Overcoming the Stigma of Betting

I Bet a lot and I am not ashamed of it. Most people are pretty Risk Averse and many of them see people who Bet as reckless degenerates. While there are certainly some Problem Gamblers who ARE reckless degenerates – I am not one of them. However, I constantly face the stigma of people who like to paint us all with the same brush and try to ban betting activities, therefore I don’t always talk about my betting with people who have Closed Minds. Even on HIVE where the Crypto investors here have a much higher Risk Tolerance than most people it’s my betting posts that are probably the ones which get the least engagement from followers.

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Not that I am complaining about this because I know the score, but today I wanted to try and overcome some of the stigma around Betting and maybe try to educate people a bit more about what's really going on here. The first point I'd like to make is that I believe there is a big difference between Punting and Gambling. Gambling typically involves pure games of chance and there is ZERO skill involved. Poker Machines, Casino Games (like Roulette or Craps), Lotteries and even picking random Horses at the racetrack because of the horses name or the silk colours of the jockey are common forms of Pure Gambling and with Pure Gambing The House Always Wins in the long run.

However with Punting there is an element of skill and/or knowledge involved in placing Bets because true Punters are always looking for Value. Punting in many ways is just like Risk Management where the only risk is Financial. Punters typically try to find an “Edge” in a Betting (Prediction) Market that might be priced wrong and Punters who are good at doing this make money over the long run….and the Markets become priced more efficiently as a result of their activity in the market. Capitalists call this phenomenon of correcting markets Price Discovery.

Once you view Betting in this way and redefine it as Financial Risk Management it expands the field of what Betting actually IS. For instance, Insurance Companies are basically just glorified Bookmakers. When you insure your house against catching on fire you are basically placing a yearly Bet at odds of maybe 500:1 that your house WILL catch fire. If it doesn’t then you lose your premium (bet) but if your house DOES burn down then you get paid out at x500 your premium. Similarly (maybe even controversially) if you put your money in the bank at 1% interest you are making a Bet of 1:100 that your bank won’t go bankrupt and take your money. If the bank stays solvent you win your 1%, but if it goes broke then you lose your 100%. Investing in the Share Market or for that matter investing in ANYTHING is also a Bet that your investment is going to increase in value instead of decrease. All of these Betting examples I’ve given are forms of Financial Risk Management which carry no stigma.

Nearly everything in life contains some risk that most people discount or completely ignore. Crossing the road, catching a plane, even ordering a dodgy Kebab at 3AM after a big night out – all of these things carry risk and while the risks may be small, people take risks and Gamble (not just with Money) every single day. Many people who get to know me as a Punter think that I take reckless risks with other aspects of my life, but its quite the opposite. I am VERY conservative with non-Financial Risk. As a punter I know that even the 1% chance does happen 1 in 100 times so I can see all those little risks and I’m always looking to hedge those risks out if I can.

So don’t be putting me in that bucket with the Reckless Degenerates because you couldn’t be further from the mark. In many ways the people out there who ignore those little non-Financial Risks which carry disastrous consequences - THEY are the REAL Gamblers and they don't even know it.