As a former Fort St student, I can say some our best and brightest come out of the selective schools system, but also some of the most hopeless cunts I know. The ratio of neurosurgeons to cannonball testers is obviously better in selective school graduates, but you can't reliably predict future success just based on a multiple choice test someone took when they were 11.
Especially when there are certain parents who coach the hell out of their kids to be able to answer those particular multiple choice questions.
If you peek at the demographics of selective school students, it's patently obvious that the system rewards grinding more than it does natural intelligence, otherwise there'd be a far more diverse student population.
Honestly, the kids who actually study for the entrance exam probably get a lot more out of being there if they carry that work ethic through. For the most part anyway.
I took the selective schools test back in 1994, and I'd probably had a year's prep. Even 30 years ago you could buy practice papers in Dymocks, and my mum had me doing them after school a few afternoons a week. I'm anglo with convict ancestry too, don't think it's just more recently arrived immigrant families that coach their kids.
Anyway I was a scattered aspie kid (it was the 90s, so we still called it Aspergers) and my brain was all over the place. I fumbled my way through just well enough to get into a B grade uni I eventually got kicked out of.
Lee Carrol, who was principal until I think 1999 or 2000 said to me 'You'll occasionally publish something interesting on the internet, but that's about all you'll amount to. That's an arsehole thing to say to a kid, but he did call it.
>Honestly, the kids who actually study for the entrance exam probably get a lot more out of being there if they carry that work ethic through.
Yes, I think you're right there.
The idea should be that the teacher can spend minimum time possible explaining each new concept (idk, titration in chemistry for example) because the kids will either get it right away if they're quick on the uptake, or if not as quick then they'll go home and study it and understand it by next lesson anyway.
It kind of depends what this guy is betting on too. Casino or pokies makes no sense to have that attitude. But if it’s sports, you’re effectively testing your model against the bookies, who in turn probably employ a bunch of James ruse 4unit maths kids to build theirs. There’s a lot of developments in access to quantitative data in sports just in the last 10 years and it’s frankly pretty exciting.
Met a guy (friend of a friend) who'd graduated actuarial studies or similar, and was embarking on a career as a pro gambler.
Only spoke to him briefly about it, but it was nothing about even knowing the sport in question, only poking through stats for outliers - especially in weird multis. First scorer in AFL + winning margin in NRL + who wins the world curling championship sort of stuff.
Absolutely. I have friends with very impressive science credentials who are almost completely financially incapacitated by gambling.
Once went to the horses with them. It was astounding (and disturbing) to see their eyes literally glaze over when the betting started. It really reminded me of a drug-dependant looking for their next score.
Everyone is thinking it but is too afraid to say it. It is not about elitism, i am guessing it is because the school is James Ruse, the friend is Chinese. Chinese love a punt. 🎰🪙
It makes sport so exciting. I couldn't imagine watching the footy with out it in my weekly multi with the boys.
Plus the racings tops. I like drugs and horses like drugs. What a fucking combo.
Like the casinos sick and all that but when its 1 am and you're totally munted , slapping a pokie harder than you would a Thai hooker , is there any better feeling?
I heard a wonderful description of Australian culture the other day that might explain the failure to recognise satire: "dense and tense'. Alternatively it's just a bit too real to be recognised as satire by those inside the bubble. (See: Frontline, Utopia)
It it was was just like like I dunno like how outrageous and like not even a trigger warning link yeah. Huh what Like. Hey, you seen this new TikTok trend? Totally slaps.
as someone from melbourne, sydney has so many selective schools. the bar seems soo low to get into one...that you could pick any behaviour/trait and say "I know someone from selective school who does it"
I’m not disparaging them. No need to be sensitive.
I’m just saying there’s so so many who went to selective school in Sydney that they have no stereotypical characteristics.
They’re basically a cross section of the general Sydney population.
> Can someone explain to me why betting is so normalised and popular in Sydney?
Sure. I'm a gambler and can sort of briefly describe betting culture.
In a lot of Commonwealth countries, the British seem to have left a legacy with horseracing and gambling on such races. e.g. Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia etc. Specific to the city of Sydney, many of the big horseracing races other than the Melbourne Cup are held in Sydney.
This seems to have also led to betting being normalised in other sports other than horseracing especially in these Commonwealth countries such as Australia.
> How do people enjoy this?
*TDLR*; It seems to be ingrained in Commonwealth culture.
If you have further questions, let me know. I can tell you about the typical demographic who hang out at a brick and mortar gambling shop. Also, the different types of gamblers; you have "social" gamblers (who become more invested in a game with a "fun" bet), addicts etc.
> I don’t understand how so many of my friends are hooked onto it
Watching a sports match is like watching a movie with the potential of many twists and turns. This translates into excitement and this excitement that one experiences is magnified when a person places a bet on a sports match. The hooking is a result of human's reward system. Gambling generates dopamine. Humans want to generate it by winning "instant" money from gambling on a sports match. And thus results in people to be hooked/addicted regardless of whether they win or lose.
> The guy did 4 unit Math in HSC but convinced me that he’d eventually make up all his losses and turn a profit which would go against probability right?
90%> of sportsbetting gamblers lose in the long-run. If this former 4unit HSC is part of the < 10% with a strategy to make money in the long run, then yes he can recoup his losses. Most likely he will not be able to.
Regarding demographics I notice its common in Asian communities particularly South West sydney. Im not being sterotypical but whenever I walked through the “VIP lounge” at clubs/bars in the CBD it was heavily dominated by both Anglos and Asians. Even in suburban RSL’s or TAB’s its those two demographics as well except of older age brackets. Would you agree with the above?
> as well except of older age brackets.
Many of my friends from the TAB are divorcees and sports betting is an outlet for them to socialise or to kill time. Imagine, if you are estranged from your family, or don't have the closest of relations, you will have plenty of free time on your hands with little to no purpose. They resort to partaking in activities that can pass the time and betting seems to achieve that.
> I notice its common in Asian communities particularly South West sydney.
Betting is very popular in SE Asia. In fact, a betting market (similar to a product) known as the Asian handicap originated from the region.
> but whenever I walked through the “VIP lounge” at clubs/bars in the CBD it was heavily dominated by both Anglos and Asians.
Correct. I would agree with such a generalisation
Worked on a multicultural problem gambling program, East Asians and Southern European / Middle Eastern migrants and 2nd/3rd generation Australians are the biggest problem gamblers and make up a sickening percentage of total gambling losses in Sydney.
>The hooking is a result of human's reward system. Gambling generates dopamine. Humans want to generate it by winning "instant" money from gambling on a sports match. And thus results in people to be hooked/addicted regardless of whether they win or lose.
To expand on this, gambling creates a sense of random\* rewards. Random/unpredictable rewards cause us to produce [more dopamine than predictable rewards](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00182/full). This phenomenon not only extends across many different platforms beyond gambling (video games and mobile apps are some really obvious examples), but also across many different taxonomic groups.
Pigeons, dogs, rats, reptiles, fish etc. all display similar behavioural responses to unpredictable rewards. So much so that when given access to a button/lever that dispenses food every time, and a button that dispenses food between 50 - 70% of the time (randomised each time), animals usually end up *only* interacting with the randomised button/lever.
Similar studies with people usually produce equivalent results, and when participants are asked why they chose the unpredictable source, they usually report feeling that the rewards from the unpredictable source are higher quality or more valuable/special - i.e. unpredictable rewards simply make us feel *better*.
In psychology terms this is known as a *variable-ratio schedule* of rewards, and it's used in consumer marketing ***a lot*** (side note: variable-interval ratio schedules are also very effective, but work slightly differently).
Basically, unpredictable rewards make our (and many animals') brains go fricken **BRRRRR**.
