Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Why Do People Gamble? Reasons to Gambling Popularity

Gambling in its various forms has been popular for centuries in different cultures all over the entire world. Whether through the national lottery, in horse racing tracks or in casino table games, people are wagering their money hoping to win big time. Although the number of people who go home with life changing winnings is much smaller than the number of people who have left their money in the casinos, race tracks or bingo halls, the popularity of the pastime has not been reduced through the years.

Despite the low odds of stepping out as winners in most popular forms of gambling is a well known fact, even though gambling suffers from a bad reputation and even when it is illegal, gambling is still one of the most popular pastimes in the world. So, why do people gamble? The most obvious answer would be money, but it will not be a full answer. There are many other reasons that drive people to the nearest gambling facility. Here we will try to offer an answer to this disturbing question.

Luck: the irrational believe in luck is engraved in most of us. These unexplained gut feelings that a special day or a certain number is luckier than the others are sends a lot of people to gamble or even gamble on the same numbers over and over again.

Social Purposes: have you ever wonder how can a group of people beat the pants off someone in a poker game and remain best buddies? You can see it in bingo halls, casino bars and friendly poker games: many people see gambling as an opportunity to make new friends or spend time with old friends in addition to the chance of earning additional money.

Entertainment: many people visit casinos and play their favorite casino games simply because they love it and they are having a great time. In Las Vegas casinos for example, you will meet more recreational gamblers who see gambling as part of their vacation activities than professional gamblers who take gambling as a serious source of income.

Excitement: the act of gambling apparently can give you quite an adrenaline rush. Regardless of the money aspect, the anticipation of the outcome of the game while still not knowing whether it would match your bet is what makes all forms of gambling so thrilling and exciting.

Relaxation: as opposed to the accelerated adrenaline rush described by many gamblers, many gamblers find the gambling experience relaxing. When you think about it, what can be more relaxing than ending a busy work week in the comfortable casino atmosphere, playing your favorite game and served free drinks?

Boredom: whether exciting or relaxing, when the daily lives become an unbearable routine, gambling can serve as a way to escape reality.

Money: in addition to all the reasons mentioned above, gambling allegedly provides an opportunity to can earn unbelievable amounts of money within short time and minimum investment. Even if you are aware to the exact mathematical odds of beating each and every gambling game, if you are an optimist by nature, this slightest chance would nevertheless drive you to a casino, a bookie, a lottery terminal or a bingo hall.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Video Takes Over the Web

Today, the web has become one of the most common platforms for personal socializing and marketing products and services throughout the world. With more bandwidth, now available for almost the price of peanuts, it has become very easy to put up content in the form of audio, video and images as compared to plain text. As the web began to take off and technology improved, people were able to use and utilize more interactive forms of media via the web.

Because of this, one of the most effective advertising and communicative media- web videos, have taken the place of TV commercials, life experiences and short movies!
Websites like Youtube.com and the likes, have capitalized on this phenomenon and have rooted themselves firmly in to the world of videos, which are taking over the web.

With various playback technologies now supported by the web, it has now become easier than every to incorporate videos on any website, hosted on any platform. The cost of putting up videos on the web is all dependent on the purpose and goal of the web videos.

Many large and small brands alike, have realized the potential of websites like youtube.com, and are releasing videos on the web, for their marketing campaigns. Individuals too, utilize and release web videos over the web. Some videos released over the web, are about sharing life experiences, some are about personal interviews, some for dating and so on.

Videos have taken over the web like a storm and their popularity is ever growing and ever increasing. So much so that, today major search engines like Google and Yahoo are working on web video search algorithms. The popularity of videos over the internet has soared to new heights especially with the advent of web video blogs, particularly since the sole purpose of web blogs, in general, is to facilitate the sharing of information, be it personal or commercial, with one’s self and others.

Web videos have another, ulterior advantage as compared to other web media like images, sounds and animation; that being the power to grab attention of all individuals efficiently, since the average attention span of an average Joe or Jane is extremely short and plenty of other options are available. Since, web videos are efficient and more to the point, many prefer to watch rather than read or listen. Web videos also offer extremely high entertainment value, engaging potential readers and customers alike, and the same time they are competent in portraying what one may want others to know, be it life experiences or marketing bottom-lines.

Thus web videos are not only the best and most efficient marketing tools on the web today, but also the best way to communicate and stay in touch with family and friends, express one’s feelings or give personal interviews. The ease of use, entertainment value and attention grabbing ability of web videos coupled up with the fact that they are easy to make/record, upload and share, is video has taken over the web.

Video Poker: Why Do People Like It

Yesterday, I was having a pint at my local bar when I noticed a small guy in a dark suit. Sitting to the far-right corner of the bar and away from all of us, this short man was crouched over a glowing video poker screen. Huh?

