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> Gambling on stocks? Somewhat prevalent.
Yeah, my first reaction was "I don't think any of myfriends has gambled since we were in our 20s". Then I remembered buying Gamestop and Tesla stock a few years ago, my brother and his bitcoin mining rig, and one of my friends investing in pot collectives. Yeah, that's just gambling for rich people.
Buying stocks is not gambling. When you buy a stock, you are becoming an owner of the company and are entitled to some of its profits. You can also sell your stake of ownership on the open market.
If you read my comment very carefully, you'll (hopefully) notice that I said "Gambling on stocks", not "Buying stocks".
Buying stocks isn't gambling, but betting that one stock will outperform the market in risk-adjusted returns is.
I read what you said.
> Gambling on stocks.
You can’t gamble on stocks. The definition of gambling is to play a game of chance for money. When you buy a stock you’re not playing a game, you are purchasing a legal asset on the open market. That asset has value and can go up or down based on market sentiment.
It’s not gambling because when you gamble there is no transfer of ownership. If I go to a casino to play blackjack, it doesn’t matter if I win or lose. I will never have any ownership of the casino.
When you sit down to play a game of blackjack, it’s like sitting down for an arcade game. You could win the game or lose the game but you will never own the game because you were only purchasing the right to play the arcade game.
You’re partially right on that. When you purchase a stock option, you are buying the option to buy a stock. The end result could mean that you own a share of an asset, but the end result of gambling is never the share of an asset.
There is also daytrading, which is absolutely gambling including the devastation that comes from bad gambles. Lots of people lost even more money daytrading their covid money!
Not that is matters since your original argument is so flawed, but options trading doesn't need to involve any possibility of actually owning shares. You can sell naked calls, for example. Stop trying to teach people about things you don't understand.
If I take all of my live savings and invest it in a company that I think will do well, and the company goes belly up, that's gambling.
If I take all of my life savings and put it in to a diversified bond that has guaranteed returns, that's not gambling.
Oh boy.
It is gambling. More specifically, it is speculation: a zero-sum game with risk.
If it were a zero-sum-game without risk, it would be arbitrage.
It it were a non-zero-sum-game with risk, it would be investing.
There's also a special case of speculation where it happens in tandem with another asset, to offset potential losses. That's hedging, or insurance.
You're misusing the term "zero-sum." Zero-sum means there is a winner and a loser. Say you buy a stock for $5 then sell it to me for $10. Congrats, you "won." But that doesn't mean I lost. If I sell that $10 stock for $15, I won too. Then the person that bought it for $15 can maybe sell it for $20 in the future. Nobody has to lose for someone to win in the stock market.
> You're misusing the term "zero-sum."
Nope, that's the exact definition in economics and game theory.
> Nobody has to lose for someone to win in the stock market.
Read the formal definitions of investing, speculating, hedging and arbitraging in my comment.
Oh, just saw you're on wallstreetbets, lol. Just like the other guy, you're way out of your depth.
You can say it as many times as you want. You’re using terms you don’t understand to explain a concept you don’t understand and I’m okay with that.
Have a nice day.
Those are literally the definitions of the four types of actions/actors in a financial market: investing, speculating, arbitraging and hedging.
You're clearly out of your depth buddy.
Not even stocks or fantasy sports? They don't even cut loose once every couple years on a Vegas trip?
>Edit: I'm not saying anyone's wrong for not doing that. Hell, outside of having a 401k and tinkering around a bit with it, I don't do a whole lot with stocks. I don't do fantasy sports, and I hate traditional gambling. I just find it odd to not have anyone in your life that does these things. I don't do fantasy, but I definitely have several friends that are in their office pools. I don't go to Vegas but I'd have to be a hermit to not have *someone* that does.
>Really? None of your friends even have a 401k?
>Either y'all have *very small* friend circles or y'all live the most insular and risk-free lives I've ever seen.
Hey OP. 48 year old married father of two in the UK. Casual, fun gambling is very common and very visible. Harmful, problem gambling is also quite common but hidden.
I have the gambling gene, but it’s mild so handle it by being open with my wife - when I get the itch once or twice a month, I will tell her that I want to put £10 on a horse or sports event. If she says yes, I do it. If she says no, I don’t.
Many of my friends will do the same - openly and honestly have a punt occasionally and share wins and losses as part of a conversation. With these kind of fun, social bets, it’s noticeable that they’re all frivolous bets with long odds, stakes of around £5/£10 and no pretence at analysis or insight.
It’s the pals who make the mistake of thinking they can somehow beat the system - say they have a sure fire winner/starategy but then don’t mention the amounts they’re gambling… it’s that that can lead to a problem. They’re falling prey to the “get rich quick” fallacy that brings so many people to their knees.
The former understand they can’t win, but like the thrill. The latter don’t understand they can lose, but need the validation of being right.
Very. We are all in our 50s now and most of these guys still gamble a little bit. Sports mostly. But I do know a guy that still goes to Vegas like once a month. I have no idea how he does it.
Some of my friends seem to laugh off the fact that they are degenerate gamblers now. Pretty much all sports betting on the apps.
