There are many of us out there who will proudly announce that they never gamble, whereas in reality millions of us do and on a regular basis. The mistake these people make is that they don’t consider their weekly lottery ticket or game of bingo to be a form of gambling, but as you are paying out money in the hope to win more, they both fall into the category of gambling, and a lot of fun they are too!
Responsible gambling is a lot of fun. It is also very social, not only in the likes of bingo but in casinos, betting shops, and even in the pub watching the big match. We all have dream lists of those things we would buy if we had the money, and the chance of gambling a few quid and exchanging it for being able to take care of that dream list is very tempting.
If you buy a lottery ticket, have a game of bingo, and bet on the Grand National every year yes, you gamble, but enjoy it rather than it being a compulsion. A £1 lottery ticket isn’t doing anyone any harm, and the chance to win millions and change your life forever is a tempting carrot to dangle in front of anybody, and one that the majority of us find hard to resist.
Betting shops, once smoky joints next to working men’s clubs, were once seedy dens full of working class men studying the form, backing a horse, and listening to the race on a radio. They are now bright, airy, full of plasma TV’s showing sports from around the world and you can bet on just about anything. Dogs, football, the Olympics, you name it you can place a bet on it, and even non sporting events such as elections attract punters.
There are so many different ways of gambling that it is hard to find anybody who hasn’t gambled at least once in their lives. Those harmless fruit machines in sea front arcades were where many spent their childhoods, and if we were to believe the do gooders, these arcades turned us into a nation of gamblers. There was a thrill involved with watching that pile of 2p’s cascade into the tray granted, but it’s a treasured memory of childhood that shouldn’t be sullied.
Online gambling is the singularly biggest way of getting people to give up their cash in return for the slight hope that you will hit the big one. Online casinos, slots and bingo sites are the really big money spinners, along with those sites where you can play along interactively with what you see on your TV screen in the early hours.
Gambling, however you think of it, is a multi million pound business that it will stay that way as long as we keep trying to exchange small sums for life changing amounts, and the amount of fun we have doing this would indicate that that day isn’t going to be here any time soon.