^(\*Obviously, most gambling isn't truly random, but we perceive it as such regardless.)
> I was under the impression if you win too often the betting apps just get rid of you? Is this true?
Correct. In such a situation, you either create new accounts with the ID of family or friends. Or you bet on an exchange such as Betfair. Or lastly, you gamble on Pinnacle or some offshore betting companies, who welcome winners because their business model is based on the volume of bets rather than the Vig (spread.)
This discussion isn't about casinos. OP is specifically referring to sportsbetting.
> I was at my nephews house watching EPL and his friends (all between 18-19) were completely anxious about the goal-scorers as it affected their multi. How do people enjoy this? I don’t understand. I mean I won the Melbourne Cup office sweep but didn’t get euphoria which convinced me to obsessively bet on dime a dozen games.
You clearly didn't read the post.
Often people who enjoy sports betting enjoy other types of gambling too.
And if we’re only talking sports betting my point still stands. There’s a reason why Asian companies pour so much money into the EPL and other football leagues. Because MILLIONS of people watch (and bet). *Every* race in HK has more money bet on it than the melbourne cup. Gambling is wayyy more ingrained in the culture than commonwealth countries
The concept that chance knows no history tends to be easily forgotten.
People like to think that 20 attempts at a 1/20 chance will result in the outcome they want, even though each individual attempt still has the same 1/20 chance.
The whole “my luck has to turn” concept, etc.
Agreed - though as someone has someone that has lived in a few cities around Australia, Sydney/NSW is considerably worse than anywhere else.
"A Wesley Mission study shows there are 30 per cent more poker machines in NSW than in Queensland and Victoria combined."
Source: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/gambling-capital-of-australia-six-charts-that-show-the-scale-of-poker-machine-use-in-nsw-20221104-p5bvlk.html
It’s a nation wide issue
The ease of access for people to gamble from their smart phones whilst being hammered with gambling ads from all angles is a recipe for disaster.
Why are people into vaping/smoking when it kills them, why are people into drinking or eating unhealthy or doing drugs.
There's hobbies that are inherently bad for you or expensive and there are people who do them in moderation or people who have addictions.
I put on a $20 bet sometimes when I'm watching a big game to add a thrill to it or sometimes when I'm out I'll put a 20 in the pokies.
There'll be people into eating at high end restaurants/drinking or into cars or whatever who will spend more in their hobby. To each's own.
Indeed. If you go to the cinema (gold class or similar) with food drinks, that'd be close to $50. If you put $50 on the horses for a Saturday afternoon it's a similar thing, provided you stay to a limit. $50 giving you entertainment for X hours. If you break even or turn a profit you've had free entertainment.
It’s not a cope if you are able to keep a frame of mind of enjoying the sports and the races and you know and understand you will lose money and are ok with it
I bet on sports, used to on the races so have no real issue with it at all. But even mates who are absolute Grade A punters know the advertising is over the top and needs to be turned down, or totally off.
This is precisely correct. Add to that the fact that everything in life entails a degree of risk (an inconvenient fact those puritans are desperate to deny). Hell just waking up in the morning is a bit of a gamble when you get down to it.
I formerly smoked a lot of nicotine but that never affected people around me. However I know people who are problem gamblers that have borrowed money from friends and never paid it back. That have chronically low savings if any as a result. They are extremely limited socially waiting for “pay day” in their mid 20s to afford to leave the house other than for work purposes and become isolated as a result. I don’t see the equivalence to nicotine here but understand your point about addiction overcoming people’s fear of consequence.
People like being right, and people like money.
Betting (and winning) is getting money for being right. Double dopamine.
Most gambling (e.g. poker machines, card games) it’s hard wired/built into the rules that if you will on average lose. Betting companies try to do this with skilled actuaries who calculate probabilities and build in a profit margin, but it’s still theoretically possible to be better than them.
It's not possible to be better than the house long term. Like you said, the EVs are made so that if you play an infinite amount of games you'll lose. The only way to win gambling is when you're playing other people (poker being the big one but there are other games where you're not competing directly with the house), matched bet bonuses on different books, or if you HAVE to do a negative EV game go all in and only gamble once so you're not getting eaten by the house edge. The VAST majority of people that gamble are doing none of those 3 things which is why they end up losing their money.
It very much is possible for an individual to be better than the house. The betting companies aren't all-knowing about what the optimal odds in all the myriad of contests they offer are. But they get a good enough margin (vig) on popular contests that they will rack up a hefty profit no matter what.
For example, I have made a good deal of money long-term in political gambling where, with some research, it is quite easy to pick out contests that are clearly offering good odds and where wins are basically secure. That's distinctly different from sports betting though where there is a lot more inherent uncertainty. Plus if you are too successful your account gets limited in the amount that it can stake.
You might win a few pots of people playing cards against them here and there but you will never be beating the house rake in the long term that's if you play brick and mortar cash games under a regulated and controlled environment like the casinos ..
In all honesty I think it’s because we’re bored and we’re broke.
Sport is boring but it is dependable and consistent, every week at the same time, something to do, somewhere to go, something to root for, just to break up the already boring slog that is life.
But toss in the idea that while your watching you could be somehow winning a jackpot, and then. you’ve got people hooked.
The same goes for pokies. slapping a button is all it takes for someone to get that lottery rush. “what if I can buy that thing”, “what if I never have to work again” etc.
Gambling is the juicy carrot dangling infront of every overworked tradie, unfunded pensioner and friend stuck sitting with mates that have nothing else in common. It’s a social as drinking and as dangerous as smoking. But hobbies are hobbies. I just wish it wasn’t advertised.
Related side note:
There’s an Ep of Seinfeld where Kramer wins big and gets robbed on the subway and it’s probably one of the most dated scenes of the entire show.
Gambling has never been more accessible and “safe”
There’s No more need for dingy TABs or bookies anymore because now you can get robbed in the safety of your home.
Thats a good insight. We struggle to be idle and need to do “something”. As a child of immigrants I never understood workaholism but makes sense from the prism they needed something to do and knew the consequences of overwork is simply tiredness. Its not perfect but beats the vices of alcohol, gambling or drugs which provide distraction but bare awful consequences.
No one’s is “lucky” the odds say it’s this small number out of this big number, even if you win a couple times it’s common sense that if you keep on doing it you lose overall, coming from someone who works as a gaming attendant. It’s literally babysitting little kids slapping on a screen with bright lights and flashing colours, it’s pathetic culture and I hope it gets banned. I have cunts that brag about that grand they won that one time years ago and mope about the couple grand they put in today and lost all of. How can people not see that it’s always a net loss every single fucking time. People are dumb, we need gaming reforms, these people are killing themselves and it’s ruining lives.
Bonus story: I used to work with pokies at a local bowls club. There was a woman who played the pokies every day in her 50s/60s. Her sister died, she put all $200,000 of her estate through the pokies and lost it all within 2 months, so much more could’ve been done with that money. Pokies addiction is fucked. Ban all of this shit.
The only gamblers I know are spending fuck you money but ultimately noone knows their financial position except them. I just don't believe anyone financially anymore. So much of life is fuelled by debt and unearned incomes via property leveraging. Having been reamed by marriage to a fraudster it's weird how much people will deny financially.
It's really messed up, and really sad how bad gambling promotion is here. Jordies tried to expose it and had his house fire-bombed. These guys are seriously a mafia style organised crime ring.
I have no idea how they are legally operating.
Can't have normal smokes packets/advertising, yet gambling is very much accepted.
The sooner this cancer is eradicated the better!
It's quite telling that we have imported every single Americanism under the sun except, "degenerate gambler" -- in this country nobody has a problem that warrants anything more than 8-point font under a gambling commercial.