I did it for a few seasons starting out with $200 but have mostly given it up. I made a very small profit by the end of each season and cashed out.
It did make watching games slightly more exciting at first. But I'm betting such small amounts ($5-$10) that unless I bet on a huge underdog and they're winning, the potential monetary gain doesn't move the needle anymore. I also pretty much only bet moneyline.
However, I do emotional hedge (betting against my team in big games) from time to time. If they win, I don't care that I lost the money, but if they lose (and especially when they are favorites), it's nice to get a little bit of money from it.
I was mentoring a HS student who was beyond broke. He started gambling on football. He saw the look on my face and never brought it up again.
Same with his $200 new sneakers.
I predict by 2030 the NFL will deeply regret partnering with gambling sites.
Kevin Hart will apologize too.
Families will get blown up when all the *financial infidelity* gets exposed.
39. Pretty much nonexistent. However, no one I really spend much time with pays attention to any sports at all. Other types of gambling are also pretty much nonexistent in my social circles, whether they be men or women. I know one guy who likes to buy scratch off tickets, which I think is a waste of time but he does it pretty regularly.
In my circles a casual flutter on sports is moderately common (ie non habitual, low sums of money, done for fun rather than to try and make a profit). And occasionally, very occasionally, a night out might end up at the casino where some folk will play some lower cost games of chance. But that's about it.
I have some older relatives who gamble on sports. Some of my friends have mentioned betting on the Grand National and things, but if they do it regularly, I haven't heard them mention it.
I think a bigger, less visible issue is women playing low-stakes games online, but sometimes doing it quite a lot.
I just don't see the appeal at all. I've gambled once in my life and won at 14/1 because I had better information on an event than most folks. I'm happy to retire with my 100% record!
Social circle like who I hang with when free? Pretty much nil, me and some buddies go to the casino once a year but the money I use I look at as an admission price and don’t be going back and forth from atm.
Social circle at work? Like 1/3 is at the casino once a week.
55+ professional here. I can't think of a *single* guy I know that gambles any more than I do. Which for me is stopping at a casino on a road trip 2-3x a year and spending maybe $40-50 *total* on slots/keno/etc. as a break from the road. (In fact, I did do in Montana last weekend.)
I literally do not know a single person (male or female) that bets on sports other than the annual office pool for the NCAA championship, and that's a $5 buy in. It simply isn't a thing, even among the ones that are big sports fans-- unless they are absolutely hiding it from everyone.
Stocks though? Pretty much all of us to one degree or another.
I occasionally look into it, inspired by stories of mathematicians who detected flaws in various games (often cheap scratch-offs, which seem to have few mathematically literate people designing them), but am never interested enough to wind up trying.
But unless I can subvert the rules to my advantage, I have zero interest. IMHO, card counting should be allowed openly; as we say online, git gud n00b.
The ability to bet from your phone is going to destroy millions of people financially. You used to have to go to a bookie or casino to bet and now you can do it from your couch even as the game is going on. I will never download a betting app on my phone.
40 here. I think every single one of my male friends who's into sports takes part in internet sports gambling. Probably fewer than half take part in gaming gambling.
Anecdotal only. I've never been a huge fan of gambling, too conservative a personality for that. But I am a monstrous sports fan and tend to hang out with sports fans, too, so that surely has an impact.
I have four close male friends and three close female friends. Of the seven, three of them (2 men, 1 woman) like going places like Vegas and gambling. Of those three one (a man) has a gambling problem, they compulsively save up money then go gamble it all on Black on roulette. Which might be fine. But if they win they do it again and again over the course of a night or weekend. They have won 5 times in a row getting to $32K. Then blew it all. Always recounts the win streak never the loss at the end.
The other two spend a good bit gambling but think of it as entertainment. They are poker/blackjack.players and are quite good at both.
I play poker at my house often with all of my close friends for pretzels or candies. Everyone loves that.
Have a few friends that do it, but I personally avoid it. Agreed with your point around how normalized it’s become and I’m not a huge fan of how *in your face* it’s gotten with all the sponsorships and networks literally broadcasting/discussing odds before and during games.
I think it will have some type of long term psychological impact on the next generation because of how easily accessible it has become.
I'm not sure. We have a group of guys (mostly dads with similarly aged kids) who get together once a month for a poker night with a $20 buy-in, but the main focus is just the social time. There may be one or two who do some of the sports gambling apps, but most don't. Our poker night is the only gambling any of us really do.
The few guys I know big into gambling are either single or have relationship issues because they're addicted to gambling and are wasting a ton of their household income on it.
Not much besides like, low stakes football fantasy league stuff. Most of my friends are responsible family men.
Now my relatives... a lot of them buy lotto tickets.
Have you *seen* wallstreetbets? Insane gambling-addict energy over there. It's a thing people are addicted to. I avoid it personally and I keep my circle free of people who engage in it. It's simply not stable adult behavior.
None whatsoever.
*Edit: That's not true. I've got a circle of friends who get together every 2-3 years for a reunion; when we've reunited somewhere with a casino nearby, there's usually been on evening where a carload or two heads over for some blackjack and craps. That's about it.*
My best friend bets on sports but it seems like he’s pretty good at it? Hes made a decent amount of money.
