So I was catching up on extra credits and saw their gambling episode (link at the end) and from it I got the adult equivalent of the Sesame Street problem (kids coming into school and pronouncing the character Z as Zee and not Zed as it is in UK English because they had watched said show). In this case the baseline perception of gambling being the US take on the matter, one rather different to the UK perception and also the Australian one (I am only familiar with it because various shows from The Chaser covered it). Just to clarify where the US seems to have a bit of a religious hangover (see also sex and alcohol) the UK has betting shops on every corner, if you want to gamble with your friends for real money then nobody cares, there are a thousand online betting options that go directly to and from your bank, and you can do it in the pub (many do for pay packets if you get paid in cash) and nobody bats an eyelid really.
Personally I find gambling boring as you like. For whatever reason I can run numbers and analyse games pretty well and money is not something which excites me a great deal. I have no moral objection to it and if with friends in such a place where there is an expectation of play I just write off whatever I put down (which makes the cost per unit time of gambling rather expensive for the fun obtained). To that end any real interaction I have is when the gambling companies screw up and their enticement offers I can abuse for some free cash*, or when gambling is used as an end run around some kind of system (the concept of spread betting being basically a mirror of the stock market which allows anybody to play the market if they want to, https://www.theguardian.com/busines...-spread-betting-why-do-most-people-lose-money covers some of it).
The psychology of it, the anthropology of it (where do you think all the money for those "beat the house" TV shows and films comes from?) and the interactions of the gambling world with the system I find to be rather fascinating.
*older one but at a time they offered matched bets (they match what you put in). Simple game 2:1 odds, win or lose outcome (no draw). You bet 5 in one place, matched to make 10, 5 in another set the other way and also matched to pay 10. 20 gets paid either way, you only put in 10 and thus walk away 10 richer regardless of the outcome.
At the same time said episode covered some of the skins based gambling in games that I was largely unaware of, certainly unaware of the mechanics of. From where I sit it I have no care for skins if they are not functionally altering the game, and indeed the attempts to instil some visual appeal tend to make me more visible so forget that one.
Video
To that end topic of the thread is talk some on gambling. Most things will fly here if they are gambling related.
Personally I find gambling boring as you like. For whatever reason I can run numbers and analyse games pretty well and money is not something which excites me a great deal. I have no moral objection to it and if with friends in such a place where there is an expectation of play I just write off whatever I put down (which makes the cost per unit time of gambling rather expensive for the fun obtained). To that end any real interaction I have is when the gambling companies screw up and their enticement offers I can abuse for some free cash*, or when gambling is used as an end run around some kind of system (the concept of spread betting being basically a mirror of the stock market which allows anybody to play the market if they want to, https://www.theguardian.com/busines...-spread-betting-why-do-most-people-lose-money covers some of it).
The psychology of it, the anthropology of it (where do you think all the money for those "beat the house" TV shows and films comes from?) and the interactions of the gambling world with the system I find to be rather fascinating.
*older one but at a time they offered matched bets (they match what you put in). Simple game 2:1 odds, win or lose outcome (no draw). You bet 5 in one place, matched to make 10, 5 in another set the other way and also matched to pay 10. 20 gets paid either way, you only put in 10 and thus walk away 10 richer regardless of the outcome.
At the same time said episode covered some of the skins based gambling in games that I was largely unaware of, certainly unaware of the mechanics of. From where I sit it I have no care for skins if they are not functionally altering the game, and indeed the attempts to instil some visual appeal tend to make me more visible so forget that one.
Video
To that end topic of the thread is talk some on gambling. Most things will fly here if they are gambling related.