a win. That is if you win.
It's a good experience though and you will learn from it. But not on the second time. Not even in the third time.
Bad decisions filled with emotions just clouds your mind.

I think this is an acceptable Loss because at least you bet on your Love team/player , this will take as a risked betting that if you win then double the fun because your team win and you also gain, but if you lose then it is a single one in that is sadness for your loved team.
I always fall from this because i am the type of person that don't wanna accept defeat that easy, i always look for a chance to recover of take at least even and same  learning from my past experiences , now i know that this is not a way how to deal in gambling and i'm teaching my self to control the eagerness and let lose a day than lose everything .

Back when I was still a regular in some gambling houses, chasing losses is my biggest problem although those days were already bad so it translates into my games which is not good for me. One thing that OP forgot about why we lose at gambling is because it is gambling which is by definition playing to win with uncertain income.

Four of these in the list applies to me I'm still trying to improve daily.

But the most proper answer, besides our weak mind, is that the odds are against us, and in the long run, we are doomed to lose.

The biggest hurdle in playing is to keep your mind set no matter what the situation the only way to win is to enjoy the game in the past, betting was seen as a form of general entertainment but quickly it became a regular gamble millions of rupees are gambled in a few villages centered on a bullfight. There is a class of people in its management at first it was an instant arrangement but gradually it turned into organized gambling. That's why you have to go ahead with everything that is gambling.

These are all good observations. I enjoy gambling but am not a degenerate about it so I do not come across these scenarios too often. For me the most important point has been bankroll management. I am always making mental calculations of how much I can afford to risk and make adjustments accordingly.

This is the most simple explanation that most people who lost in gambling does. Because they've been thinking about it all day, how they will get back the money they've lost the other day and if they might win by chance, they cannot stop themselves from playing again to thinking that they might win some more. Usually, that's the reason why they've lost over and over again because of such mindsets. Furthermore, the idea behind it is being normalized in the gambling industry and people who often lose, cannot help but play again which will make them addicted in the long run.

but we cant gain an experience either if we are not going to try the game for the first time but of course we need to read and watch a mini tutorial if possible to get an idea atleast if how the game has been done  .

 eventually you came to a point that you already know the game properly but are you sure that your now going to win at all times ? yes you are but the main point is that we can still loose in a gambling game but trying hard really pays off .

Above everything ? this is what i think is the main reason why majority of failed in gambling keeps on failing ,
because they cannot control the lust and the negativity in which the sole reason why they always chasing the losses and eventually losing everything .

If we can only control our self and admit that days aren't every luck ?
sure we will have less losers and Gambling operators will not bag so much money from our own mistakes.

not really , because if you are truly concern about your funds and your future in gambling? then you must literally learn the basic and that is
how to control self in gambling.

Parlays.
I really love them. It increases a huge amount of the winning prize for even a low budget bet.  
Yeah, it takes a lot of risks but with knowledge of what you are doing it can be profitable.
It also makes the game more exciting just thinking about your parlay slowly winning while watching live.

When it comes to parlaying I always remember Adam Sandler from the movie Uncut Gems.
Damn, that was really risky for a huge bet.

I think one of the reasons why most of us lose at gambling is bevause of lack of knowledge. We intend to plah the game eventhough we don't have any background about it. People always look only on rhe profit that they will make but not on the process and risky of playing it. Gambling is one of the most easiest way of earningmoney and making your saving a lot but also it is the most risky way because in just a snap, you can lose all of uour assets. But for those people who have a lot of money, they most commonly lost a lot because of being greedy. They didn't know how to handle money and become greedy so resultingto losing it very fast.

There are many things that can make us experience losses when playing gambling, from all the lists that the opening post mentioned, to be honest,
almost entirely I have experienced it. Indeed, sometimes we have to make mistakes first to be able to make us know how to win in gambling.
The thing I do most often is chasing losses, because basically I really hate losing. So sometimes I can't control my emotions and try to make up
for the losses I've experienced. But as we know this will only make our losses even greater. So I thank the opening post for reminding me of the things
that caused me to suffer losses when playing gambling.