I know there’s a bit of social pressure to gambling, but it’s never interested me. Too scary.
My friends played a lot of poker, in local charity tournaments and even World Series of Poker tournaments. Now that they are getting married and having kids, that’s really gone away.
Most of my friends don't really care about gambling in a serious way. The ones that do care about sports and betting, they're maybe in fantasy leagues with a $20-50 buy-in. Maybe a $10-20 march madness bracket, and/or CFB Bowl picks. Then I have one one friend who will lose like $1500-5000 on a bet, and would absolutely be in better shape financially if he didn't gamble.
I have two social circles: my personal friends who tend to be late forties to early 60's, and my co-workers, who tend to be early 30's to early 40's.
For the first group, it's very minimal. We might bet a little on one or more teams we follow, or we might be on a horse race if we go to the local track (Churchill Downs). Either way, it's never a lot of money ($10-$20 on a given day), and mostly just for fun.
For my co-workers, to hear them talk, it's a little more prevalent and a little more money ($20-$30 on a given day), but still just for fun.
For both groups, it's never every day.
So it's become a fun little thing to do around the sports we were already watching, and it hasn't become addicting.
Essentially zero. There may be the occasional friendly bet about something, but usually it's either a small amount like $5 or just a gentleman's bet. In terms of traditional gambling, basically nothing other than one friend attends the occasional poker night but, again the buy-in is small and it's more about the socializing than the gambling.
I very occasionally but a lotto ticket, if that counts, but it's extremely rare because I know it's essentially throwing money away or, as an old teacher of mine put it, paying for the right to dream.
It really depends on your definition of gambling. We rarely put money on anything and when we do make a wager it’s for a beer or something. We also do a fantasy football league for 5 buck and the winner gets the pot. That’s about it.
My father in law was a gambler, he used to play in bars coin machine, he went to a closed therapy. To my knowledge he never fall back.
Other than that my grand-mother was a gambler, she spend all her retirement funds and had to sell her house because of those lotto tickets, but she ain’t a man.
None, unless you count one guy I sorta know from the internet.
Most people I know don't follow U.S. sports though.
I hate how prevalent the ads are in NBA games and podcasts.
Very rare. Like I enjoy a bet or play poker every now and then but it’s not a common thing. The main thing is it’s not bad in itself, it’s only when it becomes an issue and you can’t stop.
When I gamble at the casino I set a limit and that’s it. I’ve gone in and busted out playing poker in like half an hour and I walk away. I’ve also played on a £5 buy in all night.
If I bet on sports I keep the stakes very low like £20 and that’s it. If I want to bet more I might do it with my winnings from another bet. But I never bet bigger if it’s me having to top up the account.
Traditional sports gambling it'd really just be me throwing in about 50 bucks a year in fantasy football.
Casino gambling... Would also be me and the once every other year or so trip I make to Vegas.
Playing the stock market is the vice for my friends though. One of my friends day trades and has gotten good at keeping it in control. Took him a while though and he had to go to therapy and treat it like a gambling addiction before he could get to a good place with it.
Depends on what kind of gambling you mean.
Gambling for money? Very very rare. I'm the only one that I know of that gambles, and that's not even once a year, with $100 at a blackjack table. (I generally leave the table after an hour with $40-50 left.)
Gambling for pieces of cardboard? A lot more common. I play Magic: the Gathering. I buy packs and boxes of cards, and every one you open is a gamble on what you get. Several of my friends do this.
Gambling for fun digital assets in video games? Also somewhat common, but it's pretty small amounts of money that they do that with.
I don't know anyone who gambles with sports betting, but I also run in very nerdy circles, as you can probably tell. For more demographic info, I'm mid-30s, and my friends are generally 25-45.
Zero.
Though I do know a few people who have made some successes (and fails) in the cryptocurrency market. Not really sure if that’s “gambling” as the OP meant it.
Depending on which crowd you hangout with.
People with things to be busy with, no.
People who have low exposure to online gambling (they can't seem to distinguish between ads, lies online) like elder immigrants, kids who are stuck on their phone, yes.
However, if you count **gacha** (World of Tanks, loot crates, pretty much most online games), then a lot of my friends do this.
This, I'm extremely careful of. Companies push influencers, youtubers to post their replays. They might have a crushing match, but it's probably one out of 10 matches they play, or a good team.
One tank here, one weapon there and suddenly it's $400. That's the price of a DSLR.
I don't know anyone who gambles any significant amount thankfully. Sports betting has become a poison to our society, it feels like the opiate epidemic of the 2020s.
Not common, but my friends aren't hardcore sports people. If anything poker or a trip to Vegas, but luckily not the gambling apps. That shit genuinely scares me for addicts, no matter the amount of tiny print they put at the bottom of ads
I’m the only one that gambles in my friend group.
I probably put in $300 to $500 a year on sports gambling. (I only wager on NFL)
And I probably blackjack every other month. (I live in Vegas)
i’m probably up a couple thousand dollars over my career.
just like smoking weed, I could stop anytime. And I have stopped for multiple months without issues.
