Is poker gambling?

[Banks2334]

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Is investing in the stock market gambling?

Is playing poker much different than investing in the stock market?

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Poker is totally different then playing the stock market. First of all when playing the stock market...the market is the reason that your going to lose money and the decisions that are made in this world. You could lose all of your money in the stock market because you slept in one morning and didn't check the stocks. While poker you also control how much your willing to lose but the end result is totally random and you or anyone else has any control on what cards are going to be flipped. The stock market there are a board of directors or Alan Greenspan making the decisions that affect your money and it is very rarely random.

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You have a total lack of understanding of the stock market and poker.

[sputum]

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Is investing in the stock market gambling?

Is playing poker much different than investing in the stock market?


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Poker is totally different then playing the stock market. First of all when playing the stock market...the market is the reason that your going to lose money and the decisions that are made in this world. You could lose all of your money in the stock market because you slept in one morning and didn't check the stocks. While poker you also control how much your willing to lose but the end result is totally random and you or anyone else has any control on what cards are going to be flipped. The stock market there are a board of directors or Alan Greenspan making the decisions that affect your money and it is very rarely random.


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You have a total lack of understanding of the stock market and poker.



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Thank you for explaining why [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Merovingian]

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Regarding an earlier post comparing poker and stock investing. Poker and "playing" the stock market are not that different. In fact, in both poker and stocks there is tremendous variance in the short-term but results are predictable in the long run. The market has averaged steady positive returns over the last several decades. As such, a long term investor with a time horizon of at least 5-10 years would have most likely made a strong profit. However, the day to day value of the stock or stock index would have been quite unpredictable. Up one day, down the next.... No matter how solid the poker player, they will experience quite a bit of profit/loss variance day to day; much like the day-to-day swings seen by an individual stock. However, over the long run a good company and solid poker player will yield profits. Both are gambling. Having reasonable certainty that the investment will yield a positive return in the long run or that you are a winning poker player does not change that fact.

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I agree and relates to my question "is poker gambling?" Trading stock is not referred to gambling as a technical term and it is a respected profession that you can take courses for at university etc. However, Poker on the other hand, which can be equated to trading on so many levels and is essentially no different risk:skill wise, is referred to as gambling.

It's essentially a stigma that has been attached to the game of poker as it's played in casinos. If stock trading was a casino game, I'm sure it would be labelled as gambling too [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] Is all that determines something as being gambling or not where it is played?

Poker has just been labelled because of its context.

[rakemeplz]

The stock market is gambling if you have all/most of your money in stocks poker is gambling if you have all/most of your money in poker.

[Ness3]

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What luck is involved in chess?

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*Which color you are allocated.
*Which opponent you will face.
*Wether your opponent implements a strategy you are familiar with or not.
*As dano2769 said, your opponent could drop dead during a game.

There is an element of luck in all games, just more in some than others. The amount of luck and skill in each game is, however, unique; some possessing more of one than the other. Chess for example has a high amount of skill compared to luck, where as dice has a high amount of luck compared to skill. Both have an element of it though.

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you seem really really dumb.

ness

[Xellos]

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The stock market is gambling if you have all/most of your money in stocks poker is gambling if you have all/most of your money in poker.

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This is stupid. If Ted Turner offers to flip a coin against Bill Gates under the condition that if it's heads Ted wins $1 and if it's tails Bill wins $100 then they're still gambling even though an insignificant amount of money is at risk for both of them.

[Cinch]

It is, or can be, gambling with an edge, IMO. That's a good point about the internet ban threat not being applicable to poker. Many casino games contain skill though, so don't know why it would apply differently to poker.

Except for this: The IRS acknowledged the existence of professional gambling some time back, establishing it, potentially, as legitimate as selling cars. Since qualifying is most widely recognized for poker, banning internet poker, it could be argued, is like banning any other business from the web.

[Copernicus]

The difference between poker and the stock market is that poker is a game of incomplete information, and picking stocks is (in an ethical business environment) analysis with complete information.

There is an element of luck in investing (9/11 happens) but that is "external" to the picking of individual assets, balancing portfolios etc. The element of luck is intrinsic to poker.

Poker is gambling, investing isnt (again in perfect, ethical capital markets).

[candyman718]

In finance class in college we were taught the distinctions between investing, speculating and gambling. There is a difference as murky as it might seem. The major reason the stock market is investing is that for a majority of long term investors, historically the market is +EV. This is clearly not true of poker. It doesn't matter that for a small percentage of poker players, playing is +EV.

So, it falls into either speculating or gambling. The line between these 2 is much harder to draw. Speculating is usually riskier than investing and has a negative EV. but with a chance of making excessive profits. It also contains an element of using knowledge.

Gambling is usually defined as an activity with little or no skill and almost all luck.

I guess you can say that different players fall into different categories, but the game itself falls somewhere between gambling and speculating.

P.S. I do not think that there is enough luck in chess worth discussing. It is a game of skill.

[DMoogle]

That's a good explanation, candyman.

Between gambling, speculating, and investing, I think chess would be speculating. It's a game of no luck whatsoever, but if you're very very good at it, you'll win nearly every time and thus, +EV.