Sports Betting Advice: Gambling for the Wrong Reasons
By Loot, Sports Handicapper, Lootmeister.com
Sports-betting is in fact gambling. Sure, it isn’t on the same level of playing slot machines. Our decisions in sports-betting are the key determinant of whether or not we’ll win. There aren’t many facets of gambling where our decisions play such a key role. But just because sports-betting is more thoughtful than other forms of gaming, it is in fact gambling.
Some people utilize gambling the wrong way. They use it as a form of escapism. It’s effective in the sense that it will make you forget some of your problems for a while. Many older people with dwindling time remaining on this planet will attest that gambling provides the only reprieve. So, in some cases, it is a good way to escape. There is a flip side to that coin, however.
When gambling to escape, the results are usually not very good. Capable sports bettors don’t bet because they want or need to, but because they found a favorable spot in which to take a stand. They bet to remember, not to forget. When betting to cover up what you think are worse problems, it’s hard to win. Take a guy who just got dumped by his girlfriend. He’s got the stink of rejection permeating his every pore. That has a way of making it so you can’t really win at sports-betting.
It’s understandable. Gambling gives you a feeling. It can be good or bad, but it’s strong. It can cover up a lot of other stuff. The sad part is that it has to end. And when it does, the other problems are not only still there, but have grown worse due to your lack of attention. So you have the old problems as bad or worse than ever before, but now you have a new problem. If it went according to typical form, you just added a money-crunch to your growing list of issues. That’s not going to help.
When the problem in your life is bad enough, you will think you want to replace that feeling with anything--it doesn’t even matter, just as long as it’s different. Gambling will likely help substitute your headspace with something new, but at what cost? Degenerate gambling doesn’t only cost you money. The price can be higher. Your pride, confidence, self-esteem, and entire sense of self-worth are on the line. Problem gambling or wagering when you’re trying to escape life is not just a money issue. The insidiousness of it runs deep.
It’s difficult to tell people how to handle a personal crisis. People can arrive at some really dark places in their lives and who’s to say how they should handle it? In some people’s heads, the need to escape is absolutely necessary. It can be over a terrible event, a culmination of bad things, or just because you are unhappy with your situation in life and having action on a 3-hour-long baseball game seems like a good way to check out for a little while. People gotta do what they need to do to get through this crazy life.
It’s just that gambling when riddled with problems is never a good way to go. Say what you will about the “gambling gods” and whether or not such a thing even exists. Call it what you will, but when someone has an aura of failure oozing from their essence, it almost never leads to winning. Ask ten guys who succeed at sports wagering about their best day ever. None of them will tell you how they cleaned house after hearing their kid got picked up by the cops for drugs or after getting served divorce papers. Gambling, in any form, can be cruel that way. Those who most deserve and can really use a boost in their lives seem to get snake-bitten more than any other gamblers.
Gambling is a vice only is you allow it to be. To become a capable and winning sports bettor, you need to have a clear head and look at it like a business of sorts. When a bettor is betting to escape life or to replace a bad old feeling with a new one, they’re already behind the 8-ball. Like a guy trying to dig his way out of a hole, he’s only sinking himself deeper. To become a winner at sports-betting, something so few actually succeed at, you have to be doing it for the right reasons.
If you have a gambling problem, please do yourself a favor and go to Gamblers Anonymous. It doesn't mean that you're weak or a puss. Many a man bigger, stronger and smarter than you have turned to help and have become a better man for doing so. Get help. Especially if you have a family/kids.