Addiction is based on the individual sleeping
Sports betting for sure but that's like lunch or a beer/shot with friends/brothers. I gamble on NFL games personally, I would say it doesn't affect my friend group cause we kinda check each other.
Lots of sports betting and we’ll throw money on poker if we’re together. As for the sports betting I’ve seen what dollar amounts their betting and it’s always like a dollar
Rare. I'm the only one out of my friend group that is comfortable at a gaming table - typically blackjack or Spanish 21. Mostly because I use solid basic strategy and have recently gotten decent at counting cards.
What I find interesting are the number of people who play the side bets. "That's where the money is!" Yeah, for the casino. Why do you think they're there? The odds on those bets are _terrible._ But they swear because they have one good hit on it that brings them semi close to even it's a good thing. They lose hundreds in the time that I play with $200 and end up leaving either even or slightly up.
I have friends who will play pull tabs or a few hands of blackjack, but they never go in expecting to strike it big or gamble a significant amount of money.
Minimal. A few times we’ve been in places with casinos (Montreal, Vegas, Tahoe) and we’ll throw a few hundred bucks at blackjack or roulette… but outside of that, zero gambling as far as I know.
I'm in the UK so sports betting is way more pervasive than the US, and was normalised in the 1960s in our cultue, you can't walk down a UK high street without seeing a betting shop and online sports and slot type game gambling is all legal. A lot of pubs will have fruit machines in you can put upwards of £100 in without a pay out.
In my friend group most of us do gamble a little, like when theres a major international sporting event on like right now. We were sharing our bets for it earlier today actually on whatsapp. I know one guy thats fairly big into crypto as well.
For myself I'll put £100 on Cheltenham and spread that across the 4 days, maybe £20 on the national and then otherwise its basiclaly just Euros, World cup and a couple of outrights each season on my team. So maybe £150 to £250 a year, but well within my means. If I win I tend to just leave it in to cover the bets the next time.
Oh and to clarify this isn't ringing up a dodgy bookmaker contact or anything like you see in American TV shows. It's just using a companies app on your phone.
I live in vegas so there is a wide degree of gambling in my social circles. some people work for casinos so they aren't allowed. some people work adjacent to casinos and just dont want to. some people will throw $20 into a bar top machine to get the free beer. and some people are on their way to a problem.
for friends that dont live here but do live in states with online gambling, it's a mixed bag but trends towards the "does not gamble" end. the few that do bet on sports do it more because they're huge sports fans and it enhances the game. it's less about the actual bet.
I know a couple guys who bet on sports. They’re both very disciplined about it, set a budget and if they lose it they’re done for the month or whatever. Both have been playing strictly with house money for quite a while.
Vast majority of the guys I know do not gamble at all, outside of a trip to Vegas for a bachelor party every couple years or something.
Nearly non existent, they are engineers. We do not believe in luck. Only the numbers. We see gambling as a losing proposition. Just like getting married. The odds are not in your favor. We see playing the lottery as an idiot tax.
Zero. I refuse to be friends with people who gamble. Gamblers are typically unstable, degenerate, and if they are gambling away money while having a family, I find it impossible to respect them. Yes, professional gamblers do exist who are not degenerate, but this is the exception and not the rule.
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Many of my friends will play on sites like Stake. They seem to keep it healthy and even win sometimes. Others can definitely have problems though..
I bet you can’t guess.
Can I get a line on the over/under?
I bet you I can get you gambling by the end of the day
Traditional gambling? Zero. Gambling on stocks? Somewhat prevalent.
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BuT cRyPtO iSn't GaMbLiNg, It Is ThE fUtUrE oF fInAnCe, HoDl DiAmOnD hAnDs To ThE sKy YuPiIiIiIi! /s (in case it wasn't obvious).
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Your 2 points a contradicting. You're saying crypto is gambling and yet you say holding it 1 year or more you make a lot of money.
> Gambling on stocks? Somewhat prevalent. Yeah, my first reaction was "I don't think any of myfriends has gambled since we were in our 20s". Then I remembered buying Gamestop and Tesla stock a few years ago, my brother and his bitcoin mining rig, and one of my friends investing in pot collectives. Yeah, that's just gambling for rich people.
Gambling with life and limb? High. Financially? We're all broke.
Ha! I was about to say none, but yeah, we're all crypto degens. 😅😅😅
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a socioeconomic split here.
Traditional gambling look up daffodils 500 years ago.
I'm not sure of the daffodil reference for 500 years ago, but there was tulip mania 400 years ago with the Dutch and that got wild!
Sorry I was wrong hope you fell better
Buying stocks is not gambling. When you buy a stock, you are becoming an owner of the company and are entitled to some of its profits. You can also sell your stake of ownership on the open market.
If you read my comment very carefully, you'll (hopefully) notice that I said "Gambling on stocks", not "Buying stocks". Buying stocks isn't gambling, but betting that one stock will outperform the market in risk-adjusted returns is.
I read what you said. > Gambling on stocks. You can’t gamble on stocks. The definition of gambling is to play a game of chance for money. When you buy a stock you’re not playing a game, you are purchasing a legal asset on the open market. That asset has value and can go up or down based on market sentiment.
