A card shark in a thousand-dollar Armani suit swaggers intoa Vegas casino and lays a huge bet on the outcome of a single spin of aroulette wheel. Miles away, a Wall Street trader in a thousand-dollar Hugo Bosssuit struts onto the trading floor and buys up 20,000 shares in a tech startup.Since neither cowboy can see the future, how is the trader’s speculationdifferent from casino gambling? Is there even a difference?

The Gambler

A seasoned gambler would argue that his betting decisionsare based entirely on what he calls a “System.” The System has never failedhim, and he swears by it. He wins more than he loses, and this is the proofthat The System works. The gambler is quick to argue that he has spent a lot oftime looking at the angles, the odds, and the possible outcomes of each bet.But regardless of how much time the gambler has spent learning the games andperfecting his system, to gamble is to risk money in a situation where the oddsare deliberately stacked against a win for the gambler.

On the one hand, slot games entail wagering your bets on three or more spinning or cascading reels. On the other hand, roulette games involve betting on a rotating wheel with numbered pockets. Despite this, one thing is certain: slots and roulette are some of the most popular casino games ever, and they come in several different variations. While slots are indeed dynamic because of their nature, Roulette is more static, you have to wait for the numbers or the colours you choose to trigger a winning combination and this probably make it a game. Both are bad odds, but slots are worse overall. Roulette has saved a few days for me, but last trip crushed my bankroll. Probably depends on how you play it too, I bet inside 10 numbers or so when i play so often lose a spin or 2, but then one win can bring me back. Last trip about $1000 in $100 spins, but never hit my big numbers even once! Enjoy 400+ exciting online slots with CasinoEuro. Play all your favourite games or try new ones and grab a cool 100% new player bonus!

A gambler relies on luck more than skill, though he would rather not admit it. The simple facts are in the statistics. Hitting a single number on a roulette wheel holds 37:1 odds against the gambler. There is a 50% chance of winning a roulette bet placed on red or black. But the payout for winning the latter bet is lower, so a gambler who is ‘feeling lucky’ will wager a large amount on the single number in hopes of winning 35x his money (or whatever a particular casino pays out for a win). There are loads of theories about luck, lucky stars, and what makes a player feel lucky. But luck is not a science, nor can it be proven with statistics or mathematical probability.

Gambling is creating risk for the ‘thrill’ of beating theodds. A gambler isn’t only in it to win it. Studies show that long termgamblers experience a rush even when they lose. While it may be a negativefeeling, the buzz is still there, the hook that keeps the gambler coming backfor one more bet. A gambling addict isn’t addicted to winning. He is addictedto the thrill involved with the act of gambling. But money is still at theheart of the thrill. Try betting with candy instead of money; that’s a game forchildren. The greater the risk, the higher amount of the money bet, the greaterthe reward when it pays off. The down side: failure is all the more devastatingwhen you lose it all.

The Speculator

A speculator conducts research and calculates risk beforemaking a financial transaction. Like the gambler, there is an inherent riskinvolved in every speculation. The more money the speculator invests in aparticular trade (stocks, commodities, or futures), the more money he makeswhen his speculation pays off. The speculator is fully educated with knowledgeof the financial sector and its ups and downs, trends, and bubbles. Knowingexactly when and where to invest is more of a science than a gamble, eventhough markets are not always certain. Just look at the American GreatDepression of the 1920s or the more recent globalfinancial crisis of 2007-2008.

Slots Vs Blackjack

A speculator is a trader for whom making financialinvestments is a job. A speculator can also make personal speculations andtrades for his own stock portfolio on his own time, but a licensed trader actson behalf of a company (often a brokerage firm). So in essence, trades made onbehalf of the firm use other people’s money. A gambler would probably not havethe same thrill if he were gambling with other people’s money. In the end, whatdifferentiates a speculator from a gambler is the skill set. Traders have spenta lot of time learning a particular set of skills necessary for them to succeedat their job – or they wouldn’t have one. So while a gambler swears by a particularsystem, the gambler is really just playing with luck. But sometimes he is just verylucky.

Gambling Systems Explained

Slots Vs Roulette Odds

Certain systems are available to help gamblers win at thegame. While the odds always favor the casino, a certain amount of knowledgewill help the gambler develop the skill needed to make smarter gamblingchoices. Simply stated, these skills make the gambler a better bettor. Usingroulette as an example, several roulette systems utilize various strategiesdesigned to improve the odds of winning. Some of these systems are based onstudying mathematical probability. While others rely merely on repetition.

The martingale strategyis a popular roulette strategy based on repetition. The strategy is based onthe idea of doubling down on 50/50 bets (red/black, even/odds). For each losingbet, you double the bet. Even if you lose several bets in a row, the series ofre-doubled bets will become high enough to pay back your original losses. Thisstrategy only works if the gambler has very deep pockets, as true probabilitysuggests that you could just as easily get 30 reds in a row as 30 blacks. Ultimately,this strategy relies on the luck of the spin and the size of the gambler’spockets.

There are many such systems in play, and each one is just aslikely to make you stinking rich or filthy poor. Strategies like the Fibonaccistrategy (based on the Fibonacci sequence of numbers) is just as much a fantasyas it is a reality. The numbers are real enough, but the sequence goes from 1to 144 awfully fast, so betting in the amounts listed in the sequence resultsin some very high bets in a very short time.

Most ‘strategies’ like the above probably worked for morethan five minutes, so the ‘strategist’ put them down on paper. Unfortunately,results which are truly random (as with games of chance) rarely live up toexpectations.

A Speculator’s System

Slots Vs Roulette Games

There are some maverick traders who have applied themartingale system to trading. Unless that maverick has some very deeppockets—and can buck any trend—the trader is doomed to fail. When a series ofinvestors makes the same illogical investments over and over for long periods,this can affect the value of markets and commodities in the long run, andeventually destroy the system.

A speculator often deals with future trading and foreignexchange trading. He speculates on the shifting price trends and investsaccordingly. But the difference between trade speculation and gambling is vast.Speculators crunch a lot of data involving each trade. They examine charts,graphs, and financial forecasts to form an opinion on the viability of aninvestment. In the case of futures trading, the speculator enters a pricecontract for a specific commodity. The profit or loss of that commodity for thespeculator is determined by the price forecast, the length of the contract, andother factors.

Slots Vs Roulette Random

In the end, speculation is a form of gambling, as nobody cansee the future. Companies open and close, commodities see shortages andsurpluses, and all markets are affected by the activity of the whole group ofinvestors. But unlike the casino gambler, a speculator follows legalregulations for trading and (usually) works within the system. Gamblers followhunches, systems, or ‘gut feelings’ most of the time. And feelings aren’tfacts.