Gambling with your money can create financial issues.
Gambling is not about how well you play the games, it’s really about how well you handle your money.
— V.P. Pappy
Addiction
The scientific community has clearly determined that gambling most often creates dopamine in the player’s brain. This is a very exciting drug and since your brain generates it on its own, it’s legal. However, like all drugs, it is addictive.
There are other ways to create dopamine naturally. Having sex is one of them. Going on a stage as a singer is another. In other words, all of these activities create pleasure and as a result it can easily become an addiction.
Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it a hundred times.
— Mark Twain with a hard truth on addiction recovery.
Safely Enjoy Gambling
To safely enjoy gambling, you need to be able to control your spending. For many people this proves to be pretty much impossible. However, I think that by having a gambling budget, you can safely enjoy the dopamine that gambling generates.
$20/wk does not sound like much. Yet, after 52 weeks, you’ll have $1,040.
— Alexis Wilke
Assuming you make $500/wk, and you need $400 to make a living (pay your bills, rent, insurance, gas for the car, and save a little in case there is a need), then you have $100/wk left. Look at what you like to do and partition that extra income to the various things you would like to do for pleasure. For example, you may want to save $50/mo. to go out to eat. And maybe $20/wk to go gamble.
Now that you have a budget, you must stick to it. That means you can’t use a credit card. You can go to a place offering 1h loan. If you can, look at having a separate bank account for that money. You can put your winnings on that account too, to grow the amount when such happens. Businesses do exactly that to manage their money. They have separate accounts for various expenses (i.e. marketing, salaries, office rent, shipping, etc.) These may not be separate bank accounts, but in your case, you most certainly want that to make sure you do not go over your gambling allowance.
Every Married Couple Should Have 4 Bank Accounts
— Steve Harvey, Comedian
Winning!
There are many games you can play to make money. However, most gambling games are on purpose created in such a way that the chance for a player to win are smaller than for the casino to win. A casino has expenses: staff salaries, rent, taxes, full bar drinks have to be purchases ahead of consumption, and the owners want to make a profit. In other words, it is necessary for them to have enough losing players to make the necessary money to pay for all of that.
That being said, some games have odds such that you do have a chance to win. However, it may require training to indeed win. One such game that comes to mind is Poker. You may have to pay a small fee to get to play at a table. You may have to pay a % on your winnings. In the end, though, if you learn how to play poker well, it is possible to increase your odds of winning much more than playing roulette.
Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
— Vince Lombardi
Others Winning
Another thing backed by science: the dopamine created by your brain happens when someone wins. It’s much more intense if you win. Yet, whoever wins at a casino does not matter. If someone right next to you wins big time, their enjoyment is going to be contagious.
This is an interesting factor because if you have already spent your budget, you can still get your kick by going there and looking at others playing and winning.
Life creates conditions conducive to life.
— Janine Benyus