It's hard to walk away from a winning streak, even harder to leave the table when you're on a losing one."
This is a publication based on the suggested topic proposed in the Hive Learners community through their discord, which on this occasion is "Should Gambling/Betting Be Illegal?".
Welcome to my blog, and once again, we have a very interesting and highly controversial topic for today. The question posed for our conversation and interaction is whether betting or gambling should be illegal. There is a tradition in many countries for people to have the habit of betting and getting involved in gambling. In the case of my country, Venezuela, we have a tradition every Sunday of participating in horse racing bets. Every Sunday, people have a tradition of filling out their betting slips. For those in other countries who may not know what this is, it is simply that horse races are usually held at the racetrack on Sundays, and nationally, people have the possibility to go to a place where they can place bets on horses or predict the horses that will win the races of that day. They fill out what is called a betting slip, which is like a bingo card, where they have all the bets on the horses they think will win. This way, there is a large accumulated prize every Sunday, and people can receive a reward according to the number of correct predictions they have made. The issue with this is that it is a tradition in the country, and people, with great enthusiasm and hope, go and bet on their favorite horses. Nowadays, with the presence of globalization, this has expanded greatly, and people don't even have to leave their homes to place bets, as they can do it directly online or via their mobile phones. The thing is, with all these types of games of chance, when there is betting, the odds of winning are very small because, as the saying goes, "the house always wins." All these betting systems are designed to be attractive to users, and this is how they hook users, offering them a very large, attractive amount of money and presenting the possibility of big winnings in a seductive manner. This is precisely where people fall into the temptation of believing they can win. These systems also offer stimuli or motivations in the form of small prizes at regular intervals. Regardless of whether it is slot machines, blackjack, poker, horse racing, dice games, or any other variety of casino betting, they all have a system where they make people periodically win small amounts to keep them motivated and betting. I have personally known many cases of people who get into gambling and never stop betting. Directly here in my country, I know friends who have this vice. Even in local games, they constantly bet, believing they will win. Personally, I have given in to this temptation on several occasions because I believed I would win. That’s the motivation; precisely when the system knows you are placing a bigger bet, it is when they will take your money because they know that’s the hook, getting you to win and increasing your bet level to take your money. Many people put their life savings into these bets and lose everything. They lose their salary, their annual income, and cannot pay for their family's living expenses, ending up bankrupt. The problem with all this is that I honestly believe it should be classified as illegal or, at the very least, there should be regulations so that all these betting houses are honest in their advertising. I believe the issue lies in the advertising and how they present it as easy to win the grand prize and have a luxurious life. Most casinos and betting houses offer prizes like Ferraris, or in commercials, you see people winning the prize and appearing with jewelry, Ferraris, women, and high-class living. We all know they manipulate dreams and make people invest in these bets. Therefore, I think the advertisements or commercials should be regulated so that governments or states ensure that people's lives are not ruined. I truly support the control of this because many lives are ruined. People can bet as much as they want, definitely, but I believe that the right to bet should not be taken away. What should be regulated is the advertising and how it presents bets to people in a more transparent way, informing them of the probabilities of winning. This way, people may have a clearer understanding of the percentage or chance of winning the prize, and it would be up to the individual to decide whether to bet or not, but with clearer information. I think this is a more rational way to approach the issue of gambling. Thumbnail image maded using Bing AI and edited with Canva.com
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Images captured using my Krip 4b phone
The text dividers were made by me using aseprite
Post translated from spanish to english using Microsoft Copilot
