Personally, I think both options seem really bad.  Still, if I had to choose, I would go watch the games and learn something about the sport first.  You will probably end up losing money in either case, but at least you will know the reason on the way there.  Gambling experience is useless without sport knowledge.  And its not all about luck; its mostly about information.

Please read your words again, you are contradicting yourself.  Holding Bitcoin does not guarantee income.  You only make money when you sell for a profit.


No! Nothing is guaranteed.

No, Bitcoin isnt stored in your wallet.  Your wallet holds only the private keys that let you access and control your Bitcoin.  A simple example: you can have two or more wallets (or devices) that have access to the same Bitcoins.  Read up on the basics. You need to understand what blockchain is and what UTXOs (unspent transaction outputs) are.

Well, the main point of the parable you took from the Bible is that it is not enough to simply get rid of evil or bad habits.  You have to replace them with something good.  If you dont fill the void, something worse will eventually take its place.

It is possible that this is what happened in the case of the guy you mentioned.  After taking the step of eliminating his gambling addiction, he failed to take the next step of filling the void with something good that would give him pleasure.  The thrill, the risk, the instant gratifcation was part of his routines and his psychology.  He did not replace with a new passion, a new purpose, or even just a new hobby that gave him the same thrills, so when the gambling "demon" returned, it did not find an empty house; it found a ready welcome.

I think it was just the name of the software, like SMF is the name of the software that powers the current version of the forum.  It was never intended to be a replacement for the Bitcointalk name.

And it was a terrible decision.  After all the time and money poured into that failed project, there is no way to spin it as anything other than a complete waste.  It was a bad choice by every possible metric.

Wanting to lose money and being able to afford to do so are two completely different things.  You obviously dont want to lose your investment.  But you have been living without that $10 a month for a decade, so you can clearly afford to lose it.  Yes, the first rule of investing is only risk what you can afford to lose.  After that, the next most important rule is to diversify so you dont have all your eggs in one basket.

You are missing my point. I was talking about hyperinflationary economies and currencies, not stable ones.  You are focused on Bitcoin price against the U.S. dollar, which is pointless in this context.  The USD is a relatively stable global reserve currency (although still inflationary).  But the real story isnt Bitcoin vs. the dollar; its Bitcoin vs. a collapsing currency.  Go look at the chart for Bitcoin priced in the Lebanese pound or the Argentine peso for example.  The Bitcoin price isnt "dangling" in one spot - its shooting straight up. 

I dont know where you are or what currency you use, but your situation sounds a lot like what people in hyperinflationary economies are facing.

Exactly.  None of us knows what is coming.  I think each one of us has probably a different view of what "wealth" actually means.  For some of us, its just pile of money and "freedom of choice", for others its just a stable life and being able to provide themselves and their families with the basic necessities.  However, I dont think any of us have the right to think we can judge other peoples decisions if their choices do not affect us at all.  The entire argument is ridiculous, because it is based on an assumption.  OP doesnt understand that my choices are my freedom.

Like @rat03gopoh already said, even if there were such services, who in their right mind would use such an exchange?  Would you?  Its important to understand that crypto exchanges are holding very large amounts of other peoples money.  In many cases, thats billions of dollars!

No, you cant just spin-up a legitimate, operational, and secure crypto exchange with a website builder like making a blog.  The reason is simple, a cryptocurrency exchange, either CEX or DEX, is a complex, high-stakes, financial machine - not a hobby project.

So, if you want to do some experimentation with creating a crypto exchange along the lines of the learning journey, look up open source repositories with example projects for crypto exchange and start from there.  But if you want a functional and operable exchange, forget about it.  This is a serious undertaking that requires an expert team of developers and a mountain of seed money.

I believe its a little bit of both.

On one hand, the casino is not totally wrong in doing this.  They have a bunch of AML laws that are just insane that vary by jurisdiction.  When suddenly large amounts appear on their books it raises a red flag with regulators that the casino needs to prove where this money has come from, and where it will go.  Thats a legal obligation, and if they dont comply, they risk hefty fines and potentially losing their license.