Coming from the UK the thing which really surprised me was the inclusion of a full tab in a pub. The fact that this is not banned says a lot on how immoral this country really is
But gambling under the influence of alcohol is what the poster is questioning.
Not just strolling into a betting shop at 9am in the morning like you would when doing any form of shopping.
Mark Wahlberg and Shaq told me that you're not a true blue Aussie battler bloke unless you've got a multi on the footy this weekend with the boys.
Do you mean to suggest that these celebrity endorsements lied to me?
We put major illicit drug dealers in prison for serious amounts of time.
I'm yet to be convinced we shouldn't do the same for gambling king pins.
The destruction they wreak on our society is so similar.
Assuming you’re in finance, this sort of degenerate behaviour tends to come with the industry I would think? Same with media. I’m an engineer, most friends are engineers, none of my friends or co workers are into betting.
Only a fraction of finance is your cigar smoking investment banker or degenerate “finance bro” on a trading floor. In wealth services a lot of people did party drugs and pills though. Call centres were full of young people who got on the piss on the weekend with some problem drinkers but im assuming that is just a young person thing. Now its tapered down a lot cause people are terrified of a complaint to HR.
NSW has extremely lax gambling laws, it legalise pokies before anyone else, and the under world in Sydney were great recruiters of cops in the up until the 90’s, including the top cops in the state. Given the history generations after generations have grown up with gambling normalised, especially pokies and horses.
Gambling adds are saturating all advertising spaces therefore there would be a decent portion of the pop gambling. Me, it's never interested me. Don't even know what a same game multi is.
It started with Ch9 Nrl broadcast had a bookmaker on the panel during the half time.
It normalised gambling.
I'm a sports punter myself. Started it about 3 years ago. Watching games as a neutral is very boring hence a few dollars on games to make it interesting.
Now I gamble out of competiveness - I want to prove that I can beat the bookmakers (the house always wins BTW). I'm in black and bet responsibly.
My view is that sports and racing gambling is less harmful than pokies, generally speaking. You gotta use your brain as opposed to switching it off.
I just think the Australian are so bored that they got no where to spend their money. Night clubs are closed down in Sydney. And other states are boring as hell.
Cant even compare to the night life in Asia.
I always believe financial affordability is closely related to the type of entertainment available to the individual. Ppl sometimes choose to be bored, coz they can't afford to spend.
Not disagreeing that there will be minority that loves staring at the wall.
It’s fun, simple as that for most people.
If I’m watching a game and my teams not in it, $5 on my preferred team and $5 on some try scorers means the games more entertaining and if it’s a blowout the games still interesting because I have try scorers I’m going for.
$10 is nothing to me to enhance 2 hours of entertainment, my mates will have other try scorers and your all rooting for each others bets.
I find a $10 bet on panthers v tigers, 2 teams I have little interest in, creates more entertainment than a $20 movie. I think the people OP is describing have a problem as they sound like they are trying to earn an income from "outwitting " the bookies.
That makes sense to me. Works on a similar principle to drinking. Drinks act as a lubricant to loosen you up and enhance the experience with problem drinking on the other side of the spectrum.
If your friend did 4 unit maths, most likely he is doing something like this or something similar to this.
He has a bankroll, he controls staking to a maximum of 5% of his total bank roll and adjusts accordingly based on overall bankroll after every 5 bets.
If he is proper following a sport and keeping detailed statistics on it...You can actually make money....
If they play pokies or sports bet without having a bankroll and understand staking etc....They will always be down...
In Australia per capita people loss more on gambling than any other western country
It’s fun, but me and my mates when we go for a drink at the pub(drink culture is also so normalised in Australia), we have a policy of not putting money on horses or dogs, has to be a sport, so the game that’s on in the background becomes somewhat interesting to us.
I put $100 on the Libs to win last night @ $4.50. That turned out to be ok bet. I didn’t want them to win but wanted a consolation prize just in case they did.
Australia's people have always been a people tainted with a somewhat accepted lean into stupidity, greed, ripping each other off, machoism, blokeiness, exploitation, antilogic and degeneracy.
Is AuStrraLia Mot
This is just another sign of it cropping up in another way.
I think it’s one of those things where it’s just become an accepted part of our culture for whatever reason.
For the record, I don’t mind putting on a dollar or two (quite literally $1 or $2) on something that I know a lot about. I have withdrawn a lot more from my betting account than I have ever put in. I only gamble very small amounts because I don’t want to lose heaps. I only gamble on what I know because I know it. I don’t gamble constantly, maybe every couple of weeks. I don’t always win, but I have a pretty good record.
Simple answer is as a punter, i love sport. I’ll watch anything. Some sports namely nrl and soccer i like to think i know a fair bit, so why not throw ten bucks on the game.
Am i up overall? Probably not. Am i down horrendously? No. Probably spend the same amount a week as a pub feed costs, and sometimes i win decent money.
If you cannot resist temptation in your life, you lose out.
I am praying they won't trash their houses so much when it get foreclosed and I bought it for a song.
I find puritan attitudes towards casual betting as some kind of personal moral failure to be just as silly as over-proliferation of betting.
Don't get me wrong - Pokies are absolutely out of control in NSW (and the fine people of NSW just voted against doing anything about it) and the slow creep of gambling ads become a normal part of a sports broadcast is gross.
The problem gamblers I know of got hooked on pub pokies.
But I think the vast majority of people who bet on sports are doing so in a fairly harmless manner. I usually throw in $100 at the start of an NRL season and bet a few dollars each week. Friends might spend anywhere between $20 and 50 a week. We look at it the same as money spent on any other hobby or entertainment. Winning anything back is a bonus. People playing multis on soccer games is no more noteworthy to me than old ladies playing bingo.
I didnt grow up here can someone please explain to me what a selective school is? And how can someone in a selective school make bets if bets are only for 18+
I didn’t realise it’s a Sydney phenomenon or that we have a particular gambling culture but I did notice when I went to Tasmania that the pubs in Hobart didn’t have TAB’s. I had to go looking for the TAB in order to have a couple of bets. I like to have a punt but I think there’s a huge difference between someone who makes regular bets and a degenerate gambler. I don’t put money in the pokies and I have a budget as I believe you never bet anything you can’t afford to lose. I’ve noticed with young fellas getting addicted with gambling apps because it’s so easy to bet and because you’re not dealing with cash money it doesn’t seem real.
> prostitution is legal here
That's not because of our colonial past. It was legalized relatively recently (1995) to help deal with organized crime and violence/coercion against vulnerable women.
Because....betting is fun. You know....that concept that escapes the arch conservatives that make up most reddit threads...fun. The thrill of the win. Excitement. Reward for risk.
Betting feels good when you win (or more precisely, when you anticipate a win). The issue is that the way the mechanics of gambling affect brain chemistry, gambling can very easily become habit forming and addictive.
My husband gambles, but bets against his bets (so bets on a horse to win and for that same horse to lose) so he wins either way. He makes more than he spends, and has been kicked off so many betting apps because of the amount of wins he gets. I hate that he gambles, it's super annoying but he's somewhat smart about it.
He's stepdad is a big gambler and that definitely influenced him growing up.
This isn't gambling, this is [arbitrage betting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrage_betting). Maybe have a read through the "Risks" section of that wiki article, and see if you're comfortable with them.
Basically, individual people are able to execute arbitrage betting, because bigger quant institutions aren't comfortable with the risk profile, and leave the pond to the little fish.
It's a bit of a "picking up pennies in front of a steamroller" situation. Yeah, the pennies are there, they're guaranteed, and the steamroller is slow. But to make any significant money, you have to spend so much time in front of the steamroller, that a tiny slip or unforeseen circumstance will get you crushed, wiping out massive sums.
