Definitionof Gambling

• Define gambling. Gambling synonyms, gambling pronunciation, gambling translation, English dictionary definition of gambling. The activity of playing a game for.
• Definition: something (such as a business venture) that has an unpredictable outcome Crapshoot is typically encountered today written as a closed compound (single word), but when it first entered the language in the late 19th century it was generally an open compound (“crap shoot”).

Agamble is the intent to carry out an immediate and risky act with thehope that the future consequence of the action will be favorable.Thus to gamble is to take a present risk in the hope of futurereward. However, the term ‘gambling’ does not so easily lenditself to the above definitions. Why so? The meaning of the word‘gambling’ has more to do with its implications than itsapplication.

Agambling activity can be considered to be any activity involving awager on an expected outcome. The outcome usually has an unknownlevel of uncertainty. Furthermore, a gambling activity typically hasa monetary or other gain as motivation to the gambler. There isgenerally more than one participant in a gamble, but participation isnot central to the definition of gambling. For an activity to qualifyas gambling, it must thus possess three key elements. These elementsare:-

Definition and synonyms of gambling from the online English dictionary from Macmillan Education. This is the British English definition of gambling.View American English definition of gambling. Change your default dictionary to American English. View the pronunciation for gambling.

The Stake

Thestake or wager is usually in the form of cash, but items ofindisputable value are in gambling activities. A future obligationcan also act as a stake.

Uncertainty

Uncertaintyrefers to the unknown probability of the expected outcome coming topass. Even if such a possibility was entirely fair such that anoutcome is 50% likely, the actual result is still unknown. Thuswagering on 50/50 outcomes can still be considered to be gambling.

Furthermore,in some types of gambling, it is common practice to provide gamblerswith the probabilities of all possible outcomes. As such, theseprobabilities are known as the ‘odds’ of the game.

Motivation

Finally,motivation refers to the tangible gain that the gambler hopes torealize from participating in gambling activity. The moststraight-forward motivation for gambling is usually in the form ofmonetary gain.

Youshould also note that almost any event involving an uncertain outcomecan be the basis of gambling. Furthermore, not all gamblingactivities are dependent solely on chance, and some require thegambler to master specific skills. For example, many gamblingactivities involving cards do require memory, observation, analyticalskills if one hopes to succeed in the games.

Typesof Gambling

Thereare primarily three main categories into which the vast multitude ofgambling activities are grouped. These categories and thesubcategories of gambling are discussed below.

Casino games

TheCasino games category encompasses the gambling activities offered inthe typical land-based casino. The subcategories of casino games are

Casino Table Games

Themain characteristic of casino table games is that a dealer orcroupier conducts gameplay. A dealer or croupier collects bets beforethe beginning of gameplay. He/she is also charged with thedisbursement of winnings and the collection of losses. Their primaryresponsibility is to guarantee fairness in the game.

Thereare different types of casino table games with differences determinedby how gameplay is conducted.

Card Table Games

Asthe name suggests, the gameplay of card table games revolves aroundplaying cards. Thus the goal of gameplay might be to attain aparticular sequence of cards to realize card set with a high gamevalue or other similar objectives.

The three principle card table games are blackjack, baccarat, andpoker. However, people have made modifications to fundamentalgameplay rules resulting in different variants of the three main cardtable games.

Dice/Tile table games

Gameplayin dice/tile table games is centered on results obtained fromthrowing a pair dice or on an accepted sequence of tiles. The outcomeof a throw or series can influence the next move in gameplay. Thusdice/tile table games can have continuous gameplay featuring multiplesmall losses and wins.

Thebest-known dice/tile games are craps and dominoes. Alteration ofcritical gameplay rules has also lead to the creation of otherdistinct games within this category.

Random Number Table Games

Thereis essentially one random number table game, and this is roulette. Inthis game, a gambler has the option of betting on a single number ora group of numbers ranging from 1 to 38. Players can also bet on thelikelihood that a number will be red or black or whether low (1-18)or high (19-38).

Thedealer or croupier then spins a small ball on the outer edge of thewheel in the clockwise direction. The center of the wheel spins inthe opposite anti-clockwise direction. As the ball loses momentum, itdescends towards the numbers and finally settles in the slotcontaining the winning number.

Electronic Games

Electronicgames are played on electro-mechanical consoles, which are operatedusing a lever, pull-stick, or push-button. Before gameplay, a playermust deposit coins, bills, barcode-bearing tickets, plastic tokens,or metal balls. Gameplay then commences and involves the constantoperation of the lever, push-button, or pull-stick.

