A ship of fools
Last year was a good year for gamblers. Well, some of them. The biggest win recorded last year on an online slot machine was a tad over 17.8 million euros (that’s about US$19.3), won by a guy named Johnathan Heywood in the UK. He was definitely not the only one as countless other people have become overnight millionaires online or in real life, winning jackpots, lotteries and such.
The winners behind last year’s massive jackpots were not a bunch of professional gamblers. Not by far. Heywood, the guy who won the record breaking jackpot last year, was an average citizen – a 26 year old Afghanistan veteran, a big Formula 1 fan, who plans to spend a major chunk of his win on medical treatment for his father (and replace his old Fiat Punto).
What is my point, you might ask? Well, according to the local press, Heywood has made a single deposit of 30 pounds to an online casino, and has played for a total of seven minutes when he won the fabulous jackpot. He was not some professional gambler, not a high roller – his winning spin cost him 25 pence, the equivalent of 36 cents.
A similar case has been reported earlier last year, when a Canadian player (Mark) has won over $7.5 million on the same slot machine at the Royal Vegas Casino. He was also a newbie, he just started to enjoy Royal Vegas massive selection of casino games a week before the massive win. And he was also not a high roller – the winning spin has cost him 25 cents.
The point I’m trying to make is that gambling might be a lot of fun, a hugely entertaining way of spending time, but it’s far too unreliable to be a viable source of income. And people shouldn’t see it as one. Instead they should consider it what it really is: a form of entertainment for which you pay money, just like for a book, a movie ticket or a Caribbean cruise (which, by the way, you can win at the Royal Vegas if you are lucky).
Many popular games played in modern casinos such as Craps, Baccarat and roulette originate from various regions of Europe and China. One needs to remember that casino games were not built to make money for the player. Modern Casinos offer very colorful, varied and entertaining online games that are just perfect for fun, that is if you are into this type of games as obviously not everyone is a fan of Candy Crush. What makes these games exciting is the chance – and this is the keyword here – of winning. People often get superstitious when it comes to gambling, they believe that by playing on the ‘right’ games in a casino can turn you into an instant millionaire. The reality is the odds are royally against you so it’s better to just treat it as a form of recreation.
Finally, you can’t build a future on money you imagine yourself winning playing casino games. Never approach gambling as a quick rich scheme, it merely serves as a form of online or offline entertainment not to mention that there are countless examples out there of people who won millions and ended up broke and in debt within years.
