Walking home with my son and a friend from a football match at the local stadium, we overheard two middle-aged ladies behind us, animatedly discussing the outcome of the weekend’s English premier league matches.
This fascinated us and curiosity had me engaging them tongue in cheek to understand their interest and motivation.
They gave a burst of hearty laughter and nonchalantly declared that they were trying to win the various jackpots that are on offer in sports betting.
This took us aback since traditionally this is a male-oriented engagement, but as we know norms and mores no longer hold.
A few years back the only way to gamble was through the purchase of charity sweepstakes tickets, or casino games and betting, which were only available in big towns and cities.
Now the revolution in information, communication and technology has increased the types, forms and methods of gambling from print, radio and digital mobile platforms.
Inadvertently we are already dealing with individuals suffering, lost businesses, savings, self-harm and addictions.
Gambling is the act of staking something of value in a bid to win a bigger price even though the outcome is not guaranteed. It encompasses a wide range of activities like casino games and lotteries, and also slots, poker and table games.
The term betting can be used interchangeably, though in common talk it is mostly associated with placing a stake to predict the outcome of sporting activity.
The most glaring aspect of the Kenyan gambling or betting scene is the lack of basic knowledge of the psychological underpinnings plus the basic science of odds and probability.
Just to be clear, gambling is not an easy way of making money or replacing formal, work or other stepwise money-making ventures.
Two key phrases, ‘the Monte Carlo/gamblers fallacy’ and ‘the house never loses’ ring a bell.
Gambling operates on the concept of risk and reward with the wager hoping to win more in as much as they acknowledge the potential to lose due to obvious uncertainty.
The aspect of odds and probability is also key, whereas as much as the chances of winning and losing are always equal in a fair setup, companies alter the odds to ensure that they remain profitable despite some people winning their bids.
The gambler's fallacy originates from cognitive biases, where individuals expect short sequences of random events to reflect the probabilities seen over long sequences.
This not only affects gambling/betting but also decision-making in fields like finance and investing where trends or gut feeling can lead to erroneous choices since future outcomes are unpredictable.
The house never loses phrase highlights how skewed the process is as the operators devise rules and odds that favor them in order to balance out and remain profitable.
Periodic short-term wins, chasing losses and believing that continued betting will change one’s luck, leads to more desperation and psychological hooking.
- The writer is a licensed psychologist/psychiatrist clinical officer and lecturer KMTC Meru Campus
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