Thereare several electronic games available in most casinos. These gamesinclude:-

Pachinko

Thiselectronic game is a popular Japanese game that is played using metalball-bearings. The ball-bearings are shot around a board withmultiple targets using the pull-stick. By varying the strength ofone’s pull, a player can land a bearing into the desired target. Someof the targets prompt the release of set number similar balls.

Gambling Meaning Merriam Webster

Landinga ball on other targets initiates a mini-game on the screen at thecenter of the console screen. The overall goal of the game is to endup with more balls than those fed into the console. These balls areexchanged for cash.

Slots

Thisis a game with rotating reels containing symbols with differentmonetary values. Most slots machines feature a set of three reelsthat rotate at varying speeds. The gameplay is centered aroundmatching the symbols on all three reels. Play is initiated using aside lever or push-button.

Thegoal of the would-be player is to have all three reels displaying thematching symbol. Different combinations of matching symbols havedifferent payouts, which the player receives instantly.

video poker

Videopoker is identical to card poker in terms of gameplay rules. Thecritical difference with video poker is that gameplay occurs within a2D or 3D simulated environment. Video poker also offers a simulatedcroupier or dealer who conducts the simulated game.

video bingo

Aswith the previous case, video bingo is identical to live poker interms of gameplay rules. The key difference is also due to gameplayoccurring within a 2D or 3D simulated environment. Video poker alsomakes use of a simulated game host.

Miscellaneous Casino Games

Othergambling activities take place in casinos but do not fall into thefirst two categories. These games deviate from games in the previouscategories in that they offer simultaneous multiplayer participation.The miscellaneous casino game category has:-

Bingo

Thisis a game of chance allowing multiplayer participation. The gameplayinvolves finding a number sequence in a 5×5 number matrix printed onpaper. The gameplay is initiated and conducted by a game host whoconveys a random number sequence to a hall full of players. Thenumbers values range from 1 to 75 and are picked by a ball machine.When a player finds a matching sequence, he/she call out ‘bingo’ toreceive a prize.

Ticket Lotteries

Aticket lottery and a game of bingo mostly make use of the same gamingprinciples. The two games make use of sequences of random numbersthat are generated by ball machines or random number generators.Winning lottery tickets have random number sequences announced aftera daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annual, or annual draw.

Fixed-Odds Betting

Infixed-odds betting, the probabilities relating to specific outcomesare made available to would-be participants before-hand. Thus agambler can vary the size and number of wagers based on thelikelihood or odds. Examples of fixed-odd betting include

Pari-Mutuel betting

Thisis one of the oldest gambling activities and was initially centeredon horse racing. However, pari-mutuel betting has grown to includegrey-hound racing, camel racing, and other more exotic animal racing.Payouts in pari-mutuel betting depend on odds given before placing awager.

Sports Betting

Sports-bettingis an increasingly popular form of gambling and has gainedconsiderable momentum in the last decade. Wagering in this type ofgambling is based on the outcome of sporting events. Currentsports-betting is centered on football due to the sport’s extremepopularity. However, sports-betting does include other sports,including basketball, American football, rugby, and other games.

Online Gambling

Onlinegambling is no different from other types of gambling in thatgameplay for the different games does not change. All the differenttypes of gambling and their specific examples are available on theonline gaming platforms. Thus due to the ease-of-implementation andvirtually unlimited user-access, online gambling is set to overtakeall the other types of gambling put together.

verb

• 1Play games of chance for money; bet.

  • ‘This book offers a concise and to-the-point directory for anyone who gambles on the Internet or is interested in gambling on the Internet.’
  • ‘Appropriately for the son of a bookie, his career has often been about gambling on a long game.’
  • ‘Gambling does, and any player who gambles on baseball or sits with those who conspire to do so risks destroying the very foundation on which the game is built.’
  • ‘The probability of winning lottery prizes are the basic risk dimensions that may help determine whether a person gambles on a particular activity in the first place.’
  • ‘Lisa accurately predicts the winners of sporting events that Homer gambles on so she can be closer to her father.’
  • ‘The sunny forecast came as spread betting firm Cantor Index offered the chance to gamble on the number of hours of sunshine and inches of rainfall in individual months.’
  • ‘Like a participant in a high-stakes poker game, she gambled big and she lost big.’
  • ‘Her eldest of three sons had died in a motorcycle accident, and she'd started gambling on the pokies.’
  • ‘An exhaustive study convinced everyone except he that he had gambled on the game, gambled on the Reds and violated the only unbreakable moral code of the sport.’
  • ‘One aspect of gambling that few people are aware of is that about one in five New Zealanders who regularly gamble on gaming machines have a gambling problem.’
  • ‘In the simpler game, the player gambles with a coin that's been loaded to make the probability of winning less than 50 percent.’
  • ‘They milled about, some slept, some ate, others played cards or gambled on games of dice.’
  • ‘The lottery comes as the Cabinet plans for a new lottery for gambling on professional baseball and billiards.’
  • ‘Police were also aware that the victim was addicted to gambling on football, and there was an extra issue of a love affair.’
  • ‘Cricket Australia has banned gambling on all types of cricket matches by its players, officials and other employees.’
  • ‘The number of Americans who gambled online doubled to about 4% of the population in 2005.’
  • ‘Kids and teenagers have always gambled, whether at marbles or flipping baseball cards.’
  • ‘A woman accused of leaving her five-year-old child alone in a car overnight Monday while she gambled at a Placer County casino is being booked on felony child endangerment charges.’
  • ‘It is easy to gamble impulsively online.’
  • ‘Approximately 85 percent of American adults report having gambled at some point in their lives, and about 60 percent say they've gambled at least once in the past year.’

