Women Gamblers and the World of High Risk Merchants

What's new in the gambling world? Well, apart from Jerry Yang bagging the 2007 WSOP prize, nothing much. The same old story goes that internet gambling can be addictive and this is exactly what motivates the U.S. government to curtail, if not ban, online gambling. High risk merchants have a way of dealing with these current restrictions by being based offshore. I have nothing against it. In fact, I think that being based offshore is practically what makes online gambling businesses survive. Do I have anything against online gambling too? Well, my knowledge is as good as what I hear and read. Consider this:

WOMEN BETTING HIGHER STAKES THAN MEN?

"High-stakes women gamblers who use the Internet to wager on games win more often than men, according to a Harvard Medical School study." Initially, anyone would think that the gambling online arena is permeated with middle-class American/European/Asian men who take off a percentage off their income and use it play online, for entertainment's sake. But the report says when it comes to internet betting, women are less afraid to stake big dough and win/lose according to their bets. They are, in short, more fierce online gamblers.

I GOT HUSTLED!

What does it imply? These days I wouldn't call addiction as the main issue in internet gambling. This report is kinda funny though. It reminds me of when my fiance and I went to a casino somewhere in South East Asia. I was then a stupid dork who didn't know the first thing about poker tournaments and stuff. One time, Josh joined one small poker tourney while I sat by the slot machines and watched. I was also fiddling with my phone too much. Chewing my mint Spout like a sick, obsessive kid. A woman sat beside me, looking spacey. We got into talking and saw me kiss and hug Josh during breaktime. She asked me stuff like if he was my husband and how did I do my eyebrows, they look gorgeous? Haha. She ended up asking if I had some dollars left for coffee, since she wanted something warm to drink in the cold casino room but couldn't buy since she wasn't playing poker. I gave her what was left in my pocket and introduced her to Josh during another breaktime. When she left, looking shy and a bit hurried, I told Josh that I handed her some dollars for coffee. Josh was like "What? Why did you let that stranger hustle you?"

I found out later she was a high stakes slot machine addict in that particular casino. Well, I sensed it as soon as I saw her but thought of brushing away the idea. The only smart thing that I did was that I didn't give her my correct phone number when she asked for it, telling me she would repay me for the coffee. I realized instead of doing that, she might actually keep on borrowing from me if she knew how to contact me. Whew.

The long and short of the story is that probably, women are more likely to be fierce players and can bet really high compared to men. But my guess is that the really high stakes women players are the wives whose husbands earn good money. See, it's far easier to throw out all that dough if you're not earning it.

THE STOCK MARKET IS JUST AS DEADLY

But so much for women, internet gambling, and getting hustled at the casino. The one thing we can agree on is that internet gambling comes in many forms. Think about the stock market. It's not as notorious as online poker or roulette, but on a study conducted by the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, day trading at the stock market is far more addictive and deadly than gambling with cards or dices. For me, it's not so much to do with high risk merchant account owners who sell gambling online or base their banks offshore, but with how particular games affect players. In the case of stock trading, it can be as theatrical as the movie “Wall Street”, or as depressing as "college students amassing such losses they must drop out of school to repay the huge debt, a grandmother who turned embezzler to pay for her addiction, or a businessman who turned to selling drugs to cover his losses." Now, doesn't that sound familiar?