Individuals indulge in various gambling types: professional gambling, responsible gambling, and problem gambling. Professional gambling is one of the rarest and somewhat most reputable types. Winning from this is heavily dependent on your skills rather than luck, and you must completely control your habit towards the game, time and money invested, and other things.
Playing for free or carefully counting how much you waste for gambling, ready to stop at any moment, is called responsible gambling. Most gamblers accept this activity as a hobby and a cool way of entertainment. The best thing about it is that you can just move to a website like https://www.slotozilla.com/pl/darmowe-spiny and play games for relaxation purposes. The slots are free, and there is no need to register or download an app. However, some gamblers prefer playing for real money, and they see the funds used to gamble as payment for entertainment, while professional gamblers consider it an investment.
The worst that can happen to you is problem gambling. Problem gamblers often place bets with no control, gradually becoming addicted. This gambling type is rampant, and it gives gambling negative public perceptions. When turned into an addiction, problem gambling may often leave you in debt, disrupt your mental health, and make you lose personal relationships, among others. These are common problems associated with problem gambling and may happen quite often.
Who are professional gamblers?
According to NYTimes, the council of compulsive gambling, New Jersey, only about one-half of all gamblers can be regarded as professional gamblers. These individuals see gambling as a business. They pay taxes on their gambling winnings and are experienced enough not to expect instant gratification from gambling. You will not find most professional gamblers in casinos. Instead, they would be locked up somewhere, analyzing odds and the possibility of a sports result going their way. Professional gamblers mostly wager on sports events, live horse races, and sometimes poker.
They take advantage of good odd margins while playing sports bettings, and their experience comes into play while gambling on the horse track. Skills rather than luck help them rack in earnings from poker too. This does not imply that the three types of gambling stated above are the only ones gamblers are involved in. They are just the most common ones.
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Do professional gamblers have private life difficulties?
Being a professional gambler does not take away the risks and difficulties but may only reduce them. It should not come as a surprise if you see a professional gambler struggling with the same issues a problem gambler is facing. Whether professional, responsible, or problem gambling, these problems are close to all of these types. Their degree of severity varies. The variation could be based on individual discipline, the purpose of gamblings, goals, etc. Professional gamblers are human beings, and like every other human, we face private life difficulties in one or another way. Below are some of the typical private life difficulties we think professional gamblers do face:
- Time Management. While professional gambling gives you complete control of your time, managing this time efficiently may come with trouble. This factor is challenging if you have got other jobs apart from gambling. It will put you in a position to sacrifice one for one, which is often a risky decision to take. The risk associated with gambling makes it an uncertain venture to focus on entirely. But if you look at it from the point of view that every business is a risk, gambling may also be worth risking your full time on.
- Financial Crisis. In every business, there are periods of ups and downs. As a professional gambler treating the activity as a business, significant losses and financial crises are part of the things you should expect to deal with. Sometimes, analyses would go wrong, and odds will be against you consistently. This period tests your resolve as a professional gambler, and you would need much perseverance to prevent becoming a compulsive gambler (problem).
- Relationship Issues. Balancing relationships with friends and family is another potential private life difficulty a professional gambler may face. Like every other high-risk business, gambling demands meticulous attention, sometimes alone time, amongst other things. All these come at the detriment of your availability for your friends and family, which could leave a strain on the relationship. This strain can be as deep as causing separation or a scratch on the surface, like unsettled differences for months. But one certain thing is that lack of noticeable change could damage the relationship beyond repair.
- Stigmatization (Public Perception). Professional gamblers, especially those that are yet to hit it big, constantly have to deal with being viewed in the same light as problem gamblers. The more significant part of society views them as irresponsible, addictive, and other negative traits associated with problem gamblers. It is one issue they constantly have to deal with.
- Socializing. Most successful professional gamblers always love to keep a low profile. They prefer going unnoticed while running their things. But as you know, success is its way of putting the spotlight on someone, and fighting this undemanded attention is another private life difficulty they face. While some professional gamblers find pleasure in public awareness, the dominant trait is reclusiveness. They rarely have time for public functions, and it sometimes feels like they are pulling away on purpose, which is not valid in most cases.
- Masking Emotions. Part of the private life difficulties associated with professional gamblers is masking their emotions sometimes. Some wagers may go wrong, leading to substantial loss. But they still have to remain cheerful and happy around their loved ones to avoid downing others’ spirits. They most likely rue their loss in seclusion and count on anything as a support mechanism. This often affects their mental health and sometimes leads to some damaging addiction. It is always advisable to be open about your gambling activities to some you are comfortable around. It helps prevent all these.
Possible solutions to professional gamblers’ real-life difficulties
The above-mentioned real-life difficulties are not permanent, and they can be mitigated or avoided. Below are the possible solutions to some of these situations and help soften the problems.
| POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS | EFFECTS |
| Seek Professional Guidance | Experienced and successful professional gamblers can help you successfully navigate this problem. These individuals have been there, and you can always take a cue from how they lived through it. See it as learning from others’ mistakes and good decisions rather than your regrets. |
| Public Sensitization | Public sensitization by most professional gamblers can help reduce levels of stigmatization and change public perception about the hustle. The negative things attached to professional gambling can be effectively mitigated when most people know more about it and the difference between it and problem gambling. |
| Often Socializing | Socializing often uses another foolproof way of improving your mental health positively. It helps you spend quality time around friends and strengthen existing bonds. It also enables you to cope with the barrage of attention that comes with success. It also helps alleviate burdens and mitigates the need for you to mask your emotions at all times. |
| Prioritize Financial Literacy | Getting financial literacy can help you prevent a series of financial crises. It gives you the needed knowledge to make the right financial decisions, helps you with risk management, and makes your financial allocation reasonable and efficient. |
Conclusion
While professional gambling is still a gambling type one can be proud of, it still comes with its fair share of risk, negativity, and consequences. This article has highlighted the significant difficulties you can face as a professional gambler and their possible solutions.
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