  bet, wager, place a bet, lay a bet, stake money on something, back the horses, try one's luck on the horses

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  1. 1.1with objectBet (a sum of money)
     • ‘He usually gambled sums of money between five and one hundred dollars, bottles of champagne, pairs of boots, or new hats.’
     • ‘Its annual budget was too modest and its financial future too uncertain to gamble big sums on expensive, start-from-scratch studies.’
     • ‘Instead firms are cutting the money they put into pension funds and telling workers to gamble their savings on the stockmarket through private schemes.’
     • ‘Ideally the money men want to be able to gamble the pension fund, without being responsible for a fixed pension payment.’
     • ‘While most newcomers who gain admittance to the NBA's lucrative members club pay their dues on court, he instead gambled vast sums that he had yet to earn in the hope of greater long-term fulfilment across the Atlantic.’
     • ‘In the mid-1980s, he gambled his export-quota profits on property and stock.’
     • ‘This raises the criticism that he is privatising social security, forcing people to gamble their pensions on the stock market.’
     • ‘I was told they came to gamble their pension checks away every month.’
     • ‘It is this strong belief in luck that leads many to gamble their meagre savings in the hope of becoming rich.’
     • ‘At the last one, he went so far as to say that if people are allowed to gamble their money away at casinos they should be allowed to spend their own money on health care.’
     • ‘Find out plans to create a new investment fund that literally wants to gamble your money.’
     • ‘It was suggested to him that he had gambled the money away on poker machines at the hotel.’
     • ‘Lenore was very upset as she saw Herbert gambling away money she knew wasn't his.’
     • ‘A family friend, trusted to administer the estates of a widow and her son after they died, stole more than £38,000 and gambled the money away, a court heard.’
     • ‘Themes at the heart of the proposed reforms are greater competition, more public involvement and emphasising the link between the money gambled by players and the projects that benefit.’
     • ‘When he entices her to elope with him she steals the money necessary for the elopement, only to find that he does not keep his appointment, having gambled the money away.’
     • ‘A Braintree chef claimed he was robbed of £300 takings by three men to hide the fact that he had gambled the money away, a court heard.’
     • ‘If they want to gamble their hard earned money away, then they should feel free to do so.’
     • ‘As a result, Herman takes all his money and gambles it on one final hand of cards.’
     • ‘A Prime Minister widely recognised as the most powerful in living memory has gambled his reputation, ultimately his leadership of the country and his party, on a bet which is far from the odds-on wagers he is used to.’

• 2Take risky action in the hope of a desired result.

  ‘he was gambling on the success of his satellite TV channel’

  • ‘There are no glamorous high-tech stocks, even though it is always tempting as an investor to gamble on risky firms, he writes.’
  • ‘Investors began gambling on future returns and more patterns emerged.’
  • ‘Contending teams with high picks and clubs with multiple first-round picks willing to gamble on him hope that's not all he is.’
  • ‘He has gambled on a team that he hopes will result in his third general election win.’
  • ‘Investing in CFDs is a highly leveraged way to gamble on stock markets.’
  • ‘Partly it is to do with Britain's curious housing market, where people gamble in property futures as a form of investment.’
  • ‘In the first race he gambled on dry tyres on a damp track in the hope that conditions would improve.’
  • ‘Many a small device company has been created because of a momentous idea that may seem too risky for a large or established firm to gamble on.’
  • ‘We chose to gamble with the more direct train to Pavonia-Newport, hoping the rain would let up before we got there.’
  • ‘Both, he reckons, are houses where we gamble for high stakes, and with high hopes.’
  • ‘However, the very success of the risky blitzkrieg approach led the Germans to gamble even more heavily on their next major operation - the invasion of Russia.’
  • ‘He also invested millions in a new headquarters, and gambled that the party could mount a challenge to the GOP's three decades of dominating fundraising.’
  • ‘But in practice we wouldn't be able to gamble with the chance that it might not work.’
  • ‘A crushing conquest imposes the attacker's will; limited coercion gambles on the target's weakness of will.’
  • ‘At the same time, the guy in charge of your mortgage was gambling on growth every year, too.’
  • ‘Peter is gambling on the fact that he will head straight on up the track.’
  • ‘He briefly held the lead after gambling on his final pit stop taking only two tires - but he didn't have enough grip to hold on.’
  • ‘Squeezed by rivals in their own market, British media moguls are gambling on winning new sales here.’
  • ‘The German government was thus gambling on British neutrality, and in July 1914 this seemed a reasonable bet.’