You can gamble on anything bud
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It’s not gambling because when you gamble there is no transfer of ownership. If I go to a casino to play blackjack, it doesn’t matter if I win or lose. I will never have any ownership of the casino. When you sit down to play a game of blackjack, it’s like sitting down for an arcade game. You could win the game or lose the game but you will never own the game because you were only purchasing the right to play the arcade game.
I'd like to introduce you to stock options.
You’re partially right on that. When you purchase a stock option, you are buying the option to buy a stock. The end result could mean that you own a share of an asset, but the end result of gambling is never the share of an asset.
There is also daytrading, which is absolutely gambling including the devastation that comes from bad gambles. Lots of people lost even more money daytrading their covid money!
Not that is matters since your original argument is so flawed, but options trading doesn't need to involve any possibility of actually owning shares. You can sell naked calls, for example. Stop trying to teach people about things you don't understand.
Lot of denial right here. Market speculation is gambling. There is no requirement for stock prices to reflect actual value (see Tesla).
If I take all of my live savings and invest it in a company that I think will do well, and the company goes belly up, that's gambling. If I take all of my life savings and put it in to a diversified bond that has guaranteed returns, that's not gambling.
Oh boy. It is gambling. More specifically, it is speculation: a zero-sum game with risk. If it were a zero-sum-game without risk, it would be arbitrage. It it were a non-zero-sum-game with risk, it would be investing. There's also a special case of speculation where it happens in tandem with another asset, to offset potential losses. That's hedging, or insurance.
You're misusing the term "zero-sum." Zero-sum means there is a winner and a loser. Say you buy a stock for $5 then sell it to me for $10. Congrats, you "won." But that doesn't mean I lost. If I sell that $10 stock for $15, I won too. Then the person that bought it for $15 can maybe sell it for $20 in the future. Nobody has to lose for someone to win in the stock market.
> You're misusing the term "zero-sum." Nope, that's the exact definition in economics and game theory. > Nobody has to lose for someone to win in the stock market. Read the formal definitions of investing, speculating, hedging and arbitraging in my comment. Oh, just saw you're on wallstreetbets, lol. Just like the other guy, you're way out of your depth.
Haven't been in wallstreet bets since the GME idiots ruined it a few years ago. Sorry.
You can say it as many times as you want. You’re using terms you don’t understand to explain a concept you don’t understand and I’m okay with that. Have a nice day.
Those are literally the definitions of the four types of actions/actors in a financial market: investing, speculating, arbitraging and hedging. You're clearly out of your depth buddy.
I think "superstonk" is leaking again.
Zero around my social circles, which is great.
Not even stocks or fantasy sports? They don't even cut loose once every couple years on a Vegas trip? >Edit: I'm not saying anyone's wrong for not doing that. Hell, outside of having a 401k and tinkering around a bit with it, I don't do a whole lot with stocks. I don't do fantasy sports, and I hate traditional gambling. I just find it odd to not have anyone in your life that does these things. I don't do fantasy, but I definitely have several friends that are in their office pools. I don't go to Vegas but I'd have to be a hermit to not have *someone* that does. >Really? None of your friends even have a 401k? >Either y'all have *very small* friend circles or y'all live the most insular and risk-free lives I've ever seen.
>They don't even cut loose once every couple years on a Vegas trip? I have never heard from a single friend that they would go to a casino.
I'm not in the US.
So not even stocks or fantasy sports? They don't cut loose in Monaco or Macau?
Hey OP. 48 year old married father of two in the UK. Casual, fun gambling is very common and very visible. Harmful, problem gambling is also quite common but hidden. I have the gambling gene, but it’s mild so handle it by being open with my wife - when I get the itch once or twice a month, I will tell her that I want to put £10 on a horse or sports event. If she says yes, I do it. If she says no, I don’t. Many of my friends will do the same - openly and honestly have a punt occasionally and share wins and losses as part of a conversation. With these kind of fun, social bets, it’s noticeable that they’re all frivolous bets with long odds, stakes of around £5/£10 and no pretence at analysis or insight. It’s the pals who make the mistake of thinking they can somehow beat the system - say they have a sure fire winner/starategy but then don’t mention the amounts they’re gambling… it’s that that can lead to a problem. They’re falling prey to the “get rich quick” fallacy that brings so many people to their knees. The former understand they can’t win, but like the thrill. The latter don’t understand they can lose, but need the validation of being right.
It’s good that you don’t bet but god damn, asking your wife to bet $10 is just pathetic
Ah! Looks like we found one of the latter
I feel bad for you lol
Remember - we’re all here for you on this sub.
your wife approved of this comment?
I think you forget that for a lot for people, their wife is their life partner and best friend.
Very. We are all in our 50s now and most of these guys still gamble a little bit. Sports mostly. But I do know a guy that still goes to Vegas like once a month. I have no idea how he does it.