So far the most problem I encounter was "bankroll management" and "chasing losses" it's the most common thing do happen when I am losing at gambling. To be honest, these two can be summarize as greed and that's all there is to it. Though this is manageable but psychologically I think it's sometimes unavoidable when you caught up on it, it's like you get into an addiction.

Betting because you are bored is going to be a large part of it, theres a time when you have the best chance of success and a time when you should walk away for a moment to collect yourself and take a break for food etc.   People pushing their luck and trying to win one more without any system to their actions is when its most unlikely to turn out ok.    Cant really tell people not to do that exactly but I would say money management to not bet high when you are so casual, thats quite reasonable and will raise your profitability overall.

That is the hardest thing that we must learn because even though we can control ourselves, someday we can lose control, and we will tempt to play gambling for longer. We can forget to control ourselves because we can get some money, leading us to spend more money. I have those experiences in the past, but I don't want to get that experience as I know that I will lose more money if I still do that.

Besides that, chasing the loss will not be recommended to make us get more losses in the next rounds. There is no guarantee for us to recover our losses, but there is a guarantee for us to get more losses.

I find it very confusing to talk about self-control in gambling which is difficult and not easy to say because it relates to the money at stake which is badly needed and sacrificed if you lose.
and greed will make us lose control because of the ambition to continue to win which in the end will lose everything and everything that happens without us knowing it, all that will happen when gambling and rely only on luck to win it.

I'd actually disagree with this since the notion of "winning money" and "winning"  is completely different. See gambling money became an issue if your goal was to "win money". There's only a thin line between the two imo, but once someone goes past that, well there'd only be a single result, a gambling addict, though you're financial situation may prove to split that result into two, the other being a rich person being able to afford gambling like that.

On the topic of what's making you lose though, isn't the fact that we're already gambling result in us already losing? I mean, gambling fully defines the chances of you winning always being at 50/50. I suppose the only way for one to not really lose is to not play at all.
There have been cases like that in fact. Can't really find it right now, but there have been instances where rich people spend an enormous amount of money on gambling, lose, then the casino would invite them to play more but offering them zero house edge ("to make him play more"). Afaik that was an example real-life case of a gambler winning against the casino.

We have different reasons why we lose. But I ended losing always because of my greediness. Yes, we are winning but we wanted to win more. Ending? Lose all funds.   that's the reality.
Although, huge bank roll is an advantage but we can't really beat the house and they always win. And strategies doesn't last long, too. You win at first but rage bets always there and beat you up.

What is the remedy? Self control. And setting 10% profit computed in your bank roll is easy to achieve if we aren't that greedy.

is there a trusted casino with zero house edge ? because all the trusted casino that we have today are all have an house edge but the house edge of them are not the same because there are casino that offer less than 1 % house edge and there are casino with games that have over 2 % house edge  . i have tried playing on different house edge and i can be able to win  but if we want to play gambling we need to prepare to loose and no need for us to ask our selves that why we loose because we dont ask our self why we win if we win

Chasing the losses is the big thing that leads to massive loss. This happens much on casino games than sports betting, because the outcome is immediately known. When one goes in chase of the losses, automatically the player losses his control. This leads to increase in the Betting value, and finally have no chance of recovering. If the user think about it once, he'll not proceed further.

One of the most common reason but there are people whom do deny that they arent chasing their losses and saying that they do just play out for enjoyment but the truth deep inside
is that they are thriving to make profits and trying to break even. 

Why we do lose in Gambling? Its simple "because we arent that lucky enough" neither you do play luck based ones or strategic ones then luck is one of the main factor for you to win.

Though, there are differences between the two in talking of chance or odds of winning basing off on what you are doing.Strategic can really be different.

This is the most common reason why we lose. When we gamble and we lose for the first, second and nth time, there's only one goal that we all want to do. And that is to take back our losses and play again.

It keeps going and going until we will not realize it quickly that we're losing. This is for most of the games, dice, sports betting, poker and other casino games that are fun to play but when we have this mindset, it's really making us lose a lot.

