Gambling is something I have come to consider horrible. Every day, I hear about people who gamble and ruin their lives. Everything is possible. A woman from her prison cell says that she used to rob banks to fund her addiction. She can’t help but feel guilty. She couldn’t help but get involved. She wanted to be taken into custody. She’s Despair.
For a while, I have been thinking differently about gambling. This is not “pure gambling,” such as online gambling, casinos, lottery tickets, or online gambling. Gambling is an integral part of healthy, hopeful living.
My partner and I are starting a business. This is a risky venture. It will take our time and our lives. I am also building this site – Elsa’s Creative Emporium. Another big gamble with creativity, time, and energy. Columbus set sail for America. His wager was that he would land in the Far East. Although he didn’t achieve what he wanted, the gamble paid off for him and the Europeans.
Designers’ design The risk: The market will accept the plan. Farmers plant seeds. The bet: the season will be great.
People fall in beloved and are determined to live together – it’s one of the riskiest decisions in life.
Many people prefer a steady income. Please, no gambling. You can do so and so many times an hour. Anything else feels dangerous, out of control, and wrong. They shudder and recoil; how can they live like this?
One observation. People don’t want their work time to be gambled with. They desire a steady, reliable income. They also have an intense urge to gamble, sometimes overwhelming, and want a stable, dependable income.
This means that many people who desire a steady income spend large amounts of their daily earnings on gambling.
It’s for fun. It’s my right.” I have the right to do with my money what I please.” It was mine, after all. It’s mine.” Everyone has the right to have fun every once in a while. All the hours I work. I deserve something.”
Even though many people don’t want to work “on a gambling” (building businesses, creating creative projects that may never pay), they continue to gamble in ways that will make the vast majority of people lose.
The majority of the world lives “on a bet” or with as little certainty as possible. For example, traditional gatherer-hunting societies have the relative reliability of gathering (which produces about 90% of the food supply) and the risk of hunting for 10% of the average food supply. Every year is different, even when it comes to the gathering. You will get a steady, reliable payoff (salary and berries, etc.).This is not the norm.
Now we’re back to the gambling. The type of gambling that I’m used to calling “pure gambling” is what I will refer to. This means that one does not try to make a sale, build websites, or businesses, nor do they hope for a response from another. Pure gambling is casinos, lotteries, and slot machines. It is important to win in a game against you. Nothing is built except for success. Nothing is ever written, nothing is harvested and nothing is made.
The pleasure of winning in everyday gambling, which I will call “part-of-life gambling,” is part of many other things. It is part of building a life.
All other things are removed from “pure gambling.”The win is the goal. The payoff is the goal. Some forms of “pure gambling” allow one to develop some skills. One learns how to play bingo well and the intricacies of computer games. One learns to be fast, and the moves become automatic. People can also gamble in other forms, such as pulling the arm of a one-armed bandit. The desire to continue doing this is so strong that some people resort to using diapers to avoid going to the toilet.
I have felt the pull of both pure and part-of-life betting. It was about ten years ago—too much stress. I found a minesweeper on the computer and started playing a few games. I felt relieved. I found myself playing minesweeper for several more days. My skills kept improving. It was so relaxing and enjoyable. Minesweeper was my favorite game. Whether you win or lose (mostly losing), it was a matter of luck from that point onwards. Yet, I wanted to continue playing. It was very much so.
I did what was the easiest: I asked my partner for help removing the game from my computer. At the time, I didn’t know how to delete it. However, I don’t believe I could have used my laptop without playing. It was almost impossible not to pull. When the game ended, I felt empty. It was my wish to have it back. It wasn’t my wish to have it back. I had that much control over the pull of my game.
For a long time, I played solitaire, not on the computer. Too dangerous. It’s the old-fashioned way with cards. If I was playing more than I felt was appropriate, I would place the cards where it was most convenient for me to reach them, such as in a basement corner. Sometimes I would take them with me. More often, I would not.
These past years have been too busy to make time for playing cards. The urge to reach for the cards has disappeared, I have noticed. If I have the time, I’d like to go for a walk, make dinner, or do nothing. That’s how I prefer life.
These past few years, I have been very gambling, but the healthy way is to do things and hope that the projects will succeed.
I’m back to gaming: the good, bad, and the ugly
The good: It’s crucial to understand the risks and minimize them. Because in everyday life, just like in a casino, one can lose one’s savings and one’s home. Fifteen years ago, I gambled: I had a job as a flight attendant that was reliable but not satisfying. When the airline went bankrupt, I finished my Ph.D. and offered a handshake to anyone who wanted to leave. I didn’t have any full-time university or college teaching jobs. Worse, I didn’t have any teaching opportunities at all where I lived. But I gambled. I was almost done with my Ph.D. and teaching university part-time for many years.
It wasn’t an easy win. However, I was able to get college teaching and eventually college teaching. This is not an easy fix like a win at the casino. This means that you have to put in the effort to make your classes successful and learn how to complete the work for you (when possible). There are always challenges.
Crick and Watson are two of my favorite people. They worked for ten years to figure out DNA’s structure and then, through a dream, realized that there was a second helix. They gambled for ten years.
Banting is the person I think about because he discovered how insulin could control diabetes. It took so much effort and time, despite not being successful.
The dangerous good: My parents were the ones I think of. They were not gamblers. Their steady, paid-per-hour work had made them financially successful. Their 20-year old son saw a golden business opportunity. A successful local business was up for sale. The parents took out a mortgage on their home to buy the house. The successful business collapsed within a year due to their son’s poor decisions, who was inexperienced and had many ideas about “improving” it. Everything was lost for the parents.