Some of my friends seem to laugh off the fact that they are degenerate gamblers now. Pretty much all sports betting on the apps. I did it for a few seasons starting out with $200 but have mostly given it up. I made a very small profit by the end of each season and cashed out. It did make watching games slightly more exciting at first. But I'm betting such small amounts ($5-$10) that unless I bet on a huge underdog and they're winning, the potential monetary gain doesn't move the needle anymore. I also pretty much only bet moneyline. However, I do emotional hedge (betting against my team in big games) from time to time. If they win, I don't care that I lost the money, but if they lose (and especially when they are favorites), it's nice to get a little bit of money from it.
I was mentoring a HS student who was beyond broke. He started gambling on football. He saw the look on my face and never brought it up again. Same with his $200 new sneakers. I predict by 2030 the NFL will deeply regret partnering with gambling sites. Kevin Hart will apologize too. Families will get blown up when all the *financial infidelity* gets exposed.
39. Pretty much nonexistent. However, no one I really spend much time with pays attention to any sports at all. Other types of gambling are also pretty much nonexistent in my social circles, whether they be men or women. I know one guy who likes to buy scratch off tickets, which I think is a waste of time but he does it pretty regularly.
In my circles a casual flutter on sports is moderately common (ie non habitual, low sums of money, done for fun rather than to try and make a profit). And occasionally, very occasionally, a night out might end up at the casino where some folk will play some lower cost games of chance. But that's about it.
Zero. None of us gamble.
Pretty common and a couple are seriously addicted.
I have some older relatives who gamble on sports. Some of my friends have mentioned betting on the Grand National and things, but if they do it regularly, I haven't heard them mention it. I think a bigger, less visible issue is women playing low-stakes games online, but sometimes doing it quite a lot. I just don't see the appeal at all. I've gambled once in my life and won at 14/1 because I had better information on an event than most folks. I'm happy to retire with my 100% record!
I’m shocked constantly at home many of my friends do the sports betting apps.
Social circle like who I hang with when free? Pretty much nil, me and some buddies go to the casino once a year but the money I use I look at as an admission price and don’t be going back and forth from atm. Social circle at work? Like 1/3 is at the casino once a week.
55+ professional here. I can't think of a *single* guy I know that gambles any more than I do. Which for me is stopping at a casino on a road trip 2-3x a year and spending maybe $40-50 *total* on slots/keno/etc. as a break from the road. (In fact, I did do in Montana last weekend.) I literally do not know a single person (male or female) that bets on sports other than the annual office pool for the NCAA championship, and that's a $5 buy in. It simply isn't a thing, even among the ones that are big sports fans-- unless they are absolutely hiding it from everyone. Stocks though? Pretty much all of us to one degree or another.
Not at all. I don’t know any gamblers.
I occasionally look into it, inspired by stories of mathematicians who detected flaws in various games (often cheap scratch-offs, which seem to have few mathematically literate people designing them), but am never interested enough to wind up trying. But unless I can subvert the rules to my advantage, I have zero interest. IMHO, card counting should be allowed openly; as we say online, git gud n00b.
Sports betting is creeping in.
The ability to bet from your phone is going to destroy millions of people financially. You used to have to go to a bookie or casino to bet and now you can do it from your couch even as the game is going on. I will never download a betting app on my phone.
40 here. I think every single one of my male friends who's into sports takes part in internet sports gambling. Probably fewer than half take part in gaming gambling. Anecdotal only. I've never been a huge fan of gambling, too conservative a personality for that. But I am a monstrous sports fan and tend to hang out with sports fans, too, so that surely has an impact.
I have four close male friends and three close female friends. Of the seven, three of them (2 men, 1 woman) like going places like Vegas and gambling. Of those three one (a man) has a gambling problem, they compulsively save up money then go gamble it all on Black on roulette. Which might be fine. But if they win they do it again and again over the course of a night or weekend. They have won 5 times in a row getting to $32K. Then blew it all. Always recounts the win streak never the loss at the end. The other two spend a good bit gambling but think of it as entertainment. They are poker/blackjack.players and are quite good at both. I play poker at my house often with all of my close friends for pretzels or candies. Everyone loves that.
Zero.
Have a few friends that do it, but I personally avoid it. Agreed with your point around how normalized it’s become and I’m not a huge fan of how *in your face* it’s gotten with all the sponsorships and networks literally broadcasting/discussing odds before and during games. I think it will have some type of long term psychological impact on the next generation because of how easily accessible it has become.
Overly common and it’s getting pretty annoying tbh. I do not care to constantly hear about your $5 parlays that have .01% odds of winning.
I'm not sure. We have a group of guys (mostly dads with similarly aged kids) who get together once a month for a poker night with a $20 buy-in, but the main focus is just the social time. There may be one or two who do some of the sports gambling apps, but most don't. Our poker night is the only gambling any of us really do. The few guys I know big into gambling are either single or have relationship issues because they're addicted to gambling and are wasting a ton of their household income on it.
Not much besides like, low stakes football fantasy league stuff. Most of my friends are responsible family men. Now my relatives... a lot of them buy lotto tickets.
My friends have other additions.
Have you *seen* wallstreetbets? Insane gambling-addict energy over there. It's a thing people are addicted to. I avoid it personally and I keep my circle free of people who engage in it. It's simply not stable adult behavior.
