A scratchcard is a small piece of card where an area has been covered by a substance that cannot be seen through, but can be scratched off. Under this area are concealed the items/pictures that must be ‘found’ in order to win.
The generic scratchcard requires the player to match three of the same prize amounts. If this is accomplished, they win that amount. Other scratchcards involve matching symbols, pictures or words.
Scratchcards are a very popular form of gambling due to their low cost. However, the low cost to buy a scratchcard is offset by the smaller prizes, compared to casino jackpots or lottery wins.
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One of the most widespread forms of gambling involves betting on horse races, most commonly on races between thoroughbreds or between standardbreds.
Wagering may take place through parimutuel pools; or bookmakers may take bets personally. Parimutuel wagers pay off at prices determined by support in the wagering pools, while bookmakers pay off either at the odds offered at the time of accepting the bet; or at the median odds offered by track bookmakers at the time the race started.
In Canada and the United States, the most common types of bet on horse races include:
win – to succeed the bettor must pick the horse which wins the race.
place – the bettor must pick a horse which finishes either first or second.
show – the bettor must pick a horse which finishes first, second, or third.
exacta, perfecta, or exactor –the bettor must pick the two horses which finish first and second and specify which will finish first
quinella or quiniela – the bettor must pick the two horses which finish first and second, but need not specify which will finish first.
trifecta or triactor – the bettor must pick the three horses which finish first, second, and third and specify which will finish first, second and third.
superfecta – the bettor must pick the four horses which finish first, second, third and fourth, and specify which will finish first, second, third and fourth.
double – the bettor must pick the winners of two successive races; most race tracks in Canada and the United States take double wagers on the first two races on the program (the daily double) and on the last two (the late double).
triple – the bettor must pick the winners of three successive races; many tracks offer rolling triples, or triples on any three successive races on the program. Also called pick three.
sweep – the bettor must pick the winners of four or more successive races. In the US, this is usually called pick four and pick six, with the latter paying out a consolation return to bettors correctly selecting five winners out of six races, and with “rollover” jackpots accumulating each day until one or more bettors correctly picks all six winners.
Win, place and show wagers class as straight bets, and the remaining wagers as exotic bets. Bettors usually make multiple wagers on exotic bets. A box consists of a multiple wager in which punters bet all possible combinations of a group of horses in the same race. A key involves making a multiple wager with a single horse in one race bet in one position with all possible combinations of other selected horses in a single race. A wheel consists of betting all horses in one race of a bet involving two or more races. For example a 1-all daily double wheel bets the 1-horse in the first race with every horse in the second.
People making straight bets commonly employ the strategy of an ‘each way’ bet. Here the bettor picks a horse and bets it will win, and makes an additional bet that it will show, so that theoretically if the horse runs third it will at least pay back the two bets. The Canadian and American equivalent is the bet across (short for across the board): the bettor bets equal sums on the horse to win, place, and show.
In Canada and the United States punters make exotic wagers on horses running at the same track on the same program. In the United Kingdom bookmakers offer exotic wagers on horses at different tracks. Probably the Yankee occurs most commonly: in this the bettor tries to pick the winner of four races. This bet also includes subsidiary wagers on smaller combinations of the chosen horses; for example, if only two of the four horses win, the bettor still collects for their double. A Trixie requires trying to pick three winners, and a Canadian or Super Yankee trying to pick five; these also include subsidiary bets. The term nap identifies the best bet of the day.
A parlay (US) or accumulator (UK) consists of a series of bets in which bettors stake the winnings from one race on the next in order until either the bettor loses or the series completes successfully.
(Similarly, greyhound racing offers a popular betting alternative to horse racing in many countries.)
Set of 52 French style playing cards with two jokers
A playing card is a typically hand-sized rectangular (in India, round) piece of heavy paper or thin plastic used for playing card games. A complete set of cards is a pack or deck. Playing cards are often used as props in magic tricks, as well as occult practices such as cartomancy, and a number of card games involve (or can be used to support) gambling. As a result, their use sometimes meets with disapproval from some religious groups (such as conservative Christians). They are also a popular collectible (as distinct from the cards made specifically for collectible trading card games). Specialty and novelty decks are commonly produced for collectors, often with political, cultural, or educational themes. One side of each card (the “front” or “face”) carries markings that distinguish it from the others and determine its use under the rules of the particular game being played, while the other side (the “back”) is identical for all cards, usually a plain color or abstract design. In most games, the cards are assembled into a “deck” (or “pack”), and their order is randomized by a procedure called “shuffling” to provide an element of chance in the game.
Some typical Anglo-American playing cards from the Bicycle brand
Reference
Parlett, David. The Oxford Guide to Card Games. 1990. ISBN 0-19-214165-1.
Though many participate in gambling as a form of recreation or even as a means to gain an income, gambling, like any behavior which involves variation in brain chemistry, can become a psychologically addictive and harmful behavior in some people. Reinforcement phenomena may also make gamblers persist in gambling even after repeated losses. Because of the negative connotations of the word “gambling”, casinos and race tracks often use the euphemism “gaming” to describe the recreational gambling activities they offer.
