Gambling Meaning Webster

Definition and synonyms of gambling from the online English dictionary from Macmillan Education. This is the British English definition of gambling.View American English definition of gambling. Change your default dictionary to American English. View the pronunciation for gambling.

1. An act of gambling; an enterprise undertaken or attempted with a risk of loss and a chance of profit or success. ‘He paused and thought about doubling down, but seemed afraid to put out the extra money on such an insecure gamble.'.
2. Verb He's been drinking and gambling heavily. He would often gamble hundreds of dollars on a hand of poker.

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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. Online gambling industry statistics.

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. Gambling in bloomington il. 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.

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. Online gambling industry statistics.

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. Gambling in bloomington il. 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.

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.

Gambling Meaning Webster Maine

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.

intransitive verb

• 1Play games of chance for money; bet.

  • ‘This book offers a concise and to-the-point directory for anyone who gambles on the Internet or is interested in gambling on the Internet.'
  • ‘Appropriately for the son of a bookie, his career has often been about gambling on a long game.'
  • ‘Gambling does, and any player who gambles on baseball or sits with those who conspire to do so risks destroying the very foundation on which the game is built.'
  • ‘The probability of winning lottery prizes are the basic risk dimensions that may help determine whether a person gambles on a particular activity in the first place.'
  • ‘Lisa accurately predicts the winners of sporting events that Homer gambles on so she can be closer to her father.'
  • ‘The sunny forecast came as spread betting firm Cantor Index offered the chance to gamble on the number of hours of sunshine and inches of rainfall in individual months.'
  • ‘Like a participant in a high-stakes poker game, she gambled big and she lost big.'
  • ‘Her eldest of three sons had died in a motorcycle accident, and she'd started gambling on the pokies.'
  • ‘An exhaustive study convinced everyone except he that he had gambled on the game, gambled on the Reds and violated the only unbreakable moral code of the sport.'
  • ‘One aspect of gambling that few people are aware of is that about one in five New Zealanders who regularly gamble on gaming machines have a gambling problem.'
  • ‘In the simpler game, the player gambles with a coin that's been loaded to make the probability of winning less than 50 percent.'
  • ‘They milled about, some slept, some ate, others played cards or gambled on games of dice.'
  • ‘The lottery comes as the Cabinet plans for a new lottery for gambling on professional baseball and billiards.'
  • ‘Police were also aware that the victim was addicted to gambling on football, and there was an extra issue of a love affair.'
  • ‘Cricket Australia has banned gambling on all types of cricket matches by its players, officials and other employees.'
  • ‘The number of Americans who gambled online doubled to about 4% of the population in 2005.'
  • ‘Kids and teenagers have always gambled, whether at marbles or flipping baseball cards.'
  • ‘A woman accused of leaving her five-year-old child alone in a car overnight Monday while she gambled at a Placer County casino is being booked on felony child endangerment charges.'
  • ‘It is easy to gamble impulsively online.'
  • ‘Approximately 85 percent of American adults report having gambled at some point in their lives, and about 60 percent say they've gambled at least once in the past year.'

  bet, wager, place a bet, lay a bet, stake money on something, back the horses, try one's luck on the horses

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  1. 1.1with objectBet (a sum of money) on a game of chance.
     ‘he was gambling every penny he had on the spin of a wheel'
     • ‘He usually gambled sums of money between five and one hundred dollars, bottles of champagne, pairs of boots, or new hats.'
     • ‘Its annual budget was too modest and its financial future too uncertain to gamble big sums on expensive, start-from-scratch studies.'
     • ‘Instead firms are cutting the money they put into pension funds and telling workers to gamble their savings on the stockmarket through private schemes.'
     • ‘Ideally the money men want to be able to gamble the pension fund, without being responsible for a fixed pension payment.'
     • ‘While most newcomers who gain admittance to the NBA's lucrative members club pay their dues on court, he instead gambled vast sums that he had yet to earn in the hope of greater long-term fulfilment across the Atlantic.'
     • ‘In the mid-1980s, he gambled his export-quota profits on property and stock.'
     • ‘This raises the criticism that he is privatising social security, forcing people to gamble their pensions on the stock market.'
     • ‘I was told they came to gamble their pension checks away every month.'
     • ‘It is this strong belief in luck that leads many to gamble their meagre savings in the hope of becoming rich.'
     • ‘At the last one, he went so far as to say that if people are allowed to gamble their money away at casinos they should be allowed to spend their own money on health care.'
     • ‘Find out plans to create a new investment fund that literally wants to gamble your money.'
     • ‘It was suggested to him that he had gambled the money away on poker machines at the hotel.'
     • ‘Lenore was very upset as she saw Herbert gambling away money she knew wasn't his.'
     • ‘A family friend, trusted to administer the estates of a widow and her son after they died, stole more than £38,000 and gambled the money away, a court heard.'
     • ‘Themes at the heart of the proposed reforms are greater competition, more public involvement and emphasising the link between the money gambled by players and the projects that benefit.'
     • ‘When he entices her to elope with him she steals the money necessary for the elopement, only to find that he does not keep his appointment, having gambled the money away.'
     • ‘A Braintree chef claimed he was robbed of £300 takings by three men to hide the fact that he had gambled the money away, a court heard.'
     • ‘If they want to gamble their hard earned money away, then they should feel free to do so.'
     • ‘As a result, Herman takes all his money and gambles it on one final hand of cards.'
     • ‘A Prime Minister widely recognised as the most powerful in living memory has gambled his reputation, ultimately his leadership of the country and his party, on a bet which is far from the odds-on wagers he is used to.'

