The Secret to Winning at Gambling
If you want to win at gambling, the secret is money management. Decide in advance how much you can afford to lose and when to stop. Never chase your losses, as this will only lead to bigger problems.
Besides the financial harms, problem gambling can cause social impacts too. These can include work productivity loss, absenteeism, and impaired working relationships.
Definition
A gamble is an attempt to win something of value, usually money, by placing a stake (often referred to as a wager) on an event with an element of chance. The stake is typically a sum of money, but can be anything of value, such as property or possessions. Gambling is a type of risk-taking behavior that has the potential to cause problems for people. It can range from subclinical risk-taking behaviors to those that meet diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling.
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The word gamble comes from the Latin gamber, meaning to skip or frolic. Other related words include gambier, gamboller, and gambolled. The meaning of the word varies from country to country, but it is always synonymous with risky and uncertain. The earliest recorded use of the word in English was in 1425 as a name for a play.
Origin
Gambling is one of the oldest activities in human history. It was practiced in ancient China and Rome. It was also a popular pastime in medieval Europe. People who engage in gambling are called gamblers.
In Ireland the name Gamble was recorded in the seventeenth century in Ulster inquisitions, army lists, Petty’s ‘census’ and in the Hearth Money Rolls for the northern counties (1663-9). In Scotland Josias Gamble was an early settler of County Fermanagh. It is also found in Yorkshire – there are several village names and a concentration around York.
A study of the distribution of various forms of the surname GAMBLE was made using the 1991 editions of telephone directories for England and Wales. Significant concentrations were discovered in Leicestershire, and north from there through Nottinghamshire to Sheffield, Leeds and Harrogate and then down to York in central Yorkshire. There was also a notable concentration around the town of St Helens in Lancashire where David Gamble was mayor in the late 1800s and created a baronet in 1897.
Meaning
A gamble is a risky action that could lead to a positive or negative outcome. It is often paired with the verb take, as in “to gamble on a job interview”.
A venture or attempt that depends for its success upon chance or uncertain contingencies. The term is applied to any game of chance in which money or something else of value is at stake, and to those who engage in such games.
It can also refer to financial transactions and speculations that depend for their success on chance or unknown contingencies, as in the stock market. The act of gambling can be dangerous, especially when done on a large scale.
To gamble is to bet money or other assets on a risky proposition, such as a game of cards or the outcome of a race. It can also refer to any kind of risky activity or decision. The etymology of gamble is unclear. It may be from Middle English gammlen or a variant of gamenen, to joke or play, or from Old English gaemnian or gamblen, a diminutive of game.