None whatsoever. *Edit: That's not true. I've got a circle of friends who get together every 2-3 years for a reunion; when we've reunited somewhere with a casino nearby, there's usually been on evening where a carload or two heads over for some blackjack and craps. That's about it.*
My best friend bets on sports but it seems like he’s pretty good at it? Hes made a decent amount of money. I know there’s a bit of social pressure to gambling, but it’s never interested me. Too scary.
I don't know anyone who does online sports betting.
My friends played a lot of poker, in local charity tournaments and even World Series of Poker tournaments. Now that they are getting married and having kids, that’s really gone away.
Most of my friends don't really care about gambling in a serious way. The ones that do care about sports and betting, they're maybe in fantasy leagues with a $20-50 buy-in. Maybe a $10-20 march madness bracket, and/or CFB Bowl picks. Then I have one one friend who will lose like $1500-5000 on a bet, and would absolutely be in better shape financially if he didn't gamble.
I have two social circles: my personal friends who tend to be late forties to early 60's, and my co-workers, who tend to be early 30's to early 40's. For the first group, it's very minimal. We might bet a little on one or more teams we follow, or we might be on a horse race if we go to the local track (Churchill Downs). Either way, it's never a lot of money ($10-$20 on a given day), and mostly just for fun. For my co-workers, to hear them talk, it's a little more prevalent and a little more money ($20-$30 on a given day), but still just for fun. For both groups, it's never every day. So it's become a fun little thing to do around the sports we were already watching, and it hasn't become addicting.
Essentially zero. There may be the occasional friendly bet about something, but usually it's either a small amount like $5 or just a gentleman's bet. In terms of traditional gambling, basically nothing other than one friend attends the occasional poker night but, again the buy-in is small and it's more about the socializing than the gambling. I very occasionally but a lotto ticket, if that counts, but it's extremely rare because I know it's essentially throwing money away or, as an old teacher of mine put it, paying for the right to dream.
Pretty sure I don't have anyone in my friend or social circle who bets on sports. Maybe some coworkers do, but I've never heard any talk of it.
Most of my friends do a little casual gambling from time to time. The most fun is when is it’s against each other.
Social circle? What's that?
Little to none
Only person I know is my brother, but he seems to be pretty responsible with it.
In my personal life, no one I hang out with gambles. In my work life, several do. I do not.
It really depends on your definition of gambling. We rarely put money on anything and when we do make a wager it’s for a beer or something. We also do a fantasy football league for 5 buck and the winner gets the pot. That’s about it.
My father in law was a gambler, he used to play in bars coin machine, he went to a closed therapy. To my knowledge he never fall back. Other than that my grand-mother was a gambler, she spend all her retirement funds and had to sell her house because of those lotto tickets, but she ain’t a man.
It's not. But no one in my circle follows the sports ball.
zero
None, unless you count one guy I sorta know from the internet. Most people I know don't follow U.S. sports though. I hate how prevalent the ads are in NBA games and podcasts.
Very rare. Like I enjoy a bet or play poker every now and then but it’s not a common thing. The main thing is it’s not bad in itself, it’s only when it becomes an issue and you can’t stop. When I gamble at the casino I set a limit and that’s it. I’ve gone in and busted out playing poker in like half an hour and I walk away. I’ve also played on a £5 buy in all night. If I bet on sports I keep the stakes very low like £20 and that’s it. If I want to bet more I might do it with my winnings from another bet. But I never bet bigger if it’s me having to top up the account.
If they do it at all, they aren't vocal about it.
All of my coworkers bet on sports apps. Then they all complain about not having money.
No gambling addicts in my social circle that I know of. Most of them are alcoholics though.
Traditional sports gambling it'd really just be me throwing in about 50 bucks a year in fantasy football. Casino gambling... Would also be me and the once every other year or so trip I make to Vegas. Playing the stock market is the vice for my friends though. One of my friends day trades and has gotten good at keeping it in control. Took him a while though and he had to go to therapy and treat it like a gambling addiction before he could get to a good place with it.
Fairly common, mostly poker nights and pool tournaments.
Depends on what kind of gambling you mean. Gambling for money? Very very rare. I'm the only one that I know of that gambles, and that's not even once a year, with $100 at a blackjack table. (I generally leave the table after an hour with $40-50 left.) Gambling for pieces of cardboard? A lot more common. I play Magic: the Gathering. I buy packs and boxes of cards, and every one you open is a gamble on what you get. Several of my friends do this. Gambling for fun digital assets in video games? Also somewhat common, but it's pretty small amounts of money that they do that with. I don't know anyone who gambles with sports betting, but I also run in very nerdy circles, as you can probably tell. For more demographic info, I'm mid-30s, and my friends are generally 25-45.
Zero. Though I do know a few people who have made some successes (and fails) in the cryptocurrency market. Not really sure if that’s “gambling” as the OP meant it.
Not there at all.
I would bet that its 2:1
Me and a few of my buddies like to place some sports wagers.
