Online gambling

Online casinos are the crack cocaine of gambling. They are highly addictive and, because there’s no physical handling of money (or even chips) it’s far too easy to think of the balance simply as a number, rather than your hard earned cash.

Also, people tend to misunderstand the maths behind them. Say you’re playing a slot machine with an RTP (return to player) of 95%. That means that if you stake £100 it’s most likely that you will get £95 back, right?

Wrong! The RTP is calculated over millions of spins and the likelihood of any 100 spins in that sequence equalling it is actually very small.

Also, a big part of the RTP is made up of winning the jackpot. If you’re not lucky enough to do that (and it’s a mathematical certainty that most don’t), then your personal RTP is much, much lower.

My advice is to avoid these things at all costs. And I’m talking from a position of personal experience here too.
 
I meant the punter.

It's unbelievable that someone is allowed to gamble all their cash sitting in there front room and immor

What would that achieve? most punters chose to tax their stake so it was only costing them a quid or two. It wouldn't put people off betting, in fact just make them potentially bet more to cover off what they're losing in tax.

Online casinos are the crack cocaine of gambling. They are highly addictive and, because there’s no physical handling of money (or even chips) it’s far too easy to think of the balance simply as a number, rather than your hard earned cash.

Also, people tend to misunderstand the maths behind them. Say you’re playing a slot machine with an RTP (return to player) of 95%. That means that if you stake £100 it’s most likely that you will get £95 back, right?

Wrong! The RTP is calculated over millions of spins and the likelihood of any 100 spins in that sequence equalling it is actually very small.

Also, a big part of the RTP is made up of winning the jackpot. If you’re not lucky enough to do that (and it’s a mathematical certainty that most don’t), then your personal RTP is much, much lower.

My advice is to avoid these things at all costs. And I’m talking from a position of personal experience here too.


Whilst that is true, the RTP only becomes an issue at larger stakes. You can successfully use RTP values to understand how likely you are able to make a profit out of an offer at minimum stakes. If you do minimum stakes on a 95% RTP slot you'd be very unlucky to lose much and could even turn a small profit, with the profit usually coming from the bonus on offer.
 
My partners best mate lost £140,000 on online gambling trying to chase her losses. It grabbed hold of her so much that she stole the money to play. Her circumstances meant she avoided jail, but it shows how out of hand it can get.
 
My partners best mate lost £140,000 on online gambling trying to chase her losses. It grabbed hold of her so much that she stole the money to play. Her circumstances meant she avoided jail, but it shows how out of hand it can get.

Christ that's mental mate, a friend of mine was playing online roulette and got up to 80 something grand, we went out to celebrate and by the following afternoon it was gone. Insane how it grabs people.
 
What would that achieve? most punters chose to tax their stake so it was only costing them a quid or two. It wouldn't put people off betting, in fact just make them potentially bet more to cover off what they're losing in tax.




Whilst that is true, the RTP only becomes an issue at larger stakes. You can successfully use RTP values to understand how likely you are able to make a profit out of an offer at minimum stakes. If you do minimum stakes on a 95% RTP slot you'd be very unlucky to lose much and could even turn a small profit, with the profit usually coming from the bonus on offer.
It would stop people putting big stakes on things that are heavily odds on as when you factor in the tax you can't win
 
I limit my self at 30 pound a weekend, hit and miss if I win but I have a good record bizarrely on win to nil football accas so normally put a tenner on that on a Saturday then a tenner on a regular accumalator on a Saturday and 2 fiver footy bets on a Sunday, will only bet midweek if I have won on the weekend and I have money in the betting account if not will wait until the next weekend. I can see how people get drawn in though as it is a buzz and not gonna lie, I have missed the feeling of putting my bets on and just seeing how I get on.

To the OP and other posters who have battled and are battling there demons, very well done
 
Hey lost very brave of you to do that.

I could go on forever with my trials and tribulations with gambling. I’m still paying off £30,000 loan to get me out of my last mess and I have blown a lot more than that. I used to be a monitored customers in all betting shops. I have also been to GA.

Anytime you need some advice drop me a msg. I’m not shining example but I know what it’s like... probably way more than you got too as you have tried to stop way earlier

Coops that’s a very, very honest thing to disclose on here and hats off to you for your honesty. Confronting it is the biggest obstacle because we all kid ourselves that next bet or next roll of the dice is the one that’s going to get us ahead.

When I was around 18 or 19 I won £100 on the 4 reel fruit machine in one of the local clubs. 3 weeks later I won £200 at the club a few doors along. This was quite a long time ago and as a student it was a huge amount of money for me.

I started dropping quite a few quid in each night out for quite a while and after a few months I realised my weekends were no longer about seeing my mates they were about playing the fruit machines.

Thankfully I probably didn’t lose too much overall but it frightened me how easy it was to get addicted.

These days I sometimes put a £10 bet on the National and that’s it. Quite often I don’t even do that.

Good luck to all who are struggling with gambling, or indeed any other addiction. One of the best things about the message board has always been that despite people’s different political persuasions, views on the current or previous players, managers or owners, when people have asked for help it comes from so many different people. That is one of the reasons I love this place.
 
It would stop people putting big stakes on things that are heavily odds on as when you factor in the tax you can't win

no it wouldn’t? It didn’t before, why would
It now? People would just bet more to try and beat the tax. When gambling tax was in before people just took it off their stake. They’d just do the same. People will account for the tax in the amount they bet.
 
Christ that's mental mate, a friend of mine was playing online roulette and got up to 80 something grand, we went out to celebrate and by the following afternoon it was gone. Insane how it grabs people.
This isn't what angers me with my friend who is a "gambler". I meet him on a Sat night and he'll tell me he has won £400 on the football that afternoon. I say well done, ask him what he'll spend it on and he tells me that £200 of it is on the Sunday games. Why?

He then goes to the fruit machine. He'll win about £40. Fantastic , now walk away. "But the jackpots £100". So the £40 goes back in.

I have old fashioned views and despise gambling but don't judge and always will believe it is your right to spend your earnings on what ever you want. What I can't stand is people like my mate who do not know when they have "won" and the greed takes over and they think it's not enough and they need to win more. At what point would they decide that's it. There's isn't and that point people need to accept consequences for their actions.
 
no it wouldn’t? It didn’t before, why would
It now? People would just bet more to try and beat the tax. When gambling tax was in before people just took it off their stake. They’d just do the same. People will account for the tax in the amount they bet.
OK, stick a grand on a 1/10 shot. If betting tax is 10% you can't win
 
OK, stick a grand on a 1/10 shot. If betting tax is 10% you can't win

And betting tax was 9% and people can and did.

1/10? why would you bet £1000 on something like that?

sorry just re-read your post and see what you’re saying, I don’t work with fractional odds tbh. Either way you’re putting a 10% tax in for something that’s a small niche of betting industry, wouldn’t stop a lot of gambling
 
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