Social Media and Gambling

Due to the popularity of social media, gambling has taken on a whole new life. Gambling regulators face more challenges now than they ever did in the past as a result. Britain’s Responsible Gambling Trust released a report which stated that any Twitter member that chooses to follow a trio of the site’s most active gambling related accounts could get hundreds of promotional tweets every day.

Research conducted in order to complete this report determined that 877 Twitter accounts are somehow related to gambling. Speaking to Britain’s love of gambling, more than 900,000 members of Twitter follow some gambling related account.

The Chief Executive of the Responsible Gaming Trust thinks that gambling and social media activities go hand in hand. He is committed to ensuring that the gambling industry’s use of social media does not tempt those who have a problem with gambling. His hope is that as a result of the report gambling operators and regulators will be able to manage the negative aspects of gambling and social media on vulnerable parties.

One issue concerning social media and gambling in the U.K is that it is putting a strain on many marriages throughout the country. A growing number of divorcing couples are blaming the demise of their relationship on the link between Facebook and gambling, as well as other social media sites. The trend in the U.K. is that those married couples who are divorcing due to social media gambling are most members of the middle class, working class or poor.

A study of 6,500 divorcees was conducted which determined that so far in 2016 as many as 40% of the divorce petitions filed in the U.K. note that social media and/or gambling contributed to their divorce. This number is up 20% since 2009.

Despite the fact that social media and gambling has led to an increase in divorces among U.K. residents, the U.S. is embracing it; especially land based casinos that are desperate to compete with today’s online casinos.

The Morongo Casino Resort and Spa, located near Palm Springs, California has overhauled the theme of their casino floor bar to make it more social media friendly. The casino set the MEBar’s new theme “Sit down, log in, drink up and start trending.” Throughout the bar there are HD monitors linked to social media sites such as Twitter that allow people to take selfies and share them on the monitors.

According to the casino’s Executive Director of Marketing, the MEBar’s social media linked monitors are meant to help people show others in the bar, as well as those on social media, that they are enjoying themselves. He said that the goal of the newly themed bar is to give their guests a unique experience by integrating social media with gambling activities.

This is likely only the beginning of both land based and online casinos using social media to enhance the gambling experience and help get more people excited about the possibilities when combining the two.

Gambling Rules Everyone Should Follow

There are certain rules that every successful gambler has embraced. These rules ensure smart choices are made and that certain pitfalls are avoided. They have been tested by many gamblers over the years and all have been proven accurate.

One important rule for gambling is to maintain discipline. Those who lack the proper discipline to gamble smartly are urged to avoid it at all costs. Gambling transactions in which an individual has no discipline often lead to financial and personal problems.

Creating and maintaining a bankroll is the best way to successfully gamble. The more control one has over their bankroll the less likely they are to notice the inevitable small losses. A single transaction should never be higher than 2.5% of a gambler’s total budget for that session. A structured strategy for placing bets includes the goals of being specific, measure, achievable, realistic and time-based.

Smart gamblers choose one particular game and become specialized at it. The more thought and research one puts into the game they play the more likely they are to gamble successfully. A gambler who is trying to determine what their specialization should be needs to look at all of the games they play and examine their betting patterns in each one. Choosing the game in which they see the strongest betting patterns is a recipe for winning. When choosing a market to gamble in it helps to learn as much about that market in advance as possible. Gamblers who follow the rules know that it is necessary to keep track of their gambling statistics and records. This makes for better investments which makes it easier to continue gambling.

Any game a gambler chooses to specialize in can be tested for fee. Online casinos that allow players to access games for free provide excellent training grounds for them. Ideally a gambler should choose to specialize in, and therefore, bet real money on, a game if they can win it 75% to 80% of the time. Anything less than 75% is not worth the investment for savvy gamblers.

Regardless of the market a gambler invests in one golden rule is to avoid combining odds for various events they can gamble on. Doing so forces gamblers to face lower odds of winning. When odds are combined it is called an accumulator bet, and professionals in the gambling field advise those joining the field to avoid this type of bet. A gambler’s best shot at winnings comes when they focus on making it less likely that they will lose money. Gamblers are urged to strive to make a profit without becoming greedy in the process.

Finally, one last rule is that depending on an individual’s country they may have to pay taxes on their gambling. This makes it important to keep records that allow individuals to properly claim their wins/losses on their taxes. Those gamblers who are based in the U.K. will find that they do not need to pay taxes on their winnings.

Online vs Offline Gambling

Though gambling is possible both online and offline many prefer one over the other while some choose to engage in both. There are advantages and disadvantages to gambling online vs offline.

When it comes to the convenience of being able to play, online casinos trump offline casinos since the online version can be accessed from any Internet connected computer. Traveling to a casino takes up valuable time that many gamblers can’t or don’t want to spare. Online casinos are also more convenient for gamblers who wish to have a wider variety of games to choose from. They add new games a lot more often than offline casinos do because they don’t need physical space to hold the games. While most offline casinos don’t offer games such as Bingo, many online casinos do, making them more convenient for those who wish to play.

Many people prefer online gambling for the simple reason that it is safer to engage in than offline gambling. It is virtually impossible for winnings to be stolen from online casino players, yet those who gamble at offline casinos are often victims of robbery. Legitimate online casinos take measures to ensure that their members can gamble safely.

Online casinos offer many different options to players for withdrawing their winnings. However, this is one of the few areas where offline casinos have the upper hand as and chips won on table games can be cashed in immediately. When it comes to online casinos the most popular way to pay gamblers their winnings is to send it to their credit card. Yet it can take one or more business days for the transaction to be completed. This is a big part of the reason why many older gamblers who are set in their ways prefer gambling offline to gambling online.

One of the biggest ways in which online casinos trump offline casinos is that those operating online offer frequent bonuses to eligible players. This is something offline casinos are not in the habit of doing, but younger gamblers have become accustomed to being offered bonuses. Online casinos also enjoy an advantage over their offline counterparts because those who are new to gambling can often practice their game of choice at an online casino for free, something they could never do at an offline casino.

People have long seen going to the casino as a social outing. This would give offline the casinos the advantage if online casinos did not allow their players to communicate, which many of them do through the use of game rooms, especially in the case of Bingo. However, some people still prefer the face to face interaction they can get at an offline casino. In online casinos the only way to get face to face interaction is to take advantage of a casino’s live section in which players can see and interact with their game dealer.

Both online and offline casinos are excellent at providing gamblers with a variety of entertainment options.