A lot of us have won parlays before but like you've said it's not the best strategy even though we have the knowledge or information in each game and which team is likely going to win it could still backfire. If we look at the overall situation it's just not worth as each parlay loss adds up, knowing we could've turn most of our losing parlays in to profits or at least break even instead of losing straight up. Teasers on the other hand does help if you follow a certain criteria.

I'm not like this. Random betting might end up eating my whole funds.

I always stick to the sports that I have knowledge of. No need to jump on some special events since the goal is to make profits on every bet.

But maybe l will change my mind if ever there's something special or promotions on that event.

A good list, I think it will be useful for beginners to familiarize themselves with it. This will not help them win (since the reason for losing is always the same - the advantage of the casino and it cannot be eliminated), but at least they will better understand the principles of gambling and will be able to stretch the pleasure (especially with proper money management).

This is already a basic rule. There's no money on heavy favorites so I don't get why others are still doing this.

Heavy favorites on sports betting sometimes only have an odds of less than @1.3. Won't risk a big bet for a small profit. And that kind of odds is not a safe bet if others looked at that way. Since I'm gambling, then take the risk at high odds or on fair odds like @1.8 above.

I felt guilty because I almost the same as what you have mentioned above and those 7 criteria that we mostly do and lose.

The words that help me to avoid depositing the big amount and I guess made us frustrated is that we don't have a limit, it should this, "gamble only an amount that you can afford" it's either win or loss at least, you will not chase your losses.

Why do we lose in gambling?
This proves that gambling isn't designed that you made always to win, it's just a kind of entertainment.

I think one of the reasons people keep gambling despite the fact that we know that we're going to lose money over the long term is that unless you keep track of every single bet that you made in the casino you're not going to realize how much money you have lost over the months or the years, so you don't really feel like a loser, another reason for this is that if you have your gambling under control then the money you are losing while gambling is not really that different from the money that you could spend doing anything else in order to entertain yourself with a different activity, at least in gambling you have a chance to get even more money back than what you had at the beginning, which is a plus in the minds of many people.

I think we are all guilty of that. Chasing losses as we are hoping that we will get back our money and win.
But for me, I only have specific bankroll for every game. So when I lost it all, it means, it is time to stop my game for that moment.
No depositing again but wait  for the time that I have extra funds for my gambling.
This is how I cut further losses in gambling. I just allot funds for gambling. After that, stop.
But the bad thing is, I don't usually withdraw when I am winning, I continue to play up until I lost it all.

I don't deposit more but lose it like 50% lost, so I don't stop and keep trying to get back my bankroll and sometimes make 400% of the remaining bankroll which is 200% of initial bankroll. Yeah I get mad a lot when I lose everything. I have prepared a chart and have written almost all my mistakes that I commit during gambling but I am still unable to follow them and there is just one reason that makes me chase my losses - greed. We cannot control our emotions when we gamble and it pinches in our mind to stand up, try again to win back the loss and then withdraw. My problem is that I never withdraw even after winning back my bankroll.

I can relate myself with you because when we are chasing loses there usually comes a time when we actually end up covering our losses but then we start thinking of making some extra and that's where the end usually occurs. I remember playing a few months back when I lost around $40 and to recover them I deposited like $200 and I was quite happy to recover by sports betting and was sitting pretty at around $280 but then I just kept betting for some reason and lost everything.

I believe the cycle of recovering loss works like this - Loss -> Deposit more -> Recover -> Play more -> Bust everything -> Get mad lol .

You should give some inputs too on one of the listed above so that it won't be turned out you just copy the thread and paste it here.


Totally disagree here. Parlays aren't really a money-making betting strategy but there are cases where there are bets that worth doing a parlay especially if you have knowledge on those set of games.

Won a few parlays before because of my knowledge. It's not a sure win but knowledge about those available bets is an advantage and can increase our chance of winning.

Those of us who are indicted on this will be more becasue the spirit of greed's has done more harm to millions of gamblers than we think, most of my winnings are quite okay compare to my gambling portfolio but becasue of me chasing looses always get me rekt.

Also, separating my emotions from gambling is one of the hardest am yet to conquer, i usually put into play my emotions during gambling and mostly lose out.