The Russian writer Dostoevsky portrays in his short story The Gambler the psychological implications of gambling and how gambling can affect gamblers. He also associates gambling and the idea of “getting rich quick”, suggesting that Russians may have a particular affinity for gambling. Dostoevsky shows the effect of betting money for the chance of gaining more in 19th-century Europe. The association between Russians and gambling has fed legends of the origins of Russian roulette.
Help for addictive gamblers
Many organizations exist to help individuals with a gambling addiction. They include Gamblers Anonymous and Gambler’s Help (Australia).
In the card game Poker the buck or button is a marker used to indicate the player who is the dealer or, in casino games with a house dealer, the player who acts last on that deal (who would be the dealer in a home game).
When Poker became a popular saloon game in the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century the integrity of the players was unreliable and the honor codes that had regulated gambling for centuries became inadequate. Because the dealer has the greatest opportunity to cheat (by manipulating the specific cards that players receive and by seeing the faces of the dealt cards) the players took turns in this role. To avoid arguments about whose turn it was to deal, the person who was next due to deal would be given a marker. A knife was a common object used as such a marker, and the marker became generally known as a buck as an abbreviated reference to the buck’s horn that formed the handle of many knives at that time.
When the dealer had finished dealing the cards he ‘passes the buck’. According to Martin, the earliest use of the phrase in print is in the July 1865 edition of Weekly New Mexican: “They draw at the commissary, and at poker after they have passed the buck.”. The phrase then appears frequently in many sources so it probably originated at about this time.
The use of other small disks as such markers led to the alternative term “button”. Silver dollars were later used as markers and it has been suggested that this is the origin of “buck” as a slang term for “dollar,” though by no means is there universal agreement on this subject.
US president Harry S. Truman’s use of the slogan “the buck stops here” in speeches, and on a sign on his desk, derives from the adoption of the phrase “passing the buck” as a metaphor for avoiding responsibility.
Because religious authorities generally frown on gambling to some extent, and because of various perceived social costs, most legal jurisdictions censure gambling to some extent. Islamic nations officially prohibit gambling; most other countries regulate it. In particular, in the majority of circumstances – and perhaps all cases – the law does not recognise wagers as contracts, and views any consequent losses as debts of honour, unenforceable by legal process. Thus organized crime often takes over the enforcement of large gambling debts, sometimes using violent methods.
Because contracts of insurance have many features in common with wagers, legislation generally makes a distinction, typically defining any agreement in which either one of the parties has an interest in the outcome bet upon, beyond the specific financial terms, as a contract of insurance. Thus a bet on whether one’s house will burn down becomes a contract of insurance, as one has an independent interest in the security of one’s home.
Furthermore, many jurisdictions, local as well as national, either ban or heavily control (license) gambling. Such regulation generally leads to gambling tourism and illegal gambling – the latter often under the auspices of organized crime. Such involvement frequently brings the activity under even more severe moral censure and leads to calls for greater regulation. Conversely, the close involvement of governments (through regulation and gambling taxation) has led to a close connection between many governments and gambling organisations, where legal gambling provides much government revenue.
There is generally legislation requesting that the odds in gambling machines are fair (i.e. statistically random), to prevent manufacturers from making some high-payoff results impossible (since these have very low probability, this can quite easily pass unnoticed).
Gambling has had many different meanings depending on the cultural and historical context in which it is used. Currently, in western society, it generally has an economic definition and meaning and typically refers to “wagering money or something of material value on something with an uncertain outcome in hope of winning additional money or material goods”. Furthermore:
the outcome of the wager is typically evident within a short period of time
the primary intent of the bet is to win additional money or material goods
This definition of gambling usually excludes:
emotional or physical risk-taking where what is being risked is not money or material goods (e.g., skydiving, running for office, asking someone for a date, etc.)
buying insurance, as the primary intent of the purchase is to protect against loss, rather than to collect or win
all forms of long-term ‘investment’ (stock market, real estate) with positive expected returns and economic utility
starting a new business, as time and effort are also being wagered and the outcome is not determined in a short period of time
situations where the possibility of winning additional money or material goods is a secondary or incidental reason for the wager/purchase (e.g., buying a raffle ticket to support a worthy cause)
Gambling varies on four dimensions:
1. What is being wagered (money or material goods).
2. How much is being wagered.
3. The predictability of the event. For some things such as lotteries, slot machines and bingo, the results are random and unpredictable. No skill or system will give you any advantage. For other things such as sports betting and horse racing there is some predictability to the outcome. In this situation greater knowledge and skill gives a person an advantage over other bettors.
4. The ‘expected value’, the positive or negative mathematical expectation.
Bibliography
Brisman, Andrew. American Mensa Guide to Casino Gambling: Winning Ways (Stirling, 1999) ISBN 080694837X
Ortiz, Darwin. Gambling Scams: How They Work, How to Detect Them, How to Protect Yourself (Carol, 1990) ISBN 0396083668 (Hardcover) ISBN 0818405295 (Paperback)
Reith, Gerda. Age of Chance: Gambling in Western Culture ISBN 0415179971 (Hardcover) ISBN 0415263093 (Paperback)
Steinmetz, Andrew. The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims Gutenberg text
Thorp, Edward O. Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One (Vintage, 1966) ISBN 0394703103
Set of 52 French style playing cards with two jokers
Some typical Anglo-American playing cards from the Bicycle brand
Paul Cézanne – The Card Players, 1895