The bad: Pure gambling is when it’s more than an occasional pleasure. My mother repurchased Irish Sweepstakes tickets when gambling was legal in Canada. It was a thrilling experience to do something illegal. The key was also a miracle cure for all her financial woes. It was worth the small price.
The cost of gambling is too high for many people – both financially and in terms of time and focus. Over 15% of Canadian teens have a mild addiction to what I refer to as bad gambling.
It can provide some gratification for people who live boring lives. Every week, bingo halls are a magnet for thousands of people.
It’s pretty gruesome. This is when a person’s gambling addiction takes control of their lives and destroys all other aspects of their life.
What should you do? Recognize the power of “gambling payoff pull
“It’s there, the jackpot. It’s hard to resist. Countries and societies that outlaw gambling, like Canada and the States did in the past, recognize the destructive power inherent in pure gambling.
I think it is insane to remove gambling laws without mandating massive public education, starting in childhood, on the destructive effects of “the gambling payoff pull.”
It’s almost like saying that we no longer ensure that water is safe to drink but that we don’t do anything to help people take care of their water supplies. Imagine a massive campaign against drinking water based on the belief that it interferes with individual liberty. Each someone has the right to choose the water they want.
Yet, we must return to good gambling. It is now called “integrated gambling,” which includes other gambling activities. This same intense payoff may help us get through difficult times. We practice complex guitar pieces – we know there will always be a payoff and the thrill of reaching that goal (at least for a brief moment) before moving on to the next challenge. It is a long-term commitment to work with children with learning disabilities. When learning occurs, we rejoice.
Yeah!!! Good gambling. It’s an essential part of human development. It keeps us going. We’re not just doing what it takes (trying to keep the corps alive during a difficult season) but also longing for the reward. It’s a natural high when it happens.
Gambling is a combination of creativity and good gambling. It allows us to move beyond ruts and into the unknown. Deep within us, there is a pull. This is the right direction.
It’s easy for us to make mistakes, as with many things about ourselves.
Gambling works. When combined with a project, an end that doesn’t have to do gambling, gambling is a goal that often leads to further development.
Gambling is a bad thing. Gambling to get the win and the reward – often unrelated to our efforts. My mother didn’t do anything that would have made her more likely than anyone else to win the Irish Sweepstakes. It was luck. She never won.
Gambling: The gruesome act of gambling where someone has become addicted to “pure” gambling.
To go from the good and the bad to the gruesome, all it takes to make a small change within ourselves – to disconnect from the payoff pull towards something constructive.
I began with lyrics from a song that I had written years ago. It was about a gamble. Western society places a lot of value on love. It is expected that young people will find a partner to share their lives with, which can be a big gamble. It’s a healthy central gamble. Learning is essential. Healthy relationships with loved ones are more likely to pay off the love wager.
The Psychology of Casinos: An Intriguing Dance of Mind and Money
Ah, the casino! A palace of glitter and gold, where fortunes are won or lost on the roll of a dice. The house takes great pains to create an environment where the passage of time slips away, and you are lured into the world of wagering. The very structure of the place – lack of windows, absence of clocks – is artfully designed to separate you from reality. And then there are the sounds: the tantalizing chime of jackpot bells, the siren song of the roulette wheel, all conspiring to pull you deeper.
Yet, is this such a terrible thing?
Many would argue no. For them, gambling is not an insidious trap but a joy, a thrill, a pastime. It’s the dance of the mind in a poker game, the fluttering hope at a slot machine, or the rush of betting on a racehorse. When tackled with wisdom and restraint, gambling morphs from potential peril into unique pleasure.
The Ethics of Gambling: A Complex and Contentious Matter
The debate around gambling’s moral standing is nuanced and charged. Is it a harbinger of decay, breeding addiction and social disorder, or a genuine entertainment source that bolsters local economies? The argument swings on a fulcrum between these two extremes.
But within this dichotomy lies the subtler gradation between responsible and problem gambling. The former sees fun and limits; the latter, desperation and devastation. Recognizing this distinction is paramount, and the onus of addressing it falls not only on the individual but society as well.
Technology and Online Gambling: A Brave New World of Risks and Rewards
Enter the internet, a revolution that has both democratized and demonized gambling. With a few clicks, one can dive into the virtual world of bets and stakes. It’s a double-edged sword, offering ease of access to thrill-seekers, yet potentially ensnaring the vulnerable, especially impressionable youth.
A Balanced Perspective: The Fine Line Between Sin and Sensation
What is gambling, then, if not a microcosm of life itself? Neither wholly evil nor intrinsically good, it’s a tapestry woven with threads of risk and reward. A delicate balancing act, where knowledge of the game and the wisdom to walk away can mean the difference between an enriching experience and a destructive obsession.
Conclusion: Gambling – A Reflection of Human Nature
The world of gambling is vast, intricate, reflecting our endless fascination with the interplay of chance, skill, and the great unknown. From physical casinos to digital platforms, it extends an invitation that can lead to enrichment or ruin.
It’s not merely about chips and cards, odds and ends. It’s a mirror held up to our deepest desires and fears, an intricate dance between pleasure and prudence. More than a game, gambling is a metaphor, a lesson, a challenge. A celebration of life’s uncertainties, it demands our respect, our awareness, and our integrity. It reminds us that life, like gambling, is not simply black or white but a spectrum of choices, a continuous learning curve, a game where the stakes are real.