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- Hacker News
- For a long time I struggled to find a distinction between gambling and investing. And then I figured it out.
gambling - where the statistical odds are that you lose
investing - where the odds are you win
by WalterBright - I went on a cruise ship a few weeks ago. I decided I was going to try the martingale strategy in roulette.
I played the game for a grand total of like fifteen minutes, and even in that short time I ended up chatting with the fellow gamblers and ended up feeling a bit depressed. One guy there said he was down $700 because of the current long streak of red, and we were “due” for a black any time now.
He seemed like a nice enough guy and I tried to explain that each throw is basically an isolated event, so you’re never “due” for anything and the red streak can keep going for a very long time, well after you run out of money. I then realized he was not interested in a lecture from me about statistics and let it go.
My strategy worked, I won back the initial bet of $10, cashed out my chips, and left. I was happy to be $10 richer but it makes me sad how this guy might genuinely leave this vacation in severe debt because he doesn’t understand basic stats.
by tombert - People excoriate Meta for its practices but they don't even touch the pure evil in psychological manipulation that seems to be openly tolerated with sports gambling.by zmmmmm
- I'm glad I read this, but I wish the HN title included the subtitle too--it would be nice to be able to know know what the article was about before clicking it.by fwipsy
- Its striking how fast gambling has been growing in the US. Up to $17B revenue (after payouts) in 2026, when it was $7.5B in 2022.
[0] https://www.statista.com/chart/29332/gross-gaming-revenue-fr...
by smashers1114 - It's interesting to discuss this here, when YC also invested in one of those destructive companies Kalshi: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/kalshi
Betting of any type is bad for humanity
by throwaw12 - Legalizing sports gambling was the biggest unforced error in United States public policy in living memory. I expect that almost nobody reading Hacker News has a gambling problem, but people at the other end of the economic spectrum are being absolutely ripped up by it. Unfortunately, it's probably not going to change soon. Too much money to be made now.
Reasonable overview here and it's only gotten worse since 2024. https://thezvi.substack.com/p/the-online-sports-gambling-exp...
by jbellis