But lets be blunt about the other side of this.  Theres definitely some shady operators out there that leverage this kind of practice as a predatory business practice.  They entice players in with the "no kyc" or "instant withdrawals" promises and get them to deposit and play.  Then, if a player hits a big win, the operator suddenly pulls out the KYC card, and then proceeds to make the verification as hard and dreadfully frustrating as possible, in hopes that youll either quit, or make a mistake that allows them to legally forfeit your winnings.  Its a scummy tactic and Id be willing to bet that it happens a lot more often than people want to believe.

The economic situations you describe are not the same everywhere in the world.  Yes, costs have risen where I live, but similarly, regular incomes for most folks have also risen.  OK, maybe not to the level they ought to, but at least there is a trend...

The inflation you are experiencing is next level.  Im not even referring to costs of living rising, but rather the fact that the entire value of your currency is being destroyed.  It is not even really effective to cut down on subscriptions or make bulk purchases in order to save your money in such situation because you will be losing value of your money in real time.  There s only one solution and that is to get out of the currency that is collapsing.  You need to prioritize getting your money into something of value or better yet appreciating value.  Bitcoin is a good example that is working pretty well so far.

Not that I want to dispute with you but what about developed countries as a whole with median living standards at the above average level and nearly non-existent unemployment?

Your argument suggests that gambling is the last resort of the jobless and desperate.  This is simply incorrect.  If gambling addiction were a simple economic issue then it would not be a massive issue in places like the United States, Australia or Europe where there are so many jobs and the income is decent.

~

LOL! You may have noticed he did not specify which currency. Im sure he did not mean 200k USD.  For example, if it was 200k Lebanese Pound that equates to roughly 2 EUR... 

Just to be clear, single bets are not helping you win, they are just making it less likely for you to lose everything at once.  The odds are the odds, and they are never in your favor.  In the long run, the house always wins, and theres a reason for that.

So, why dont people become millionaires of single bets?  Simple math says no.

I have never been in a hotel that had rooms without windows. To tell you the truth, before you mentioned them here, I didnt even know that they existed. 

I dont mind spending some of my bitcoins sometimes.  But the main problem is that one cannot have both.  In order for a currency to be useful for transacting in day-to-day purchasing, it needs the stability and predictability of a "currency".  If I bought a sandwich with BTC today and it increased in value by 20% tomorrow, I could regret having purchased that sandwich with BTC and starting measuring BTC spending in terms of fiat currency amount instead of items purchased. The volatility of BTC is what makes it a great asset for some people, and a terrible currency for many.

I think you can hope for more people spending BTC to purchase products, and we might see that happen, but the only way that is going to happen is if people think it is losing its value as a store of value. When the price of BTC stabilizes, it will be more useful, and people will think of spending it.  It seems reasonable to me that until then, it primarily will be used as a store of value or a speculation asset for trading, instead of being used as a currency to transact with.

How can you even think that any of these new coins have any potential? One of them is even named "USELESS"!

Really, I know the allure of that 1000x gain is exciting, especially if you only have $50 to spend.  But you are going to put your money into something that is essentially a lottery ticket with awful odds.  The "potential" behind any of these new coins is entirely speculative, based on a combination of marketing, a few tweets from an influencer with a big following, and the hope you get out first when it inevitably gets dumped on everyone.  You are not "starting a career" this way. You will lose your money, and you will be frustrated.

I guess I understand the argument in going after the main prize.

We are talking about a classic risk vs reward situation.  This man did not lose his money perhaps because he forgot his financial status.  He lost it, because the potential reward was worth the risk of losing his small bet. The man was betting on a life changing sum of money, not just a few extra bucks.  The potential to escape poverty, even if its a long shot, is certainly a powerful motivator.
Cash earlier is certainly the safer, more conservative option but it is not always the best choice.  To cash out early is a choice for those scared of losing what they have already "won" on paper.  Cashing out for a set amount of small money would leave the man exactly where he was before.  But ehat if he genuinely needed a big win to improve his life?

You said it yourself, all this is hype, and wishful thinking. Pi, in many ways, is an example of how a project can gain so much attention completely absent real value. It is a closed source and centralized network without any real-world use, and people telling you otherwise are either deluded or lying.  The fact that its "value" depends on the size of its user base is an even bigger red flag.  It is true that network effects can generate value, but only if there is an actual network with something valuable to offer.  At the moment, Pi generates a lot of clicks and very little else.  And in the end, you are left holding a bag of broken promises and wasted time.