In India gambling is supposed to be illegal. If I am right no casinos are allowed in India. Though there are quite a lot of illegal “gambling institutions” out there who manage to keep things going by paying off the right guys…Recently, when the IPL was in progress, one of the ministers objected to the way BCCI had put up its SMS campaign. This set me to think a little bit for myself…and this is what I came out with:
If slot machines and poker is gambling – so is Lottery tickets and all those “buy one and stand a chance to win”… or “collect the right combination and stand a chance to win”… campaigns. Let us compare – in a slot machine or in poker you place your money against a promise that if the right combination appears – which is totally left to chance (I am not sure 1 in how many) you will get your money back with a bonus on top; but if the combination does not appear – then the house takes your money.
Now coming to lottery tickets – you buy (place your money) a lottery ticket which has a combination of numbers printed on it; and the organizer will pick out a combination in random and if it matches with your combination – you get a specified sum of money which is more than you spend to buy the ticket, and if the combination does not appear – you don’t get back the money… do you see the similarity?
As for the Advertisement schemes followed by lots of brands – buy1 and stand a chance to win… schemes – you are buying a product – which has a cost and profit factor for the supplier. Now the supplier enters you into the competition using the profit generated from you buying the product. Again the same thing happens as the lottery ticket … except that if you don’t win you don’t get the profit back as discount – but you still get to keep the product.
I know a lot of you will say that this is a little farfetched – especially the last one. Hey – I am no supporter of gambling. As long as a person knows what he is doing – gambling is fine; but the day it becomes a craze … it is a different story… so is alcohol…
My point was not to try and support gambling … rather to point out our own stupidity … hypocrisy … as a society … gambling is bad but when it comes repacked as lottery or something else – it is perfectly fine.
Have to disagree with you on this. Every decision u take in life can be deemed as a gamble, since in most situations u’ll have to deal with incomplete data. Which college should I join? Which course to take? Everything can be deemed as a gamble. IT may look good when u start ur engineering, just to find that the internet just went broke when u got out of college. How do you intend to recoup those lost years?
In case u didn’t realize lotteries tend to be run by the government. Once private sector gets into it, things can turn up nasty.
One more thing, the bit abt promos given for free at the cost of the customer is incorrect in general. Products are sold for a profit. That is obvious, but promotional offers are generally to increase ur sales volume. For example, a product X makes a profit of 10%. Now, the company can only sell 10 pieces of X. So, it runs an offer to give 1 X free and they manage to sell 100 units of X for the same profit. On a percentage, the company will be gaining a little less than 10% it was earlier earning (since it has to fund the promo), but in actual terms since volume of sale has increased, the company will gain out of it. And all at no loss to the consumer.
Comment by Arby K — July 7, 2009 @ 11:30 pm
One point to add – Casino gambling is considered addictive – lottery is not. Maybe that’s the reason.
Comment by Binny V A — July 7, 2009 @ 11:38 pm
Lottery is also very addictive. There are people who buy lotteries for their entire one days salary.
Comment by Kenney — July 8, 2009 @ 12:58 am
“Every decision u take in life can be deemed as a gamble, since in most situations u’ll have to deal with incomplete data.”
That is my point … every decision that we make is a gamble … then how come casino gambling is considered bad…?
If you are arguing that casino gambling is additive – so are so many other things … for a serial killer – killing is additive … for a school boy playing is additive … for a lot of people like me – work is additive … the list goes on…
Now if you are going to argue that it is the measure of addictiveness… Casino gambling is more addictive than any thing else … I can vouch and say that it is not … cause I have been to casino 2 times with friends … and I still find work more interesting than the casino…
Again my point is not to justify casino gambling … rather point out our own flawed thinking …
Yes I do agree that the comparison between gambling – and all those promo’s for products is a little far fetched … guess my imagination was having its day…
Footnote:
The term “addiction” is used in many contexts to describe an obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction (e.g. alcoholism), video game addiction, crime, money, work addiction, compulsive overeating, problem gambling, computer addiction, nicotine addiction, pornography addiction, etc. – courtesy wikipedia.
Comment by JMJ — July 8, 2009 @ 4:20 pm
Indeed there is a very thin line between fun gambling and an addiction problem. But as long as you can make the difference gambling can be really fun and exciting in the right city, under the right circumstances and why not, mood.
Comment by Tunica — July 23, 2009 @ 1:05 am