It was just a few months back that casinos all over the world and especially in Las Vegas were removing poker, baccarat and blackjack tables and adding more and more slot machines instead. But then something peculiar took place. Casino owners and employees noticed that one corner of the machines was more crowded than the rest. A short examination revealed that the games allocated to the slot section was none other than video poker. So why are so many interested players preferring video poker?

Here, I will try and answer some of the more practical reasons why this has happened and will happen even more and more:

1) The Odds: While slot machines offer odds that are pretty difficult to win on (and by that I mean the real big bucks), video poker machines are much easier when it comes to accumulating a large sum because it is somewhat based (even though loosely) on poker. This makes each player think that it is based on his skill more than just on luck.

2) More Choice: By this I am not referring to the pick of different slot machines, but rather to the fact that you have the choice of selecting the row to play with it whereas in slots, you have no real control after you press the button or pull the lever. It is not a secret that the principle of both these two games is to try and hit the money jackpot whether it is by getting the appropriate numbers or symbols aligned or whether it is by getting a royal poker flush. To do this in video poker, you have to pick from a number of five-hand cards.

3) Sitting Out: When playing at a slot machine, you have to play each and every time. If you want to stop, you have to clear the machine so that someone else can get a try. But this is not the case when playing video poker. This game allows you to simply sit out a round or two and then continue whenever you feel like.

4) Higher Money Ratio: Because of the chance that you can sit out any round where your cards are not any good. You have a bigger chance making an overall profit out of the time you spent playing at the casino whether it is an online casino or a land one or even whether it is just a small machine in the local diner or bar or regional gas station.

5) It is also said in many video poker circles and plenty of other articles around the web that the statistics of hitting higher paying options while playing video poker are higher in comparison to playing video slot machines.

Conclusion:
Not withstanding all of the above reasons, the fact that poker is very popular and slot machines too only leads me to assume that a game combining the two will be greatly appreciated by any player of either of the two games but more so by those who enjoy the drone of the machine.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Easy Games to Play for Fun

Get acquainted with a practical guide on the easiest games that you can play online. And once you read this article, you will find that you have at least stopped losing all your money. If you follow the advice well and to the dot, you will also learn how to start winning cash from other players or by beating the casino. Sounds interesting? It is.

Note that the games you must look out for are those where the house edge is very low. If these are hard to find at the casino you have entered, look for those games that depend more on skill than on luck. Some of these include blackjack and poker. The games to avoid because they depend solely on luck are any of the slot machine games such as Caribbean Stud or the regular or progressive slot jackpots. These rely only on luck and the house edge there is against you.

What is a House Edge?
Since the casinos and betting establishments are in it for making money, they have created an artificial method to gain leverage over the players. This is what they have termed house edge. What it means is that over and above what you win, the casinos deduct a certain amount for themselves. It is something like insurance but only for them and not for you. But the casinos do not actually do this. Instead, they have inserted these odds into the game winnings so that you do not notice it. When you win, you are paid according to the newly calculated odds and you are no wiser.

For instance, if you walk over to a casino and place a bet of ten dollars on a roulette table. (For arguments sake, let us also suppose it was an American roulette table.) If you win, you should be given three hundred and seventy dollars because the true odds is thirty-seven to one. Instead, you will only get three hundred and fifty dollars according to the odds of thirty-five to one. This is what I was referring to in the previous paragraph. What has happened is that you have lost twenty dollars to the casino as part of the house edge.

Playing Poker:
Pick and play this exceptional game because ,here, you are not competing against the house at all. It is other players like you who you are up against. Do battle against them and defeat them for cash. No house edge comes in the way here, but you do pay a small part of the money you win to the casino as a commission. This winning commission is called rake, and its so minute that you do not feel it pinch your pocket.

In addition, this is one of the best games to play if you are good at it and if you have razor-sharp skills. You will be able to mint money like crazy if you can read other expressions and count the cards well. You can also pick from a variety of game variations such as Red Dog Poker and Texas Holdem.

Playing Blackjack:
This is one of those games that the casino does not like you playing. If it was up to the betting establishments, they would remove these tables altogether. Why? Because the edge for them is only a half percent! Thus, is you play well by remembering that you have to beat the dealer and not reach 21, you stand a big chance of accumulating a large sum. I also suggest you brush up on your mathematical skills.

If you wish, learn how to count cards, but be careful. Because card counting works, casinos have banned it. All you have to do is count the colored cards (the cards that are ten and above). Then, it will be easier to decide which bet to make and which not to make. Practice again and again at home because you not only have to master this skill but you also have to learn to do it silently so that the casinos do not catch on.

Video Poker:
This is a game very much like one of the many regular and progressive slot machines games you will run into at a casino, but it is different. Unlike slots, skill plays a big part in the results, and thus you have a bigger chance of winning than at one of the slot machines.

But, before you begin, glance at the payment structure pasted on the machine. You should make your gaming decisions based on the house odds and payment structures of the machine.