Bookmakers and Casinos Are Not Your Friends

This page should be unnecessary. It should be obvious that casinos and bookmakers want you to lose as much money as possible and do everything they can to make this happen, yet if the behaviour of punters is anyting to go by, maybe it is not as obvious as it should be.

Let me be very clear: If you win your betting agency loses. If you walk out of the casino with more than when you came, the owner has made a loss. People do not go into business to lose money. So gambling agencies make it as hard as they can for you to win.

They do this primarily by one simple technique - giving you worse odds than you should get. By doing this it becomes a mathematical certainty that they will win and punters will lose. The only way for a punter to win is to have a short term burst of luck, or, exercise such intelligent judgement that the unfair odds are overcome. Since you can't exercise any worthwhile level of judgement at a casino (not even in blackjack) you can't win at casinos.

So remember - if the casino gives you free drinks or a free meal, if the bookie gives you a free introductory bet, if a horse or a team is being quoted at surprisingly good odds - this is not because they want you to win. They don't - they want you to bet as often and as much as possible and thus lose as often and as much as possible.

There is an exception to this rule: Agencies that adjust their odds throughout betting and give starting price odds to everyone (with their cut built into the prices) and betting exchanges who take a commission out of profits (eg Betfair). In these instances the agency makes its profit on turnover - they are not taking an opposing position to you, they are just facilitating the gambling. They are more than happy for you to win - indeed they want you to - because the greater amount wagered the greater the profits they make.

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