Gambling
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Jokes About Betting
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Alternative Title: betting
Movie About Betting Against The Market
Gambling, the betting or staking of something of value, with consciousness of risk and hope of gain, on the outcome of a game, a contest, or an uncertain event whose result may be determined by chance or accident or have an unexpected result by reason of the bettor’s miscalculation.
The outcomes of gambling games may be determined by chance alone, as in the purely random activity of a tossed pair of dice or of the ball on a roulette wheel, or by physical skill, training, or prowess in athletic contests, or by a combination of strategy and chance. The rules by which gambling games are played sometimes serve to confuse the relationship between the components of the game, which depend on skill and chance, so that some players may be able to manipulate the game to serve their own interests. Thus, knowledge of the game is useful for playing poker or betting on horse racing but is of very little use for purchasing lottery tickets or playing slot machines.
A gambler may participate in the game itself while betting on its outcome (card games, craps), or he may be prevented from any active participation in an event in which he has a stake (professional athletics, lotteries). Some games are dull or nearly meaningless without the accompanying betting activity and are rarely played unless wagering occurs (coin tossing, poker, dice games, lotteries). In other games betting is not intrinsically part of the game, and the association is merely conventional and not necessary to the performance of the game itself (horse racing, football pools). Commercial establishments such as casinos and racetracks may organize gambling when a portion of the money wagered by patrons can be easily acquired by participation as a favoured party in the game, by rental of space, or by withdrawing a portion of the betting pool. Some activities of very large scale (horse racing, lotteries) usually require commercial and professional organizations to present and maintain them efficiently.
Prevalence of principal forms
A rough estimate of the amount of money legally wagered annually in the world is about $10 trillion (illegal gambling may exceed even this figure). In terms of total turnover, lotteries are the leading form of gambling worldwide. State-licensed or state-operated lotteries expanded rapidly in Europe and the United States during the late 20th century and are widely distributed throughout most of the world. Organized football (soccer) pools can be found in nearly all European countries, several South American countries, Australia, and a few African and Asian countries. Most of these countries also offer either state-organized or state-licensed wagering on other sporting events.
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Betting on horse racing is a leading form of gambling in English-speaking countries and in France. It also exists in many other countries. Wherever horse racing is popular, it has usually become a major business, with its own newspapers and other periodicals, extensive statistical services, self-styled experts who sell advice on how to bet, and sophisticated communication networks that furnish information to betting centres, bookmakers and their employees, and workers involved with the care and breeding of horses. The same is true, to a smaller extent, of dog racing. The emergence of satellite broadcasting technology has led to the creation of so-called off-track betting facilities, in which bettors watch live telecasts at locations away from the racetrack.
Casinos or gambling houses have existed at least since the 17th century. In the 20th century they became commonplace and assumed almost a uniform character throughout the world. In Europe and South America they are permitted at many or most holiday resorts but not always in cities. In the United States casinos were for many years legal only in Nevada and New Jersey and, by special license, in Puerto Rico, but most other states now allow casino gambling, and betting facilities operate clandestinely throughout the country, often through corruption of political authorities. Roulette is one of the principal gambling games in casinos throughout France and Monaco and is popular throughout the world. Craps is the principal dice game at most American casinos. Slot and video poker machines are a mainstay of casinos in the United States and Europe and also are found in thousands of private clubs, restaurants, and other establishments; they are also common in Australia. Among the card games played at casinos, baccarat, in its popular form chemin de fer, has remained a principal gambling game in Great Britain and in the continental casinos most often patronized by the English at Deauville, Biarritz, and the Riviera resorts. Faro, at one time the principal gambling game in the United States, has become obsolete. Blackjack is the principal card game in American casinos. The French card game trente et quarante (or rouge et noir) is played at Monte-Carlo and a few other continental casinos. Many other games may also be found in some casinos—for example, sic bo, fan-tan, and pai-gow poker in Asia and local games such as boule, banca francesa, and kalooki in Europe.
At the start of the 21st century, poker exploded in popularity, principally through the high visibility of poker tournaments broadcast on television and the proliferation of Internet playing venues. Another growing form of Internet gambling is the so-called betting exchanges—Internet Web sites on which players make wagers with one another, with the Web site taking a small cut of each wager in exchange for organizing and handling the transaction.
In a wide sense of the word, stock markets may also be considered a form of gambling, albeit one in which skill and knowledge on the part of the bettors play a considerable part. This also goes for insurance; paying the premium on one’s life insurance is, in effect, a bet that one will die within a specified time. If one wins (dies), the win is paid out to one’s relatives, and if one loses (survives the specified time), the wager (premium) is kept by the insurance company, which acts as a bookmaker and sets the odds (payout ratios) according to actuarial data. These two forms of gambling are considered beneficial to society, the former acquiring venture capital and the latter spreading statistical risks.
