If you announce at a family reunion that you are now a hardened gambler this will probably not be met with encouraging back slaps. People may look uncomfortably at you with pity in their eyes. It is considered by most people to be a losing enterprise, especially as bookmakers are there only to make profit and ban people from the shops if they win too much. That means if they let you bet, they believe they will beat you!

But there is never any consideration given to the fact that you may have a system that picks out consistent winners and an excellent staking plan that helps you take an edge in betting. Poker players, for example, can practise and learn the psychological and actual hand playing skills that give them a tangible edge on the competition. To simply assume that people are randomly gambling is not always correct and I found whilst working in the Industry that most people operating some sort of system either in picking selections or staking. There is also no consideration made by detractors that you conduct your betting with money you can afford to lose. I have never personally had a problem with gambling beyond my means, although I accept that places like gamblers anonymous exist because not everyone has this strength. Whilst addiction is a problem you must always be aware of, some of the best gamblers I have encountered have an incredible hold on their emotions with strong self discipline.

There is a distinct difference between random gamblers and people who gamble sensibly with a strategy. The aspect of gambling that worries me is the hypocrisy, although not malicious, that is given to other forms of gambling that almost make a positive out of what can be a negative and addictive enterprise.

One thing that should never be encouraged is random gambling. Yet many people buy property speculatively without having the necessary research or skills to profit. I worked in the property industry for three years and fount that this type of gambling is every bit as addictive and dangerous as sports betting. The rising market made many wealthy property investors, but the credit crunch now means you need skills as profiting are making serious mistakes is now highly unlikely. Investors are now realising there is a downside to their investments when things go wrong. Property investment is gambling, as is the stock market. Going back to our example of announcing to family you are a gambler, if you reword this to say you are investing in stock markets and acquiring a property portfolio you will probably get those admiring glances not given to even the savvy and winning gamblers.

Random gamblers should be encouraged to either not bet or bet more sensibly. Websites such as this offer assistance and advice for free, so why not use it? I must stress that caring family members are making objections out of love which is never a bad thing, but perhaps they should be aware that people do win from gambling and poker. Try and explain that you are taking part with restrictions and lots of self awareness. Poker players should be aware of the risks and just like the property investors or stock traders, managing these risks and playing within your bankroll is essential to success.
People should be slightly more sceptical of the accepted forms of gambling and be slightly more tolerant of the more frowned upon versions of gambling. They all have one thing in common; in order to win you must beat the house which is never easy.

By Malcolm Clarke

The stupidity of the large scammers was that they were taking huge sums of money from the top players. Players like Dustin Wolff and Todd Witteles were winning tens of thousands on some sites, but on the scam sites they were getting hammered for big losses. Naturally they could not understand this. They therefore requested hand histories and when those were not forthcoming, data mining websites exposed inhuman win-rates from certain new users that started to suggest something was not right. Eventually the scams, albeit never convicted, were exposed.

If a poker room authorises a player who has access to others hole cards to be used in a real game, this is an in-house security fraud. The time span for this super-user fraud to occur is short, and almost sure to be exposed due to data mining and hand playing patterns. The poker players with the most money usually analyse the hands best and put their time into analysing hands. It is hard to get a scam past them. The poker rooms also need to be earning millions from any fraud as the normal earnings through their rake are so high. It is better for poker rooms to simply play poker rather than be dishonest, they make plenty of money.

Full Tilt Poker, for example, would need to scam a quite staggering amount of money to be worth it to them as they have rake revenues of around $400 million a year. It is simply not worth it for them in my opinion. The larger sites are therefore safer to play on (that we know of) as they are successful enough to invest in the most data encryption technology so their site is trustworthy. They also have many named pros with ownership interests. Full Tilt is probably the most transparent in terms of ownership of every poker room.

Rather than focusing on the site ripping you off, you should be particularly careful when playing cash games where players could be working together. For example, if you play a hand where the same two players are raising then re-raising to expose you, report this activity to the room’s security who will investigate. Poker rooms have the ability and authority to refund you. Betting patterns of players guilty of cohesion are easily spotted and poker rooms have software designed to expose this behaviour. This is more common at the lower staked games where players just want to win money without the risk.

Another safety measure would be to minimise the amount of money you hold in the poker room’s accounts. Poker rooms are usually based offshore. I would rather keep money in my own personal account where it can still be part of my bankroll. It may be worth opening a separate personal account where your poker bankroll resides. There is nothing to suggest that poker rooms will scam your bankroll money, but the fact is most of the time we just do not know how they are operating. I trust the poker rooms, but I am careful nonetheless.

By Malcolm Clarke