• 2Take risky action in the hope of a desired result.

  with clause‘the British could only gamble that something would turn up'

  • ‘There are no glamorous high-tech stocks, even though it is always tempting as an investor to gamble on risky firms, he writes.'
  • ‘Investors began gambling on future returns and more patterns emerged.'
  • ‘Contending teams with high picks and clubs with multiple first-round picks willing to gamble on him hope that's not all he is.'
  • ‘He has gambled on a team that he hopes will result in his third general election win.'
  • ‘Investing in CFDs is a highly leveraged way to gamble on stock markets.'
  • ‘Partly it is to do with Britain's curious housing market, where people gamble in property futures as a form of investment.'
  • ‘In the first race he gambled on dry tyres on a damp track in the hope that conditions would improve.'
  • ‘Many a small device company has been created because of a momentous idea that may seem too risky for a large or established firm to gamble on.'
  • ‘We chose to gamble with the more direct train to Pavonia-Newport, hoping the rain would let up before we got there.'
  • ‘Both, he reckons, are houses where we gamble for high stakes, and with high hopes.'
  • ‘However, the very success of the risky blitzkrieg approach led the Germans to gamble even more heavily on their next major operation - the invasion of Russia.'
  • ‘He also invested millions in a new headquarters, and gambled that the party could mount a challenge to the GOP's three decades of dominating fundraising.'
  • ‘But in practice we wouldn't be able to gamble with the chance that it might not work.'
  • ‘A crushing conquest imposes the attacker's will; limited coercion gambles on the target's weakness of will.'
  • ‘At the same time, the guy in charge of your mortgage was gambling on growth every year, too.'
  • ‘Peter is gambling on the fact that he will head straight on up the track.'
  • ‘He briefly held the lead after gambling on his final pit stop taking only two tires - but he didn't have enough grip to hold on.'
  • ‘Squeezed by rivals in their own market, British media moguls are gambling on winning new sales here.'
  • ‘The German government was thus gambling on British neutrality, and in July 1914 this seemed a reasonable bet.'

  take a chance, take a risk, take a leap in the dark, leave things to chance, speculate, venture, buy a pig in a poke

  act in the hope of, trust in, take a chance on, bank on

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noun

• An act of gambling; an enterprise undertaken or attempted with a risk of loss and a chance of profit or success.

  ‘He paused and thought about doubling down, but seemed afraid to put out the extra money on such an insecure gamble.'

  • ‘Though many see the stock market as a casino, shares are not a gamble.'
  • ‘He's extremely talented and has good drive and business sense, but this is a gamble and could leave me in a bit of financial trouble if it fails.'
  • ‘Spread betting is about taking a genuine gamble, and backing your judgement against that of the bookie.'
  • ‘I had a bit of a gamble, and ended up willing about $30, which was a nice change as the machines had been taking my money the last few times I had used them.'
  • ‘For one, the gambling game at the end of each stage is made more of a gamble by being able to wager the coins you've collected through a level.'
  • ‘He is risk-neutral if he is indifferent between a gamble and certain pay-off equalling the expected value of the gamble.'
  • ‘Then again, the biggest gamble in the UK is, of course, the Lotto.'
  • ‘On the Friday he landed a major gamble when taking more than £130,000 out of the betting ring.'
  • ‘Long-shot gambles that may tempt you, rarely work out.'
  • ‘But even with the short payback, such games are almost always a better gamble than the reel slots.'

Origin

Gambling Defined Webster

Early 18th century from obsolete gamel ‘play games', or from the verb game.

Webster's Dictionary Gambling