Need advice from Those who know!

[Help Needed]

I just want some advice about online gambling here in the UK. I have been set the daunting task to explain why online gaming is so popular - who does it and how. We are making a tv Series and so far been to Vegas and learnt all about the slots and the tables and the head to head attraction of gambling but obviously the new technology means most gambling happens from the comfort of home.

I'm also bored of tired programmes peddling same myths of gambling - any help to be a bit fresher and also surprise an audience with the fact that those who gamble are diverse, happy, successful and can be lucky would be gratefully received.

Won't ramble on but fingers crossed this may be of interest.


Best,


John

johnhodgson@tigeraspect.co.uk

[Dice Man]

Let me see: you already mention that people can gamble in the comfort of their own homes. I think the biggest factor in the rise of gambling is that it's so easy to do; it's being covertly introduced without people really recognising it. I mean, it's not just because of the internet: it's the ability to deposit and withdraw within 30 seconds. Presumably one could deposit, play one hand and leave it there having won some money for seemingly no effort.

Perhaps you could address the general social opinions on the morality of gambling, and their changes within the last 20 years. Labour seem to think it's a good thing to build super casinos. I heard something or nothing the other day about some casino representatives claiming local church leaders had offered support for the building of casinos, only for those church people to say this had nothing to do with them straight after. What's all that about?

In the world of business and economics if you want to sell a product or service you have to tell the people that they want it and give reasons for why they should buy in. With online poker the businesses portray the single consumer as being capable of being a shark, inviting them to come and beat all the fish at their website or whatever. Everybody ends up thinking they're a shark and everybody (or most of the others) are fish. How could that ever be possible? You hear poker commentators on TV say stuff like "he beat hundreds of top quality players to get here". How could they be all be top quality?

They market the game as a test of intelligence, nerve and instincts. Who doesn't think they have high intelligence, nerve and great instincts? How could anyone not believe they had great instincts? You hear commentators say "his game is mostly 'feel', he just knows when he's ahead and behind.", and the average fish out there thinks "wow if they can do it without being a maths genius then so can I. I have good 'feel' too."

I think if you did a programme concentrating on gullibility and self-belief, and how corporations exploit these you would be on to something good. I don't think the majority of gamblers are successful or happy. How can they be when punters' monetary input has to equal punters' income plus business profits? You should find out stats like how much money PartyPoker has made, and how much money has gone in. Subtract the first from the second and you find out how much has come back out, divide by the number of users, and you get the average profit, which is certainly negative. Apply a normal distribution to the result and you should find a good estimate of the number of gamblers who are successful. I'd weakly estimate about 20%, where 15% of those don't really qualify as being successful as they're close to even, and in poker nowadays the only criterion for success is being word champion or something equally hard to acheive.

[Dice Man]

I just got some stats in. I don't know how respectable this quote is though:

"Curtis estimates that 99 percent of what's offered in casinos and other legal betting venues is what he terms negative expectation games, meaning that over the long haul, the house will harvest anywhere from 1 percent to 60 percent of money gambled. Americans who failed to appreciate this fact lost $55 billion in legal wagering in 1998, or about $203 for each man, woman, and child. Losses have mounted every year for the last two decades, largely because legal gambling has exploded in that period. Today, all but three states--Hawaii, Utah, and Tennessee--offer legal gaming in some form. In 1998, 63 percent of Americans reported having gambled in the previous year."

If only 63% admitted gambling then that $203 becomes $320 loss per person who has admitted gambling in the USA in 1998. So the average gambler is not successful, and probably not happy, at least as regards their gambling)

[Hedonist]

Another reason why online gambling is so popular and will become more so is the fact that kids nowadays are bought up playing computer games.

It is a small step from using the computer to play Tetris or Half Life to play on a gambling site.