Wouldn’t you
like to know how often players actually win while gambling? Well, now you can! According
the Wall Street Journal (The Real Odds on
Gambling, Oct 12, 2013) new data posted by BWIN, a European online gambling
website was published by research affiliates from Harvard Medical School. The data
showed that gamblers won 30% of the time, but only won 11% of the time if they
continued to bet, most winners pocketing less than $150. 2.8% of the big losers
accounted for half of the casino’s take, and 10% account for 80% of casino’s
take. According to information on Wikipedia, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino#Gambling_in_casinos)
Casino’s In the United States are making more money than in any other
country. (Data is from 2009 and the
numbers for 2010 and 2011 are projected.)
In response
to the BWIN data, two researchers from University of Connecticut and University
of Michigan conducted a statistical study that compared the date from BWIN to
data they gathered from studying Northwest Native American Casinos. Out of the
top 10% of gamblers, 95% ended up losing more than $5,000. The chart below shows
you the ratio of losers versus winners with two different sets of data; NW
Native American Casino’s and BWIN. The vertical axis is depicted in
percentages.
In games
such as poker, where skill is a valuable asset rather than just playing the
odds with luck, the skilled players won more than the unskilled players. The
graph below shows the relationship between the two groups.
Wikipedia
defines gambling as “the wagering of money or something of material value
(referred to as "the stakes") on an event with an uncertain outcome
with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. “ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling)
In this data the uncertainty of the outcome is given, The Wall Street Journal
has published that the chances of a player winning big while gambling is slim
to none, 3% to be exact.
It’s a
widely known fact that “the house always wins” – so, with all the statistics
backing it up, why do Americans go and give away their hard earned money to the
casinos for a momentary adrenaline rush? This is because the casinos have
mastered the art of temptation, for example advertising a big win every hour,
or giving out free drinks. Statistics show, that the more you play, the more
you lose. 10% of the customers that had the highest wins played the least. For
the rest of the 90%, once they have lost money, they are more motivated to
continue to play to recover their losses, but recovering their losses is rare,
and customers end up losing more money.
“Unless they cheat, about the only way gamblers can win at games of
chance is to get lucky and then stop gambling.” (WSJ sat/sun,Oct 12-13, 2013
issue, p C3) To conclude, unless you are a skilled poker player, I recommend
that you keep your money in your pocket.
Resources:
WSJ
sat/sun,Oct 12-13, 2013 issue, p C3
No comments:
Post a Comment