Definition of “Gamble” and “Betting”

Definition of “Gamble” and “Betting”

Ø  To play a game in which you can win or lose money or possessions.

Ø  To bet money or other valuable things.

Ø  To risk losing “an amount of money” in a game or bet.

Ø  To risk losing “something valuable or important” in order to do or achieve something.

Intransitive Verb

Ø  To play a game for money or property.

Ø  To bet on an uncertain outcome.

Transitive Verb

Ø  To risk by gambling: Wager.

Ø  Venture, Hazard.

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money or material goods. Gambling according three elements be present: prize, consideration and chance. Typically, the outcome of the wager is evident within a short period.

Gambling is also a major international commercial activity, with the legal gambling market totaling an estimated $335 billion in 2009. In other forms, gambling can be conducted with materials which have a value, but are not real money. For example, players of marbles games might wager marbles, and also games of Pogs (A game played by flipping over small cardboard or plastic disks) or Magic: The Gathering can be played with the collectible game pieces as stakes, resulting in a meta-game regarding the value if a player’s collection of pieces.

The term gaming in this context typically refers to instances in which activity has been specifically permitted by law. The two words are not mutually exclusive; i.e. A “gaming” company offers legal “gambling” activities to the public and may be regulated by one of many gaming control board. However, this distinction is not universally observed in the English-speaking world. In the UK, the regulator of gambling activities is called the “Gambling Commission” not the “Gaming Commission”. The word gaming is used more frequently since the rise of computer games to describe activities that do not necessarily involve wagering, especially online gaming, with the new usage still not having displaced the old usage as the primary definition in common dictionaries.