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Sports Betting vs. Slot Machines – the Gambling Debate

  • Ron 

While reviewing odds for the upcoming Tour de France (bookmakers have their ways to predict the outcome of sporting events, and they are most of the times right) I got into an argument with a friend. In his view anything that involves a bet – no matter if it’s casino gaming, sports betting or poker – is a game of chance. I dared to disagree. Games of chance are completely unpredictable, while sporting events are not. And while unexpected events – injuries, fouls, disruptive viewers and their likes – can always change things a bit, betting on sports is far from being governed by chance alone.

As an example, I told him about one of my favorite slot machines at the Royal Vegas Casino, called Basketball Star. It is everything you might expect from a modern day slot, with a few extra bits – like exploding symbols and cascading wins. I mostly play it for fun – Royal Vegas has a handy “practice play” service which allows me to play without money being involved – but it has helped me win beer money for the weekend on several occasions. And it is a game of pure chance, and chance alone.

The Royal Vegas Casino is required by law to be fair. And “fair” is in this case the synonym of “random”. This means that there is no way for the player – or the operator – to influence the outcome of any game, no matter if it’s a spin on the slots or a hand of blackjack. The Royal Vegas Casino is also required to undergo periodical audits to attest its fairness (randomness) in order to be able to keep its license. This makes its games completely random – or governed by mathematical probabilities. Or, in layman’s terms, chance.

When it comes to sports betting, randomness is out of the question. The bookmakers themselves, and the punters as well, decide where to put their money based on research. They review statistics, evaluate player performances, take a good look at the weather forecasts and predict the outcome based on information. The odds you see at a bookmaker show how big a chance a team or athlete has to win. And betting on the favorite (the team, athlete or player with the lowest payout attached) will almost always mean that your bet will be successful.

I personally prefer to use the term “gambling” for casino games only. I don’t consider sports betting, or poker for that matter, to be a form of gambling. Gambling means taking a chance, but in the world of sports chance has little to do with the outcome of an event. It’s almost always skill and sweat that makes the difference.

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