The Future of Gambling Mysteries’ Exposed

Gaming for money continues to expand in 2015 on land and in cyberspace. A recent study indicated that the pace of digital gambling will reach $100 billion by 2017. That is two years from now. Currently it stands at about $21 billion.

It is important to note that the majority of this digital gambling is done without any chance of winning real money. In other words, people only play to play, even when no cash-in-hand result is possible. It is safe to presume that the majority of this digital gambling is done by the under-35 crowd, as most older folks prefer to avoid the newfangled gadgetry of modern technology. The majority of the casino action is taking place on iOS and Android smartphone apps.

There is something about the human race that likes to take risks, from our genetics during our development, to the choices we make in our everyday lives. Whether jumping out of an airplane to parachute to terra firma, or rolling the dice hoping to land on boxcars, the idea of coming out on top is appealing to us all.

It is likely the reason many of us like sports as much as we do, where people paint their faces, go belly-to-belly with the fans of rival teams, or even the extreme passion where entire stadium break out into violence. We all like to come out on top, sometimes soaked in spilled beer.

There is an important distinction between coming out on top and winning. At a casino you can win without bankrupting the house. There can be many winners, and much of it depends on your chance of game or slot machine on a given day. One lucky number choice on a roulette wheel will send you home with hundreds or thousands of dollars in seconds. “Always bet on red 23” was a piece of advice I overheard a couple of decades ago…

In most competitions, it is the strongest or the fastest or the most talented that has an edge and a better chance to win it all. Skill. In most competitions, there is a single winner, a king of the hill, who walks away with first place. Second place finishers, whether by a tenth of a second or one point, are rarely remembered and less honored. In most competitions, excuses are made and conspiracy theories sought after to explain why a person or team lost an important contest.