Why do people Gamble????

What are the economics of betting/gambling?

When one gambles/bets in a casino, there is a saying that goes, "the odds are always on the house." Simply, that means that your chances of winning against the house, that is, the casino, extends from miniscule to nothing. When you buy a lottery ticket, the odds are completely against the buyer. In Britain, the odds of winning are 13,983,815:1.

In other words, if you buy a lottery ticket in Britain, the odds or the probability of you winning the top prize is 1 in 13 million.

You actually have better odds of being struck by lightening or being hit by a truck or your plane crashing. (To get a better understanding of probabilities and chance, one must necessarily read and understand a subject called Game Theory.) Then why has it been estimated that nearly 90 per cent of adults in the UKplay the lottery. In fact, casinos, lotteries, and gambling syndicates around the world make billions of dollars and that they are constantly expanding.

Yet, why do people constantly bet despite dismal odds? It is because of two uniquely human traits and they are `hope' and `greed' and they are in no particular order of importance.

Received economics theory is that humans are `rational agents' but when you think about it, is betting rational. That point can be debated endlessly with no outcome because bettors will claim that they are rational because they insider information or are better informed than others while others will say that it is sheer madness (that is, irrational) to bet against such huge odds. Of course, often the odds aren't that bad. Odds aren't bad for sports games compared to lottery tickets.

Typically games such as horse-racing, football, and cricket have odds placed on their outcome. Odds are calculated on a number of factors such as past performance, players in a team, performance of other horses, teams, etc.

You often see that the odds for winning a game are 6:4 or 4:6. To explain the odds 6:4 means that the chances of particular team or horse winning is that out of 10 chances, they have a chance of losing 6 times and winning 4 times. If the odds are 4:6, then it is the other way around. If the odds are 99:1, then the odds of winning are 1 every 100 games or next to nothing.

Bettors make more money if they bet of winning teams that have lower odds like 20:1 than teams that have odds like 3:1 or 4:6. This is because they have taken take a far greater risk betting on a team that is less likely to win. In other words, there is a higher risk-reward ratio.

Therefore, the only information that a bettor (honest bettor) has is the odds published by betting houses or by newspapers and that is likely to be the only information they will ever have.

For example, in the Cricket World Cup, Ladbrokes, one of the premiere betting agencies in the UK, currently has Australia with the highest odds at 6:4 and Ireland with the lowest odds at 250:1. This means that if you bet on Ireland and it wins the World Cup, then you will actually get paid 250 pounds for every pound you have bet. If you think that's a bad bet consider the odds that India had to get into the Super 8. India had odds of 1:4 to get into the Super 8 which meant that out of 5 chances; India had 4 chances to get in. However, look where India is now. Therefore, odds aren't everything.

So what is the economics of betting? If you are a bettor with no chance of getting inside information or being able to rig the game, then the odds are heavily stacked against you. The information asymmetries are completely skewed against the bettor. If you think about it, investing in shares is also a form of betting. If you are rational, then you must never place a bet unless you have every kind of information possible about that bet and that chances of that happening are next to nothing. Then why is that people constantly bet in games of chance and why is that lotteries and casinos are raking in the money. It comes back again to the basic human instincts of hope and greed. Both are self-reinforcing. The economics of betting is essentially the organisers of betting taking away from money from the gullible bettor.

Source : The Hindu Online

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Playwin is one of the India's 25 Best Start-ups

Article on India’s 25 Best Start-ups


Þ Introduction of Playwin
Playwin is the lottery & gaming brand of Pan India Network Infravest Pvt. Ltd., part of the One Billion Dollar Essel Group of Companies. Pan India Network Infravest Pvt. Ltd. is into the business of providing infrastructure, data communication, marketing support and service to facilitate a secure online lottery network.

Floated in November 2001, Playwin started with the online lottery franchises for the governments of Sikkim, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Playwin Games of Fortune are very high tech and completely transparent. All games are played through highly sophisticated terminals and the draws are conducted through special draw machines, which are completely automatic. Moreover, all draws are shown on television and conducted in the presence of government officials. Playwin offers a complete computerized gaming format - Easy playing rules, Result draws on television, Transparency in distributing prize won.
Currently, Playwin offers consumers ten online games like Thursday Super lotto, Thunderball, Saturday Super lotto, Friday Easy Lotto, Lucky 3, Max 3, Keno, Fast Lotto, Joker and Joker 5. All these games can be played through retail terminals while some can also be played via Internet and SMS.
To make an effort to reach out to the underprivileged sections of our society, Playwin Online Lottery has set-up a social wing called Playwin Foundation, which has been supporting various social causes consistently. The Foundation recently joined hands with Akanksha, an NGO for unprivileged children, to support its centers that provide education to thousands of slum children by means of schools/shelters. Playwin has also provided monetary support to Kulur Higher Primary School in Kulur Mangalore for building repairs and has sponsored 22 year-old Madhavi Pardeshi, who was selected for the Junior Asian Power Lifting Championship held in South Korea.
Playwin Foundation has the sponsorship contract for 10 Ambulances for 12 months in Mumbai with Ambulance Access for All. The Ambulances have attended over 6000 calls out of which more than 900 calls to the poor have been absolutely free
Þ All India In-charge
Playwin is the latest brainchild of Mr. Subhash Chandra, the visionary media baron, who gave India its first Satellite channel- Zee TV (having 350 million viewers across 120 countries. Mr. Sanjay Das is the Chief Executive Officer, Pan India Network Infravest Pvt. Ltd., a BE (Electronics) from Jadhavpur University, Kolkata and MS (Electronics) from Cranfield Institute, UK and a Management degree from the prestigious IIM, Ahmedabad. Mr. Das has over 30 years of work experience, which includes 15years as head of profit centers in varied industries ranging from products, entertainment and services.

Amongst many achievements, the joint venture of Essel Packaging in Egypt, China and Germany is completely to his credit. He has been with the Essel Group for over 8 years. He was the Executive President of Essel Packaging, looking after the International Operation prior to this new assignment as CEO, Pan India Network Infravest Pvt.

Þ Growth rate
With a turnover of USD 145 million in the first year, USD 158 million in the second, USD 330 million in the third year (2004-05) and USD 362.6 million in the fourth year (2005-06), Playwin has created new milestones.

Þ Milestones
o Playwin has created 67 crorepati’s, over 2750 Lakhpatis and tens of millions of other winners till date.
o Introduced Jackpot Card with Itz Cash Card Limited providing the back end service application technology. The best part is that this Jackpot card now enables you to play Playwin games via sms or online, and much more anytime & anywhere!!.
To sum up, the popular online lottery brand, Playwin within 5years of its start up is the leading brand today in this segment. With a turnover of USD 362.6 million, the company believes in changing people’s fortunes and setting up new milestones.!