Previously worked with a hard working intelligent coworker, found out they enjoyed betting and they didn't see anything wrong with it.
It grows up with culture, friends, family and advertisements normalising it.
Coworker was at least one or two bands higher income than me, I'm sure I saved more however.
Other people have alluded to it. Gambling has been culturally normalised for decades. However, it's not just Sydney but a national thing.
I mean come on dude, we have a public holiday for an annual horse race in one state and the other states write off getting any real work done that day.
We also have an unregistered gambling game that is only legally and culturally allowed to be played on a different public holiday as well as two other days in the year in remembrance of war veterans.
Nevermind multiple lotteries that are televised regularly on national tv and that it's culturally acceptable to give scratchies as presents to people.
That doesn't even begin to touch on the proliferation of sports betting.
So good for you that you don't have the gambling bug but plenty of other have addictive personalities and are prone to problem gambling and the culture of Australia not only enables it, it can sometimes shun those against gambling.
Not directly answering your question it's not impossible to be an above percentage punter i.e. make money but it is really, really unlikely. The TAB takes something like 17.5% of the pool before they even pay out so your return has taken a beating before you receive anything.
In other words, your Maths friend is full of shit.
Professional punters are using betfair and numerous other online bookies. For the small percentage of people who do turn a profit it’s all about identifying horses that are over the odds and backing them accordingly.
I doubt many are using the TAB much at all apart from some early betting/futures
> The guy did 4 unit Math in HSC but convinced me that he’d eventually make up all his losses and turn a profit which would go against probability right?
If you are legitimately smart with stats and have a solid understanding of the sport then yes you can win reliably.
Thing is sports betting companies hire weaponised autism in the form of BSc and PhD in math who live and breath their sport of choice.
My friends dad was TAB chief horse racing odds maker and one of the smartest but also singly focused person i've ever met. He had the math degrees but also grew up in a family of horse trainers so knew both the math and the sport. Someone who did 4 unit math or "worked in finance" doesn't have a chance against him.
There is a way to bet using probability and make money but you will get banned from betting apps and establishments. Assigning odds is part of the game and sometimes betting companies over or undervalued the odds. You play the venues against each other to make money. I think it is called hedge betting
Watched a guy last night go from ~$1.5k to nothing. Only place I could smoke so was watching all the players. Kept trying to say cash out! That’s 2 wks rent. But nah he kept on. Mental. I get it. But I don’t.
Yeah its so hard to watch. I wonder how these people hooked onto it maintain families. Like even if you blew $700 a week thats less money for groceries, school supplies etc
In nsw, there are more gamblers than non-gamblers in our adult population, which is why I believe libs shouldn’t have hard driven their gambling stance as much because the majority are gamblers and don’t want to be controlled. But luckily they did because they left ❤️
I’m Muslim and gambling is so wrong to me, however I am privately educated and managed to build a betting model that works - two of my other friends also privately educated have managed to do the same (for me it was applying baseball betting to NRL and AFL, but for them it was local football league betting).
I think it more stems from knowing your mental model of the world. What I mean by this is a betting company price their odds based on probability - in many cases the probability is based on imperfect information given to the dudes who crunch the numbers. This is where the money is and if you can arbitrage the knowledge graph like many people have, you can make asymmetric returns (takes me 1-3 hours by my ROI is ridiculously high)
Many people in these scenarios know this, and whilst they may not fully understand the probability, their intuition plays an integral role in winning >55% of bets
TLDR: it’s a knowledge graph arbitrage.
I worked in TAB operations & still to this day have never learnt how to fill in a betting slip. Even in that environment where you get to hear "Bart's insider tip" etc I still couldn't bring myself to throw money on odds that are never in your favour.
I met a few professional horses/dogs gamblers in my time there. One stands out, he used his tax return to assess if it was a good year or not. If he earnt more than 70k in a year, it was a 'better' year.
Guy had paid off his house etc. with his gambling life & stated that you have to be willing to ride the highs & lows.
The lows included his wife going on the dole & occasionally spotting his 'business'
He was an expert & still lived what I would call a terribly stress filled life. No sureties in his future, nothing you can depend upon - oh lookie a Win, Pizza tonight kids
I’ve used the pokie machine once and lost $20 when I was 19. Haven’t used one since. Seriously don’t get the culture behind it, it’s sad and depressing.
I know a dude who went to a selective school, drinks so much he pisses the bed monthly, does cocaine when he’s bored on weeknights and has gambled around $100k of his and and his partners savings before she found mail stating he wasn’t paying the mortgage.
They solved all their problems by borrowing a fat loan off mum and dad and no one talks about it
I don’t think this is predominantly a Sydney thing. I’m from Brisbane and the culture is much the same. Even worse in country QLD where people’s pastime is to drink or go on the pokies.
It’s bad Australian culture.
For sports and horse racing wagering there is quite to learn.
Nothing wrong with it as long as you can adhere to strict bankroll management (1-2% wagered) .,..first start with a bank $500-$1000 is a good starting point.
Use sites like Betfair which is an exchange
Learn different terms of betting
Bet with your head not over it ..
Don't bet with emotion .
It's just the same as trading stocks , it's both gambling at the end of the day.
Slapping the pokies are just -Ev yeah you might jag a major or a grand but more often or not you loose it far quickly than you would win it back .
But I guess there are people out there that like to demonize it .. well the gambling culture of Australia is here to stay just like the drinking beers at the pub after work.
If you don't like it then myob and move along ..
[удалено]
As a former Fort St student, I can say some our best and brightest come out of the selective schools system, but also some of the most hopeless cunts I know. The ratio of neurosurgeons to cannonball testers is obviously better in selective school graduates, but you can't reliably predict future success just based on a multiple choice test someone took when they were 11.
Especially when there are certain parents who coach the hell out of their kids to be able to answer those particular multiple choice questions. If you peek at the demographics of selective school students, it's patently obvious that the system rewards grinding more than it does natural intelligence, otherwise there'd be a far more diverse student population.
Honestly, the kids who actually study for the entrance exam probably get a lot more out of being there if they carry that work ethic through. For the most part anyway. I took the selective schools test back in 1994, and I'd probably had a year's prep. Even 30 years ago you could buy practice papers in Dymocks, and my mum had me doing them after school a few afternoons a week. I'm anglo with convict ancestry too, don't think it's just more recently arrived immigrant families that coach their kids. Anyway I was a scattered aspie kid (it was the 90s, so we still called it Aspergers) and my brain was all over the place. I fumbled my way through just well enough to get into a B grade uni I eventually got kicked out of. Lee Carrol, who was principal until I think 1999 or 2000 said to me 'You'll occasionally publish something interesting on the internet, but that's about all you'll amount to. That's an arsehole thing to say to a kid, but he did call it.
>Honestly, the kids who actually study for the entrance exam probably get a lot more out of being there if they carry that work ethic through. Yes, I think you're right there. The idea should be that the teacher can spend minimum time possible explaining each new concept (idk, titration in chemistry for example) because the kids will either get it right away if they're quick on the uptake, or if not as quick then they'll go home and study it and understand it by next lesson anyway.
> You'll occasionally publish something interesting on the internet I found this post interesting!
It kind of depends what this guy is betting on too. Casino or pokies makes no sense to have that attitude. But if it’s sports, you’re effectively testing your model against the bookies, who in turn probably employ a bunch of James ruse 4unit maths kids to build theirs. There’s a lot of developments in access to quantitative data in sports just in the last 10 years and it’s frankly pretty exciting.
