Friday 29 November 2013

Mistakes to Avoid, #2 - Gambling (Squandering Your Fortune Away)

I do not need to say too much on bad mistake #2.  While you could take a lifetime to accumulate a fortune, you could easily throw it all away by gambling. 

While Singapore's two casinos have started operations several years ago, I am still a "mountain tortoise" or a "country bumpkin" and have yet to step into the casinos.

However, in this tech-savvy world, online gambling is easily accessible to everyone with a computer or a mobile phone.  You do not even need to step into a casino but could access to many gambling sites online.

Worst of all, you could use your credit card(s) for gambling online.  After credit card#1's limit is reached, you could use credit card #2, #3 and so on.  And the pit you fell in is getting bigger and bigger.

Some people may think that they could beat the casino/ betting site by doubling up the bet after each lost bet.  However, there will come a time when a long losing sequence that you will not be able to crawl out of the "doubling-up" hole you created. 

About seven or eight years ago, I won a "guess the score" from a soccer site for English Premier League.  The prize was 100 pound sponsored by William Hill and hence I opened an account with William Hill.  I started to use this account for sport betting.  At first I only bet on soccer, then after some success, I started to bet on Formula 1 and tennis too. 

Money easy comes, and so easy goes.  Less than one month and my account was ran down. Lucky for me, I have managed to snap out of this bad habit and not topping up my account with my credit card.

Today, I applause Singapore Government's plan for new laws to curb online gambling.  Measures include blocking illegal gambling sites, prevent payment to operators and ban advertisement for online gambling.  Gambling is a highly addictive habit and the government should step in to restrict accessibility to online gambling. 

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