  take a chance, take a risk, take a leap in the dark, leave things to chance, speculate, venture, buy a pig in a poke

  act in the hope of, trust in, take a chance on, bank on

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Gambling Meaning Webster Definition

noun

• 1usually in singularAn act of gambling.

  • ‘He paused and thought about doubling down, but seemed afraid to put out the extra money on such an insecure gamble.’
  • ‘Though many see the stock market as a casino, shares are not a gamble.’
  • ‘He's extremely talented and has good drive and business sense, but this is a gamble and could leave me in a bit of financial trouble if it fails.’
  • ‘Spread betting is about taking a genuine gamble, and backing your judgement against that of the bookie.’
  • ‘I had a bit of a gamble, and ended up willing about $30, which was a nice change as the machines had been taking my money the last few times I had used them.’
  • ‘For one, the gambling game at the end of each stage is made more of a gamble by being able to wager the coins you've collected through a level.’
  • ‘He is risk-neutral if he is indifferent between a gamble and certain pay-off equalling the expected value of the gamble.’
  • ‘Then again, the biggest gamble in the UK is, of course, the Lotto.’
  • ‘On the Friday he landed a major gamble when taking more than £130,000 out of the betting ring.’
  • ‘Long-shot gambles that may tempt you, rarely work out.’
  • ‘But even with the short payback, such games are almost always a better gamble than the reel slots.’

• 2usually in singularA risky action undertaken with the hope of success.

  ‘we decided to take a gamble and offer him a place on our staff’

  • ‘If reliability is unknown or unknowable, then they just charge a high premium and take a gamble, hoping to spread a loss to other less-risky areas.’
  • ‘Some guests want to know at the time of booking precisely what cabin they will have and others are willing to take a gamble in exchange for an upgrade.’
  • ‘The money stream was very fresh, and they were willing to take a gamble on buying a house and spending as much or more on a remodel.’
  • ‘Thomas had to persuade his brothers and father to take a gamble in this new trade of distilling, an enterprise they were unsure of.’
  • ‘I don't know if anyone has the guts to take a gamble on building such networks in Europe, or if bureaucracy would get in the way.’
  • ‘This is a good time to take a gamble or a quantum leap into unknown territory.’
  • ‘I believe it is a profession in which people can do a lot of good and I was prepared to take a gamble with the job.’
  • ‘The Bolton-born professional, who has taken a six-year lease on the Kearsley club, admits it's a ‘bit of a gamble.’’
  • ‘There is a good chance that the weather will take a turn for the worse and, if it rains, we will be faced with completely different track conditions, which will make Saturday a bit of a gamble for everybody.’
  • ‘‘I've been given a bit of responsibility with opening in the Sunday League, which was a bit of a gamble at first,’ he said.’
  • ‘It's a bit of a gamble, but I'm going to pull the auction, go to Aberdeen and see whether she'll put a stop to this sham of a wedding and marry me instead.’
  • ‘Now you had your first pole position with Toyota at the last race, but be honest with us, was there a little bit of a gamble on low fuel?’
  • ‘We've obviously taken a bit of a gamble with me wicket-keeping.’
  • ‘I took a little bit of a gamble and just tried to go for it.’
  • ‘Considering he was 5th after first qualifying yesterday we took a bit of a gamble on strategy by going for a short first stint.’
  • ‘It was a bit of a gamble, but they nailed it, and the car was perfect.’
  • ‘I think it makes it more interesting when it's a bit of a gamble sometimes.’
  • ‘We took a bit of a gamble on our pit strategy because we felt we didn't have anything to lose, and it almost paid off for us.’
  • ‘It's a bit of a gamble, though, and there's also the question of selling your house after having rented it out for a year, which the experts say is never a great policy.’
  • ‘I know that interest rates might fall this year, so it's a bit of a gamble to take a fix at this stage, but with three young children, it's so much easier to budget.’

  risk, chance, hazard, speculation, venture, random shot, leap in the dark

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Origin

Early 18th century from obsolete gamel ‘play games’, or from the verb game.