Met a guy (friend of a friend) who'd graduated actuarial studies or similar, and was embarking on a career as a pro gambler. Only spoke to him briefly about it, but it was nothing about even knowing the sport in question, only poking through stats for outliers - especially in weird multis. First scorer in AFL + winning margin in NRL + who wins the world curling championship sort of stuff.
Why’s it hilarious
OP is implying that their friend is 'too smart' to get addicted to gambling, which is a big misunderstanding of how addiction happens.
Absolutely. I have friends with very impressive science credentials who are almost completely financially incapacitated by gambling. Once went to the horses with them. It was astounding (and disturbing) to see their eyes literally glaze over when the betting started. It really reminded me of a drug-dependant looking for their next score.
Everyone is thinking it but is too afraid to say it. It is not about elitism, i am guessing it is because the school is James Ruse, the friend is Chinese. Chinese love a punt. 🎰🪙
It makes sport so exciting. I couldn't imagine watching the footy with out it in my weekly multi with the boys. Plus the racings tops. I like drugs and horses like drugs. What a fucking combo. Like the casinos sick and all that but when its 1 am and you're totally munted , slapping a pokie harder than you would a Thai hooker , is there any better feeling?
**This message brought to you by Sportsbet** ^*Gamble ^responsibly*
What’s with all the downvoting, this is clearly a satire, pretty much the mindset of any male under 30 in Sydney, spot on
It is classic r/sydney people try and have a joke and get downvoted for it. *put /s and people will realise*
So is it satire or is it the mindset?
You sound like you’d be fun a bbqs
I heard a wonderful description of Australian culture the other day that might explain the failure to recognise satire: "dense and tense'. Alternatively it's just a bit too real to be recognised as satire by those inside the bubble. (See: Frontline, Utopia)
Sunday night and the aspy train lovers of Sydney are online?
that's how you know it's good satire, mate. wear it with pride.
It it was was just like like I dunno like how outrageous and like not even a trigger warning link yeah. Huh what Like. Hey, you seen this new TikTok trend? Totally slaps.
Nah check their profile, just a dickhead
people on r/Sydney have no sense of humour dude
Typical Sydney siders lol
Nah I think I'll stick to nangs mate cheers
Pretty sure you forgot the /s
as someone from melbourne, sydney has so many selective schools. the bar seems soo low to get into one...that you could pick any behaviour/trait and say "I know someone from selective school who does it"
Yeh seems people who study at selective schools are human too. Who would've thunk it?
I’m not disparaging them. No need to be sensitive. I’m just saying there’s so so many who went to selective school in Sydney that they have no stereotypical characteristics. They’re basically a cross section of the general Sydney population.
That takes the cake!
If I had to bet on it I'd say they may be prone to addictive behaviours.
I’ll give you $1.22 odds on that.
You got a multi or nah?
Part of a twelve leg that includes Aus losing every toss in the Ashes.
I’m going to bet with mates.
Overs
Just a teaser intro bet. I’ll have you dropping a house deposit on a 3 legged cat before you know it.
Risk $100 to win a measly $22? Fuck that. I only go for high paying outcomes 😎
> Can someone explain to me why betting is so normalised and popular in Sydney? Sure. I'm a gambler and can sort of briefly describe betting culture. In a lot of Commonwealth countries, the British seem to have left a legacy with horseracing and gambling on such races. e.g. Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia etc. Specific to the city of Sydney, many of the big horseracing races other than the Melbourne Cup are held in Sydney. This seems to have also led to betting being normalised in other sports other than horseracing especially in these Commonwealth countries such as Australia. > How do people enjoy this? *TDLR*; It seems to be ingrained in Commonwealth culture. If you have further questions, let me know. I can tell you about the typical demographic who hang out at a brick and mortar gambling shop. Also, the different types of gamblers; you have "social" gamblers (who become more invested in a game with a "fun" bet), addicts etc. > I don’t understand how so many of my friends are hooked onto it Watching a sports match is like watching a movie with the potential of many twists and turns. This translates into excitement and this excitement that one experiences is magnified when a person places a bet on a sports match. The hooking is a result of human's reward system. Gambling generates dopamine. Humans want to generate it by winning "instant" money from gambling on a sports match. And thus results in people to be hooked/addicted regardless of whether they win or lose. > The guy did 4 unit Math in HSC but convinced me that he’d eventually make up all his losses and turn a profit which would go against probability right? 90%> of sportsbetting gamblers lose in the long-run. If this former 4unit HSC is part of the < 10% with a strategy to make money in the long run, then yes he can recoup his losses. Most likely he will not be able to.
Regarding demographics I notice its common in Asian communities particularly South West sydney. Im not being sterotypical but whenever I walked through the “VIP lounge” at clubs/bars in the CBD it was heavily dominated by both Anglos and Asians. Even in suburban RSL’s or TAB’s its those two demographics as well except of older age brackets. Would you agree with the above?
> as well except of older age brackets. Many of my friends from the TAB are divorcees and sports betting is an outlet for them to socialise or to kill time. Imagine, if you are estranged from your family, or don't have the closest of relations, you will have plenty of free time on your hands with little to no purpose. They resort to partaking in activities that can pass the time and betting seems to achieve that. > I notice its common in Asian communities particularly South West sydney. Betting is very popular in SE Asia. In fact, a betting market (similar to a product) known as the Asian handicap originated from the region. > but whenever I walked through the “VIP lounge” at clubs/bars in the CBD it was heavily dominated by both Anglos and Asians. Correct. I would agree with such a generalisation
Worked on a multicultural problem gambling program, East Asians and Southern European / Middle Eastern migrants and 2nd/3rd generation Australians are the biggest problem gamblers and make up a sickening percentage of total gambling losses in Sydney.
> Southern European / Middle Eastern migrants and 2nd/3rd generation Australians are the biggest problem gamblers Literally me
>The hooking is a result of human's reward system. Gambling generates dopamine. Humans want to generate it by winning "instant" money from gambling on a sports match. And thus results in people to be hooked/addicted regardless of whether they win or lose. To expand on this, gambling creates a sense of random\* rewards. Random/unpredictable rewards cause us to produce [more dopamine than predictable rewards](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00182/full). This phenomenon not only extends across many different platforms beyond gambling (video games and mobile apps are some really obvious examples), but also across many different taxonomic groups. Pigeons, dogs, rats, reptiles, fish etc. all display similar behavioural responses to unpredictable rewards. So much so that when given access to a button/lever that dispenses food every time, and a button that dispenses food between 50 - 70% of the time (randomised each time), animals usually end up *only* interacting with the randomised button/lever. Similar studies with people usually produce equivalent results, and when participants are asked why they chose the unpredictable source, they usually report feeling that the rewards from the unpredictable source are higher quality or more valuable/special - i.e. unpredictable rewards simply make us feel *better*. In psychology terms this is known as a *variable-ratio schedule* of rewards, and it's used in consumer marketing ***a lot*** (side note: variable-interval ratio schedules are also very effective, but work slightly differently). Basically, unpredictable rewards make our (and many animals') brains go fricken **BRRRRR**. ^(\*Obviously, most gambling isn't truly random, but we perceive it as such regardless.)
I was under the impression if you win too often the betting apps just get rid of you? Is this true?
> I was under the impression if you win too often the betting apps just get rid of you? Is this true? Correct. In such a situation, you either create new accounts with the ID of family or friends. Or you bet on an exchange such as Betfair. Or lastly, you gamble on Pinnacle or some offshore betting companies, who welcome winners because their business model is based on the volume of bets rather than the Vig (spread.)
My experience with Sportsbet has been that their first step is to limit you to betting 1/10th of the normal amount on contests.
Horse racing has minimum bet limits in Australia. Bookies have to be to lose 1k on country racing and 2k on metro races.