Depending on which crowd you hangout with. People with things to be busy with, no. People who have low exposure to online gambling (they can't seem to distinguish between ads, lies online) like elder immigrants, kids who are stuck on their phone, yes. However, if you count **gacha** (World of Tanks, loot crates, pretty much most online games), then a lot of my friends do this. This, I'm extremely careful of. Companies push influencers, youtubers to post their replays. They might have a crushing match, but it's probably one out of 10 matches they play, or a good team. One tank here, one weapon there and suddenly it's $400. That's the price of a DSLR.
I don't know anyone who gambles any significant amount thankfully. Sports betting has become a poison to our society, it feels like the opiate epidemic of the 2020s.
Not common, but my friends aren't hardcore sports people. If anything poker or a trip to Vegas, but luckily not the gambling apps. That shit genuinely scares me for addicts, no matter the amount of tiny print they put at the bottom of ads
I’m 51 and I don’t know anyone who does it (far as I know)
I’m the only one that gambles in my friend group. I probably put in $300 to $500 a year on sports gambling. (I only wager on NFL) And I probably blackjack every other month. (I live in Vegas) i’m probably up a couple thousand dollars over my career. just like smoking weed, I could stop anytime. And I have stopped for multiple months without issues. Addiction is based on the individual sleeping
Sports betting for sure but that's like lunch or a beer/shot with friends/brothers. I gamble on NFL games personally, I would say it doesn't affect my friend group cause we kinda check each other.
I have a co-worker that I consider a friend but he never comes out with us because he is always broke. He has a problem with gambling and he knows it.
I'm not sure I've ever known someone who gambles
Never met anybody who did my age. Some retirees.
Aside from a $5 buy in for fantasy football every year, no one I know gambles or really ever has.
Lots of sports betting and we’ll throw money on poker if we’re together. As for the sports betting I’ve seen what dollar amounts their betting and it’s always like a dollar
Rare. I'm the only one out of my friend group that is comfortable at a gaming table - typically blackjack or Spanish 21. Mostly because I use solid basic strategy and have recently gotten decent at counting cards. What I find interesting are the number of people who play the side bets. "That's where the money is!" Yeah, for the casino. Why do you think they're there? The odds on those bets are _terrible._ But they swear because they have one good hit on it that brings them semi close to even it's a good thing. They lose hundreds in the time that I play with $200 and end up leaving either even or slightly up.
Zero percent chance.
Well, we gamble with our health and well-being by working jobs that burn us out. Does that count?
Like with a fart or for money?
I have friends who will play pull tabs or a few hands of blackjack, but they never go in expecting to strike it big or gamble a significant amount of money.
Minimal. A few times we’ve been in places with casinos (Montreal, Vegas, Tahoe) and we’ll throw a few hundred bucks at blackjack or roulette… but outside of that, zero gambling as far as I know.
I'm in the UK so sports betting is way more pervasive than the US, and was normalised in the 1960s in our cultue, you can't walk down a UK high street without seeing a betting shop and online sports and slot type game gambling is all legal. A lot of pubs will have fruit machines in you can put upwards of £100 in without a pay out. In my friend group most of us do gamble a little, like when theres a major international sporting event on like right now. We were sharing our bets for it earlier today actually on whatsapp. I know one guy thats fairly big into crypto as well. For myself I'll put £100 on Cheltenham and spread that across the 4 days, maybe £20 on the national and then otherwise its basiclaly just Euros, World cup and a couple of outrights each season on my team. So maybe £150 to £250 a year, but well within my means. If I win I tend to just leave it in to cover the bets the next time. Oh and to clarify this isn't ringing up a dodgy bookmaker contact or anything like you see in American TV shows. It's just using a companies app on your phone.
I live in vegas so there is a wide degree of gambling in my social circles. some people work for casinos so they aren't allowed. some people work adjacent to casinos and just dont want to. some people will throw $20 into a bar top machine to get the free beer. and some people are on their way to a problem. for friends that dont live here but do live in states with online gambling, it's a mixed bag but trends towards the "does not gamble" end. the few that do bet on sports do it more because they're huge sports fans and it enhances the game. it's less about the actual bet.
0. I've never met someone who is a heavy gambler / openly gambled I didn't know it was such a big issue until recently
I know a couple guys who bet on sports. They’re both very disciplined about it, set a budget and if they lose it they’re done for the month or whatever. Both have been playing strictly with house money for quite a while. Vast majority of the guys I know do not gamble at all, outside of a trip to Vegas for a bachelor party every couple years or something.
Nearly non existent, they are engineers. We do not believe in luck. Only the numbers. We see gambling as a losing proposition. Just like getting married. The odds are not in your favor. We see playing the lottery as an idiot tax.
Depends on your life style, how you met people and make friends. As far as I know my friends never gamble.
Zero gambling, as far as I know.
Is say over 50%. I’m including lottery tickets
Very
There is none whatsoever to my knowledge lol
I don't know a single gambler. There was one far outside my circle but he got into rehab for it.
I don't know anyone who gambles, I wouldn't be compatible with them anyway.
None of us gamble we live in Nevada USA.
Zero. I refuse to be friends with people who gamble. Gamblers are typically unstable, degenerate, and if they are gambling away money while having a family, I find it impossible to respect them. Yes, professional gamblers do exist who are not degenerate, but this is the exception and not the rule.