A Betting and Wagering Breakdown [Infographic]

According to Wikipedia’s definition, betting is the activity of predicting sports results, and placing a wager on the outcome. Despite the high-risk stakes of potential losses, 85 per cent of American adults have gambled at least once in their life since they were born!  Additionally, 65 per cent have gambled at least once in past year, 30 per cent have made some sort of wager in past month and 15 per cent of American adults have placed a bet of some kind at least once in the past week!

When surveyed across 11 different sports, 9 percent of athletes reported that they wager on sports at least once a month. Over 100,000,000 Americans gamble on sports in some way each year, including 67 per cent of all college students. For people aged 14 – 22, sports betting is the most popular form of gambling, with nearly 1/4 or 25 per cent of those who bet in a typical month. Betting on sports is second only to poker in game-of-chance popularity among college students.

What Are the Odds?

Did you know.:

-the odds of a college player becoming a pro football player are 3,000 to 1.
-the odds of being struck by lightning are 576,000 to 1.
-the odds of winning a Powerball jackpot is 140,000,000 to 1.

Betting on the Ponies

Remember these two tips to improve your odds when betting on race horses:

-the top ten riders in the jockey standings win about 90 per cent of the races run.
-favorite horses win about 33 per cent of the time, but at low payoffs.

“Double or Nothing”

CNN reported on a 32-year old man from London named Ashley Revell who sold every single thing he owned to bet it all on ‘red’ at a roulette wheel in Las Vegas. He doubled his wager of $135,300 — leaving him with $270,600!

A Growing Industry

There wasn’t a single, legal state-sponsored lottery in the US from 1894 to 1964. Utah and Hawaii are the only two US states out of fifty with no form of legal gambling. Twenty years ago, just two states permitted gambling!

Over the past year, 60 per cent of Americans have participated in some form of gambling. 80 per cent of Americans consider gambling legitimate, and another 80 per cent are in favor of casinos and other betting outlets. There is more revenue generated by gambling on its own than from record sales, cruises, theme parks, and motion pictures combined.

The fastest growing city in the US is Las Vegas. Here, players collectively lose $6 billion a year! This outrageous figure is not too improbable when taking into account that gambling in America is a $40 billion dollar-a-year business.

The amount Americans legally wager has risen 2800% from 1974 to 1994, skyrocketing from $17 billion to $482 billion. Independent experts agree that only about 5 per cent of gamblers develop an addiction, and an additional 5 per cent also accounts for 25% of state lottery and casino profits!

Ottawa, Canada officially repealed a 611 year-old prohibition on dice games on March 15, 1999 that was originally imposed by Richard III in England. Back in the 1380s, Richard II found his archers spending too much time on leisure games like backgammon; banning dice games in fear for Britain’s safety. How thoughtful!

Nowadays, Nevada is the only U.S. state to have legalized, regulated, policed, and taxed sports betting. Furthermore, Nevada’s sports books gross revenue in 2012: $170.0 million. 2012 in Nevada also saw more than $3.45 billion wagered on sports, with over 95 per cent returned as winnings paid out to patrons. 30 million visitors are brought to Nevada every year for legal sports wagering. This sustains thousands of jobs in the area. Approximately two-thirds of all sports bets in Nevada are place on professional, non-college sporting events.

Sources:

http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/97/03/chapt2.html

http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/144593.pdf

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/helpful-facts-for-betting-on-horse-racing.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/12/roulette.win/

http://www.problemgambling.ca/EN/AboutGamblingandProblemGambling/Pages/HistoryOfGambling.aspx

http://www.ncpgambling.org/files/public/Sports_Gambling_Facts.pdf

http://www.gambleaware.co.uk/gambling-facts-and-figures/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gamble/etc/facts.html

http://www.americangaming.org/industry-resources/research/fact-sheets/sports-wagering