Chasing losses has been the best example that suits everyone's situation including me. I try to chase my losses and sometimes even double my portfolio, but greed never lets me stop at that point and I decide to gamble further and when I get under my capital again, I try to chase my loss with higher bets and lose all of it.

All 7 apply to me, I'm afraid  

The worst one and the one I do most frequently is also "chasing losses", I tried a lot of strategies (especially in dice) that are basically build on this rule, e.g. Martingale strategy: it is designed to chase your losses, that's the whole point of it, the way I see it. It never worked for me, I always ended up losing in the end with this approach.

Also, there's another one for me, it's like the opposite of the rule "chasing losses" and somewhat similar to "betting locks", I'd call it "chasing wins".
 
Whenever I win big I get this feeling like "finally, the luck is on my side", which is completely wrong, there's no such thing as luck, there's pure probability.

But, nevertheless, emotions make us do stupid things, so with this feeling, I start making risky bets with lower odds to increase the win or increase the bet itself, even though the logical move would be to decrease the bet after the win.

It doesn't always work, however, it's better than to do the opposite and it's more logical, even though the laws of probability tell us that the outcome isn't dependent on history, and each time the probability is the same if conditions and rules are the same.

"Hello fellow degens.

I was going through a post about losing and how gambling should strictly be for entertainment. You treat it as such and you cannot get too hurt gambling. It is great advice and I will not argue against it, especially if you do not care about winning and just want to pass time or bet on your team. However, for me if I didn't think I could profit I wouldn't do it because losing isn't fun. And I mean that strictly from a long-term perspective. Of course you cannot win everyday but weeks, months, or years of losing should make any sane person quit.

I wanted to think about things I've done which have made me lose at gambling. Here is my list:

    Winners Demand an Edge: That was a quote from a poker book I once read called 'The Psychology of Poker'. If you want to win, playing casino games with a house edge is a big no-no. In sports betting, it means getting the best of the number by having multiple books. In poker, it means finding soft games you can beat. Ultimately it means if you are putting yourself into a position where losing is inevitable, don't do it! Also you need to maximize your EV whenever possible.

    Bankroll Management: I think a conservative bankroll to have is 50X and bet between 1-2 units. If you lose say half, in poker you move down a level. In sports betting, you lower your bets. Also, you cannot build it up if you are constantly taking money out of it. I have definitely broken this rule a million times.

    Bridge-Jumping: In horse betting this is a term for betting on a heavy favorite to show and collecting your 5% (say you bet $200, it returns $210). It works well until your horse doesn't hit the board and you need to win the next 20 to break-even. I tried this strategy to clear bonuses and it blew up in my face. In sports betting it means betting heavy ML favorites for a small return. Don't do it!

    Parlays: Parlays are money makers for casinos. If you are trying to win, don't do them. Even with correlated parlays, I would argue they should only be done infrequently and for .5 unit or less. You are still introducing variance into your bankroll, which means you need a bigger bankroll for the inevitable swings. Not doing any parlays I think is the best advice.

    Betting for Action: Not every event is profitable so you need to pick your spots. I love the Blazers but I will not bet them if I don't think the bet is +EV. Only bet after you have done your research and feel it is a good bet. Don't bet just because something is on.

    Chasing losses: This is the worst one for me personally. When I lose, I tilt (goes for poker too). You cannot win chasing losses where you bet because you are pissed and want to get your money back. You can get your money back but it might take a couple days or even a week. The old cliche is true, this is a marathon and not a sprint. Don't tilt.

    Betting Locks: This breaks rule #2 which inevitably leads to rule #6. You see something you think is a lock so you bet some stupid amount like half your bankroll. It loses, you tilt and bet the remainder on something you only feel lukewarm about and it loses. And you are down to zero, having to sell HJs on the corner to rebuild your bankroll. Okay, that last part isn't true...right? But seriously, if you stick to good bankroll management, one bet losing shouldn't piss you off or winning one bet should not make you extremely happy.

I appreciate any comments and please let me know if you can add anything else that makes us lose."

this was posted on reddit by u/jmotrain.

I agree with everything he says and thought it would be very helpful for fellow degens here. Thoughts?