Millions of people all over the world try their luck in various forms of gambling day after day. Some of them buy lottery tickets, others head out to the races and place a bet. Some play slot machines at the Royal Vegas Casino, others spend weekends in Vegas, spicing up their fun time with a few hands of blackjack. Yet not all forms of gambling are created equal. While chance does (or seems to) have an important role in many, their success or failure is often influenced by more than pure luck. Which leaves us with a question: is it still gambling if you know what you have to do to win?
Casinos and card games
Slot machines are the most popular games of chance ever invented. For a long time, they were the most popular games in Vegas casinos, and they are also the most attractive games at online casinos like the Royal Vegas. Yet times are changing, and people are re-discovering the games played before them – table games. And this changes things a bit.
At the Royal Vegas online casino traditional table games are at their home. Among them, there are some that are not based on pure luck – like blackjack, for example, where applying a strategy can incline the odds in the player’s favor. The Royal Vegas has virtually all variations of blackjack – including the ones that favor the player the most – in their library. Blackjack is gaining a lot of popularity in land-based casinos, too – Vegas executives have seen the decline of the slots’ popularity in favor of blackjack in the last few years, thanks to the fact that, if you know what to do, you can play it in a way that turns Lady Luck’s smile toward you.
Does blackjack – a game where the use of strategy can improve your chances to win – still count as gambling?
Sports bets and fantasy sports
Gambling is widely considered to be a form of entertainment – which sports betting is not. What’s the fun in standing in line at the racecourse, or submitting your ticket over the internet? Nothing, I tell you – the fun is watching the game you bet on. Besides, unless you bet with your heart, driven by enthusiasm instead of information, you can probably be pretty sure of its outcome, which makes sports betting a pretty predictable genre.
The same goes for fantasy sports – while more work has to be put into it than into a simple bet on an event, doing your homework can indeed help you succeed. It’s hard, as the video below will show you, but it’s possible.
So, is it truly gambling if you can predict the outcome?
(PS: We won’t talk about poker since it has been officially declared a mind sport in 2010)
It is because all those games have house edges … but if you have fun, who cares as long as you are playing with money you can afford to lose?