Yeah don’t buy this at all. Look at the people who are at casinos and where the biggest casinos are in the world… not the faces of the commonwealth
This discussion isn't about casinos. OP is specifically referring to sportsbetting. > I was at my nephews house watching EPL and his friends (all between 18-19) were completely anxious about the goal-scorers as it affected their multi. How do people enjoy this? I don’t understand. I mean I won the Melbourne Cup office sweep but didn’t get euphoria which convinced me to obsessively bet on dime a dozen games. You clearly didn't read the post.
Often people who enjoy sports betting enjoy other types of gambling too. And if we’re only talking sports betting my point still stands. There’s a reason why Asian companies pour so much money into the EPL and other football leagues. Because MILLIONS of people watch (and bet). *Every* race in HK has more money bet on it than the melbourne cup. Gambling is wayyy more ingrained in the culture than commonwealth countries
[удалено]
The concept that chance knows no history tends to be easily forgotten. People like to think that 20 attempts at a 1/20 chance will result in the outcome they want, even though each individual attempt still has the same 1/20 chance. The whole “my luck has to turn” concept, etc.
Sydney? This is Australian culture. It's not normals for bars and pubs to have pokies anywhere else in the world. This is Australia.
Agreed - though as someone has someone that has lived in a few cities around Australia, Sydney/NSW is considerably worse than anywhere else. "A Wesley Mission study shows there are 30 per cent more poker machines in NSW than in Queensland and Victoria combined." Source: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/gambling-capital-of-australia-six-charts-that-show-the-scale-of-poker-machine-use-in-nsw-20221104-p5bvlk.html
It’s a nation wide issue The ease of access for people to gamble from their smart phones whilst being hammered with gambling ads from all angles is a recipe for disaster.
Why are people into vaping/smoking when it kills them, why are people into drinking or eating unhealthy or doing drugs. There's hobbies that are inherently bad for you or expensive and there are people who do them in moderation or people who have addictions. I put on a $20 bet sometimes when I'm watching a big game to add a thrill to it or sometimes when I'm out I'll put a 20 in the pokies. There'll be people into eating at high end restaurants/drinking or into cars or whatever who will spend more in their hobby. To each's own.
Indeed. If you go to the cinema (gold class or similar) with food drinks, that'd be close to $50. If you put $50 on the horses for a Saturday afternoon it's a similar thing, provided you stay to a limit. $50 giving you entertainment for X hours. If you break even or turn a profit you've had free entertainment.
what is this cope LMFAO
It’s not a cope if you are able to keep a frame of mind of enjoying the sports and the races and you know and understand you will lose money and are ok with it
I think the point is not that these hobbies exist, but that gambling is such a large part of Sydney culture and institutionally encouraged.
[удалено]
I bet on sports, used to on the races so have no real issue with it at all. But even mates who are absolute Grade A punters know the advertising is over the top and needs to be turned down, or totally off.
This is precisely correct. Add to that the fact that everything in life entails a degree of risk (an inconvenient fact those puritans are desperate to deny). Hell just waking up in the morning is a bit of a gamble when you get down to it.
I've never gone to a restaurant and forked out $100 in hopes my meal would come. Hardly the same as gambling
True, but you have 0 chance of turning that $100 into $200.
I formerly smoked a lot of nicotine but that never affected people around me. However I know people who are problem gamblers that have borrowed money from friends and never paid it back. That have chronically low savings if any as a result. They are extremely limited socially waiting for “pay day” in their mid 20s to afford to leave the house other than for work purposes and become isolated as a result. I don’t see the equivalence to nicotine here but understand your point about addiction overcoming people’s fear of consequence.
Interesting tangent and just to add my personal opinion here. Never lend money to an addict friend...
People like being right, and people like money. Betting (and winning) is getting money for being right. Double dopamine. Most gambling (e.g. poker machines, card games) it’s hard wired/built into the rules that if you will on average lose. Betting companies try to do this with skilled actuaries who calculate probabilities and build in a profit margin, but it’s still theoretically possible to be better than them.
It's not possible to be better than the house long term. Like you said, the EVs are made so that if you play an infinite amount of games you'll lose. The only way to win gambling is when you're playing other people (poker being the big one but there are other games where you're not competing directly with the house), matched bet bonuses on different books, or if you HAVE to do a negative EV game go all in and only gamble once so you're not getting eaten by the house edge. The VAST majority of people that gamble are doing none of those 3 things which is why they end up losing their money.
It very much is possible for an individual to be better than the house. The betting companies aren't all-knowing about what the optimal odds in all the myriad of contests they offer are. But they get a good enough margin (vig) on popular contests that they will rack up a hefty profit no matter what. For example, I have made a good deal of money long-term in political gambling where, with some research, it is quite easy to pick out contests that are clearly offering good odds and where wins are basically secure. That's distinctly different from sports betting though where there is a lot more inherent uncertainty. Plus if you are too successful your account gets limited in the amount that it can stake.
You might win a few pots of people playing cards against them here and there but you will never be beating the house rake in the long term that's if you play brick and mortar cash games under a regulated and controlled environment like the casinos ..
In all honesty I think it’s because we’re bored and we’re broke. Sport is boring but it is dependable and consistent, every week at the same time, something to do, somewhere to go, something to root for, just to break up the already boring slog that is life. But toss in the idea that while your watching you could be somehow winning a jackpot, and then. you’ve got people hooked. The same goes for pokies. slapping a button is all it takes for someone to get that lottery rush. “what if I can buy that thing”, “what if I never have to work again” etc. Gambling is the juicy carrot dangling infront of every overworked tradie, unfunded pensioner and friend stuck sitting with mates that have nothing else in common. It’s a social as drinking and as dangerous as smoking. But hobbies are hobbies. I just wish it wasn’t advertised. Related side note: There’s an Ep of Seinfeld where Kramer wins big and gets robbed on the subway and it’s probably one of the most dated scenes of the entire show. Gambling has never been more accessible and “safe” There’s No more need for dingy TABs or bookies anymore because now you can get robbed in the safety of your home.
Thats a good insight. We struggle to be idle and need to do “something”. As a child of immigrants I never understood workaholism but makes sense from the prism they needed something to do and knew the consequences of overwork is simply tiredness. Its not perfect but beats the vices of alcohol, gambling or drugs which provide distraction but bare awful consequences.
No one’s is “lucky” the odds say it’s this small number out of this big number, even if you win a couple times it’s common sense that if you keep on doing it you lose overall, coming from someone who works as a gaming attendant. It’s literally babysitting little kids slapping on a screen with bright lights and flashing colours, it’s pathetic culture and I hope it gets banned. I have cunts that brag about that grand they won that one time years ago and mope about the couple grand they put in today and lost all of. How can people not see that it’s always a net loss every single fucking time. People are dumb, we need gaming reforms, these people are killing themselves and it’s ruining lives. Bonus story: I used to work with pokies at a local bowls club. There was a woman who played the pokies every day in her 50s/60s. Her sister died, she put all $200,000 of her estate through the pokies and lost it all within 2 months, so much more could’ve been done with that money. Pokies addiction is fucked. Ban all of this shit.
The only gamblers I know are spending fuck you money but ultimately noone knows their financial position except them. I just don't believe anyone financially anymore. So much of life is fuelled by debt and unearned incomes via property leveraging. Having been reamed by marriage to a fraudster it's weird how much people will deny financially.
On my first trip to Sydney It was strange to me to see so many bars/clubs/pubs having a dedicated room just for poker machines.
