Betting is a direct consequence of man’s desire to show that he /she is better or has more knowledge than his /her contemporaries. Any time there is a contest of wills or physical prowess or mental agility, there will be some form of betting involved. Betting can appear in so many situations and in so many different forms.
Betting, as we most commonly know it, appears around sporting events or gambling houses or when a group gather to test their luck over set of dice on a street corner. Often it can be just one person against another or in its more organised format, when you have a person or company offering different odds on an outcome, either way it is great fun and has been enjoyed by many for centuries. Bookmaking is an art and a skill. A good bookmaker knows how to hedge his/her bets so that no matter what the outcome he/she will be able to cover the bets placed and walk away. This is no mean feat and has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry that spans continents. People have built empires by knowing what bets to place.
The professional gambler makes it his/her business to know when to start betting and when to walk away. People often restrict there thinking on betting to gambling in its most common form, which is a very big mistake. Betting takes place in our daily lives all the time. Businesspeople are betting every second of their working lives. When they make any decision that is based on choosing on variable over another, they are betting.
Betting is not just restricted to business folk or gamblers, but also involves the man or woman just trying to make it through the day. Every choice that is made is a form of betting. Be it deciding what dress to wear to work, to make the most favourable impression, or deciding where to take your girlfriend for dinner, to ensure that she goes home with you. It is all betting, which is what makes the arguments against gambling so ridiculous and pretty meaningless.