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'The Bet' | |
---|---|
Author | Anton Chekhov |
Original title | 'Пари' |
Country | Russian Empire |
Language | Russian |
Published in | Novoye Vremya |
Publisher | Adolf Marks (1901) |
Publication date | 14 January 1889 |
The Bet (short story)
'The Bet' (Russian: 'Пари', romanized: Pari) is an 1889 short story by Anton Chekhov about a banker and a young lawyer who make a bet with each other following a conversation about whether the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison. The banker wagers that the lawyer cannot remain in solitary confinement voluntarily for a period of fifteen years.
Publication[edit]
On 17 December 1888 Nikolai Khudekov asked Chekhov to write a story for Peterburgskaya Gazeta which he was an editor of. Chekhov came up with 'The Cobbler and the Devil' (published on 25 December) and informed Alexey Suvorin of that. Suvorin, the Novoye Vremya's editor, took it almost as an insult, so Chekhov promised to produce a similar kind of fable for this newspaper before the New Year Eve. He started writing it on 22 December, and on the 30th sent the story by post.[1]
Divided into three parts, it appeared in the 1 January 1889, No. 4613 issue of Novoye Vremya, titled 'Fairytale' (Сказка). With a new title, 'The Bet', revised and cut (part 3 of the original text now has gone) it was included in Volume 4 of Chekhov's Collected Works, published in 1899–1901 by Adolf Marks.[2] 'As I was reading the proofs, I came to dislike the end, it occurred to me that it was too cold and cruel,' he explained the reason for the omission in 1903.[3]
Plot[edit]
As the story opens, a banker recalls the occasion of a bet he had made fifteen years before. Guests at a party that he was hosting that day fell into a discussion of capital punishment; the banker viewed it as more humane than life imprisonment, while a young lawyer disagreed, insisting that he would choose life in prison rather than death. They agreed to a bet: if the lawyer could spend fifteen years in total isolation, the banker would pay him two million rubles. The lawyer would have no direct contact with any other person, but could write notes to communicate with the outside world and receive whatever comforts he desired.
Confined to a guest room on the banker's property, the lawyer suffers from loneliness and depression at first but eventually begins to read and study in a wide range of subjects. As the lawyer takes advantage of the solitude to educate and amuse himself in various ways over the years, the banker's fortunes begin to decline. The banker realizes that if he loses, paying off the bet will lead to bankruptcy.
In the early hours of the day when the fifteen-year period is to expire, the banker resolves to kill the lawyer, but finds him greatly emaciated and sleeping at a table. A note written by the lawyer reveals that he has chosen to abandon the bet, having learned that material goods are fleeting and that divine salvation is worth more than money. Shocked and moved after reading the note, the banker kisses the lawyer on the head and returns to bed. When the banker wakes up later that morning, a watchman reports that the lawyer has climbed out the window and fled the property, forfeiting the bet. To prevent the spread of rumors, the banker locks the note in his safe.
Characters[edit]
There are two major characters featured in 'The Bet': the lawyer and the banker, neither of which have official names in Chekhov's short story.
The lawyer[edit]
The lawyer is seen to be persistent, intelligent and self-motivating. He does not break down in the 15 years of imprisonment as the banker foretold. He is intelligent by the virtue of reading so many books, which reflects in his eagerness to associate with other men, rather than claiming the final prize. He starts as a young, impatient person, ready to spend 15 best years of his life for 2 million. His character of being a person with no interest in materialistic luxury is reflected when he renounces the 2 million and settles with just having proved his point.
The banker[edit]
The banker likes to be in a position of authority and likes to wield power over others, especially those who happen to disagree with him. The character changes drastically from the beginning of the story when he seems to be very free handed as he easily bets to pay two million and later, his lack of wealth drives him to dishonesty and plan for murder. This also signifies the weak character of the banker. He is very attached to the materialistic luxuries of life and values human life less than his luxuries as he plans on killing the lawyer. He plans on killing the lawyer for money and nothing but money changes his mind.
References[edit]
- ^Sokolova M.A. Commetaries to Сапожник и нечистая сила. // Чехов А. П. Полное собрание сочинений и писем в тридцати томах. Сочинения. Т. 7. — М.: Наука, 1977. С. 665.
- ^Muratova, K. D. Commentaries to Пари. The Works by A.P. Chekhov in 12 volumes. Khudozhestvennaya Literatura. Moscow, 1960. Vol. 6, pp. 512
- ^'The History of One Story'. A.P. Chekhov's Unpublished Letter // Прохоров Г. История одного рассказа. Неопубликованное письмо А. П. Чехова. — «Литературная газета», № 88 от 14 июля 1934. - Когда я читал корректуру, мне этот конец очень не понравился […], показался не в меру холодным и суровым.
External links[edit]
Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
- Пари, the Russian text
- The Bet, 1915 and 1918 English translations
- 'The Bet' - Chamber opera in 14 scenes by Lior Navok
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