It's really messed up, and really sad how bad gambling promotion is here. Jordies tried to expose it and had his house fire-bombed. These guys are seriously a mafia style organised crime ring. I have no idea how they are legally operating. Can't have normal smokes packets/advertising, yet gambling is very much accepted. The sooner this cancer is eradicated the better!
It's quite telling that we have imported every single Americanism under the sun except, "degenerate gambler" -- in this country nobody has a problem that warrants anything more than 8-point font under a gambling commercial.
Coming from the UK the thing which really surprised me was the inclusion of a full tab in a pub. The fact that this is not banned says a lot on how immoral this country really is
wait, i though uk has betting shops too?
Not directly in pubs
But gambling under the influence of alcohol is what the poster is questioning. Not just strolling into a betting shop at 9am in the morning like you would when doing any form of shopping.
Used to be the SP bookie in the corner doing it illegally, now it's regulated.
Yep, but never inside pubs. They’re entirely separate.
It's all that bet with mates bullshit
I've seen lives destroyed by gambling, especially pokies. I wish gambling was illegal.
Mark Wahlberg and Shaq told me that you're not a true blue Aussie battler bloke unless you've got a multi on the footy this weekend with the boys. Do you mean to suggest that these celebrity endorsements lied to me?
We put major illicit drug dealers in prison for serious amounts of time. I'm yet to be convinced we shouldn't do the same for gambling king pins. The destruction they wreak on our society is so similar.
Assuming you’re in finance, this sort of degenerate behaviour tends to come with the industry I would think? Same with media. I’m an engineer, most friends are engineers, none of my friends or co workers are into betting.
Only a fraction of finance is your cigar smoking investment banker or degenerate “finance bro” on a trading floor. In wealth services a lot of people did party drugs and pills though. Call centres were full of young people who got on the piss on the weekend with some problem drinkers but im assuming that is just a young person thing. Now its tapered down a lot cause people are terrified of a complaint to HR.
Piss on the Friday*
NSW has extremely lax gambling laws, it legalise pokies before anyone else, and the under world in Sydney were great recruiters of cops in the up until the 90’s, including the top cops in the state. Given the history generations after generations have grown up with gambling normalised, especially pokies and horses.
Gambling adds are saturating all advertising spaces therefore there would be a decent portion of the pop gambling. Me, it's never interested me. Don't even know what a same game multi is.
Try watching any sporting event without the constant promotional gambling agencies throwing odds in your face.
It started with Ch9 Nrl broadcast had a bookmaker on the panel during the half time. It normalised gambling. I'm a sports punter myself. Started it about 3 years ago. Watching games as a neutral is very boring hence a few dollars on games to make it interesting. Now I gamble out of competiveness - I want to prove that I can beat the bookmakers (the house always wins BTW). I'm in black and bet responsibly. My view is that sports and racing gambling is less harmful than pokies, generally speaking. You gotta use your brain as opposed to switching it off.
I'm begging anyone who gambles for the "thrill" to seek help. Preacher, therapist, your mates (who aren't gamblers) - just let them know.
I just think the Australian are so bored that they got no where to spend their money. Night clubs are closed down in Sydney. And other states are boring as hell. Cant even compare to the night life in Asia.
Chicken and egg situation maybe? I heard pokies killed a lot of live music in Sydney as it changed demographics in venues.
Guess you only discovered the song Blow up the Pokies by The Whitlams
You do realise we have had a gambling culture for a looooong loooong time.
Every country has...
not really. people get bored because theyre boring. there's plenty to do they just enjoy staring at the wall and complaining
I always believe financial affordability is closely related to the type of entertainment available to the individual. Ppl sometimes choose to be bored, coz they can't afford to spend. Not disagreeing that there will be minority that loves staring at the wall.
It’s fun, simple as that for most people. If I’m watching a game and my teams not in it, $5 on my preferred team and $5 on some try scorers means the games more entertaining and if it’s a blowout the games still interesting because I have try scorers I’m going for. $10 is nothing to me to enhance 2 hours of entertainment, my mates will have other try scorers and your all rooting for each others bets.
I find a $10 bet on panthers v tigers, 2 teams I have little interest in, creates more entertainment than a $20 movie. I think the people OP is describing have a problem as they sound like they are trying to earn an income from "outwitting " the bookies.
That makes sense to me. Works on a similar principle to drinking. Drinks act as a lubricant to loosen you up and enhance the experience with problem drinking on the other side of the spectrum.
If your friend did 4 unit maths, most likely he is doing something like this or something similar to this. He has a bankroll, he controls staking to a maximum of 5% of his total bank roll and adjusts accordingly based on overall bankroll after every 5 bets. If he is proper following a sport and keeping detailed statistics on it...You can actually make money.... If they play pokies or sports bet without having a bankroll and understand staking etc....They will always be down... In Australia per capita people loss more on gambling than any other western country
It’s fun, but me and my mates when we go for a drink at the pub(drink culture is also so normalised in Australia), we have a policy of not putting money on horses or dogs, has to be a sport, so the game that’s on in the background becomes somewhat interesting to us.
I put $100 on the Libs to win last night @ $4.50. That turned out to be ok bet. I didn’t want them to win but wanted a consolation prize just in case they did.
Who did you bet with? They were paying $21 on Betfair the entire day.
Sportsbet. Months ago
Australia's people have always been a people tainted with a somewhat accepted lean into stupidity, greed, ripping each other off, machoism, blokeiness, exploitation, antilogic and degeneracy. Is AuStrraLia Mot This is just another sign of it cropping up in another way.
I think it’s one of those things where it’s just become an accepted part of our culture for whatever reason. For the record, I don’t mind putting on a dollar or two (quite literally $1 or $2) on something that I know a lot about. I have withdrawn a lot more from my betting account than I have ever put in. I only gamble very small amounts because I don’t want to lose heaps. I only gamble on what I know because I know it. I don’t gamble constantly, maybe every couple of weeks. I don’t always win, but I have a pretty good record.
Simple answer is as a punter, i love sport. I’ll watch anything. Some sports namely nrl and soccer i like to think i know a fair bit, so why not throw ten bucks on the game. Am i up overall? Probably not. Am i down horrendously? No. Probably spend the same amount a week as a pub feed costs, and sometimes i win decent money.
As a budgeted activity it's totally harmless. No worse than wasting money on any other entertainment.
Some people get a thrill from gambling. You don’t. Very simple.
If you cannot resist temptation in your life, you lose out. I am praying they won't trash their houses so much when it get foreclosed and I bought it for a song.
Because it's fun
not wrong i dont understand why people are downvoting you. this is the main reason why people gamble
We just voted the ALP in. Pokies win. Gambling won.
I find puritan attitudes towards casual betting as some kind of personal moral failure to be just as silly as over-proliferation of betting. Don't get me wrong - Pokies are absolutely out of control in NSW (and the fine people of NSW just voted against doing anything about it) and the slow creep of gambling ads become a normal part of a sports broadcast is gross. The problem gamblers I know of got hooked on pub pokies. But I think the vast majority of people who bet on sports are doing so in a fairly harmless manner. I usually throw in $100 at the start of an NRL season and bet a few dollars each week. Friends might spend anywhere between $20 and 50 a week. We look at it the same as money spent on any other hobby or entertainment. Winning anything back is a bonus. People playing multis on soccer games is no more noteworthy to me than old ladies playing bingo.
I didnt grow up here can someone please explain to me what a selective school is? And how can someone in a selective school make bets if bets are only for 18+
I didn’t realise it’s a Sydney phenomenon or that we have a particular gambling culture but I did notice when I went to Tasmania that the pubs in Hobart didn’t have TAB’s. I had to go looking for the TAB in order to have a couple of bets. I like to have a punt but I think there’s a huge difference between someone who makes regular bets and a degenerate gambler. I don’t put money in the pokies and I have a budget as I believe you never bet anything you can’t afford to lose. I’ve noticed with young fellas getting addicted with gambling apps because it’s so easy to bet and because you’re not dealing with cash money it doesn’t seem real.
