Investing and gambling can be similar in many ways. In each activity you are forfeiting your money for the risk of getting something in return. To the inexperienced investor, gambling and investing can seem like the exact same thing. For you, the experienced investor, you can simply refer to this article to help your friend understand the difference between gambling and investing.
Your typical night out on the Vegas strip will most likely include some form of gambling. You can become easily overwhelmed by all of the options when it comes to gambling. The similarities between gambling and investing can be obvious at times. Both activities involve putting your money at risk. Gambling often requires the risk to be short lived where investing is likely to be a long-term endeavor. Investing tends to be a beneficial in the long run whereas gambling at any instant you can lose everything you put down. When thinking about calculations in both investing and gambling, there is a lot that goes into it. Professional poker players will get the lay of the land before sitting down at a poker table. They have the ability to scope out their competition and make informed decisions about how their competitors are feeling and what moves they may make based on that emotion. Poker players will look for cues that give them information on what kind of hand their competition is holding and then make a decision based off of that. Investors will calculate risk in a different way. Rather than studying people, investors will study charts and statistics to inform themselves on when and where prices will fluctuate. Investors don’t necessarily have the pressure to make drastic decisions quickly. Investors can take their time and mull over a plethora of information about the markets and make well-informed decisions from that. At a blackjack table you have no information about the luck of that table within the last three hours. All you may know is that the table is either hot or cold which does not guarantee anything in return.
Consider what you want to get out of your money. Gambling is a quick fix with no guarantee of a profit even when you are an experienced gambler. Gambling is seen more for the fun of risk rather than major financial gains. Investing is proven to earn you money in the long-term. If you have the patience and the time to study and markets and prices, consider investing your money rather than gambling.