What’s The Difference Between Sports Betting and Casino Gambling?
Gambling has been a great pastime of humanity through the ages. People love to take risks, and it’s in our nature to want to know what the outcomes will be – whether it’s events in our lives, a game or sports event. There are, however, some differences between the kinds of gambling that we enjoy these days – Casino gambling and sports betting.
What is gambling?
Gambling usually involves betting on the outcome of a game or event without certainty of what the result might be. Participants will wager a certain amount of money on a stake hoping to be right and winning more. Gambling relies on pure luck as well as some skill or strategy in analysing odds.
The most popular forms of gambling are slots, online casino games and table games like craps, poker, blackjack, roulette and baccarat. In most countries, gambling is regulated by licensing bodies to prevent cheating, fraudulent activity and fake casinos and ensure the fairness of the games.
Casinos make their money from their advantage over players that are built into all games, which is called the house edge. That’s not to say that the house always wins on the short term, as a player may have a night filled with wins and leave with wads of cash in hand. The idea is that, in the long term, the average losses and wins of the players over time will earn the casino a certain percentage of all the bets made.
What is Sports Betting?
Although similar, sports betting is generally considered as a form of gambling. In sports betting, one places bets on a prediction regarding the outcomes of a game or race. From a legal standpoint, betting is seen as a commercial agreement between two parties – one which predicts the outcome and places a bet, and another who forfeits the bet and pays out a ratio to the player should they win. Sports betting includes any sport, including horse racing which is quite popular.
The fundamental difference in the way sports betting pays out is that tax is that tax is deducted from your bets, and the betting company or track takes a percentage as profit off the bat. The total amount of money placed into bets is then divided between everyone who placed a winning bet. This means that players usually land up paying more money other than the bet being made. Most sports betting will also ask you to bet on the number of points the team will win by, so even if you bet on a winning team, should they not score higher than your guess, you’re probably still going to walk away with a loss. Thus, the odds are strongly stacked against you.
Conclusion
It’s easy to see why many players choose casino gambling over sports betting as the odds lie somewhat in their hands to manipulate, where sports bettors are at a significant disadvantage. Both forms of gambling are however a great way to put your nerves to the test.