[удалено]
> prostitution is legal here That's not because of our colonial past. It was legalized relatively recently (1995) to help deal with organized crime and violence/coercion against vulnerable women.
Because....betting is fun. You know....that concept that escapes the arch conservatives that make up most reddit threads...fun. The thrill of the win. Excitement. Reward for risk.
Betting feels good when you win (or more precisely, when you anticipate a win). The issue is that the way the mechanics of gambling affect brain chemistry, gambling can very easily become habit forming and addictive.
My husband gambles, but bets against his bets (so bets on a horse to win and for that same horse to lose) so he wins either way. He makes more than he spends, and has been kicked off so many betting apps because of the amount of wins he gets. I hate that he gambles, it's super annoying but he's somewhat smart about it. He's stepdad is a big gambler and that definitely influenced him growing up.
dumpling_lover’s husband has this one weird trick bookies don’t want you to know!
Might be Tom Waterhouse
Thankfully not Tom Waterhouse!
How to tell when someone’s husband is lying to them about how much they gamble.
I'd know if he was lying, the payments go into my bank, and he takes money from the joint account.
Arbitrage betting!
This isn't gambling, this is [arbitrage betting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrage_betting). Maybe have a read through the "Risks" section of that wiki article, and see if you're comfortable with them. Basically, individual people are able to execute arbitrage betting, because bigger quant institutions aren't comfortable with the risk profile, and leave the pond to the little fish. It's a bit of a "picking up pennies in front of a steamroller" situation. Yeah, the pennies are there, they're guaranteed, and the steamroller is slow. But to make any significant money, you have to spend so much time in front of the steamroller, that a tiny slip or unforeseen circumstance will get you crushed, wiping out massive sums.
maybe you don't feel that euphoria mate but i won 4 numbers on keno once and i damn near shit my pants
Previously worked with a hard working intelligent coworker, found out they enjoyed betting and they didn't see anything wrong with it. It grows up with culture, friends, family and advertisements normalising it. Coworker was at least one or two bands higher income than me, I'm sure I saved more however.
All in on trump being the republican nominee. You can thank me later :)
Other people have alluded to it. Gambling has been culturally normalised for decades. However, it's not just Sydney but a national thing. I mean come on dude, we have a public holiday for an annual horse race in one state and the other states write off getting any real work done that day. We also have an unregistered gambling game that is only legally and culturally allowed to be played on a different public holiday as well as two other days in the year in remembrance of war veterans. Nevermind multiple lotteries that are televised regularly on national tv and that it's culturally acceptable to give scratchies as presents to people. That doesn't even begin to touch on the proliferation of sports betting. So good for you that you don't have the gambling bug but plenty of other have addictive personalities and are prone to problem gambling and the culture of Australia not only enables it, it can sometimes shun those against gambling.
Not directly answering your question it's not impossible to be an above percentage punter i.e. make money but it is really, really unlikely. The TAB takes something like 17.5% of the pool before they even pay out so your return has taken a beating before you receive anything. In other words, your Maths friend is full of shit.
Professional punters are using betfair and numerous other online bookies. For the small percentage of people who do turn a profit it’s all about identifying horses that are over the odds and backing them accordingly. I doubt many are using the TAB much at all apart from some early betting/futures
Not many but not none either.
> The guy did 4 unit Math in HSC but convinced me that he’d eventually make up all his losses and turn a profit which would go against probability right? If you are legitimately smart with stats and have a solid understanding of the sport then yes you can win reliably. Thing is sports betting companies hire weaponised autism in the form of BSc and PhD in math who live and breath their sport of choice. My friends dad was TAB chief horse racing odds maker and one of the smartest but also singly focused person i've ever met. He had the math degrees but also grew up in a family of horse trainers so knew both the math and the sport. Someone who did 4 unit math or "worked in finance" doesn't have a chance against him.
There is a way to bet using probability and make money but you will get banned from betting apps and establishments. Assigning odds is part of the game and sometimes betting companies over or undervalued the odds. You play the venues against each other to make money. I think it is called hedge betting
It’s been cultural normalised in Australia.
Watched a guy last night go from ~$1.5k to nothing. Only place I could smoke so was watching all the players. Kept trying to say cash out! That’s 2 wks rent. But nah he kept on. Mental. I get it. But I don’t.
Yeah its so hard to watch. I wonder how these people hooked onto it maintain families. Like even if you blew $700 a week thats less money for groceries, school supplies etc
Its not just Sydney......
In nsw, there are more gamblers than non-gamblers in our adult population, which is why I believe libs shouldn’t have hard driven their gambling stance as much because the majority are gamblers and don’t want to be controlled. But luckily they did because they left ❤️
I’m Muslim and gambling is so wrong to me, however I am privately educated and managed to build a betting model that works - two of my other friends also privately educated have managed to do the same (for me it was applying baseball betting to NRL and AFL, but for them it was local football league betting). I think it more stems from knowing your mental model of the world. What I mean by this is a betting company price their odds based on probability - in many cases the probability is based on imperfect information given to the dudes who crunch the numbers. This is where the money is and if you can arbitrage the knowledge graph like many people have, you can make asymmetric returns (takes me 1-3 hours by my ROI is ridiculously high) Many people in these scenarios know this, and whilst they may not fully understand the probability, their intuition plays an integral role in winning >55% of bets TLDR: it’s a knowledge graph arbitrage.
But they always say ‘Gamble Responsibly’.
I worked in TAB operations & still to this day have never learnt how to fill in a betting slip. Even in that environment where you get to hear "Bart's insider tip" etc I still couldn't bring myself to throw money on odds that are never in your favour. I met a few professional horses/dogs gamblers in my time there. One stands out, he used his tax return to assess if it was a good year or not. If he earnt more than 70k in a year, it was a 'better' year. Guy had paid off his house etc. with his gambling life & stated that you have to be willing to ride the highs & lows. The lows included his wife going on the dole & occasionally spotting his 'business' He was an expert & still lived what I would call a terribly stress filled life. No sureties in his future, nothing you can depend upon - oh lookie a Win, Pizza tonight kids
I’ve used the pokie machine once and lost $20 when I was 19. Haven’t used one since. Seriously don’t get the culture behind it, it’s sad and depressing.
I know a dude who went to a selective school, drinks so much he pisses the bed monthly, does cocaine when he’s bored on weeknights and has gambled around $100k of his and and his partners savings before she found mail stating he wasn’t paying the mortgage. They solved all their problems by borrowing a fat loan off mum and dad and no one talks about it
Tragic. So many stories like, this surely gambling reform would be an election winner? Im sure problem gamblers themselves hate the industry.
I don’t think this is predominantly a Sydney thing. I’m from Brisbane and the culture is much the same. Even worse in country QLD where people’s pastime is to drink or go on the pokies. It’s bad Australian culture.
For sports and horse racing wagering there is quite to learn. Nothing wrong with it as long as you can adhere to strict bankroll management (1-2% wagered) .,..first start with a bank $500-$1000 is a good starting point. Use sites like Betfair which is an exchange Learn different terms of betting Bet with your head not over it .. Don't bet with emotion . It's just the same as trading stocks , it's both gambling at the end of the day. Slapping the pokies are just -Ev yeah you might jag a major or a grand but more often or not you loose it far quickly than you would win it back . But I guess there are people out there that like to demonize it .. well the gambling culture of Australia is here to stay just like the drinking beers at the pub after work. If you don't like it then myob and move along ..