Online Blackjack
A betting line is “unbalanced” when an opponent gambling probabilities can
identify too specifically the sort of hand you’ll have and can
make a play different from the optimal strategy that exploits
your tendency. Your line is balanced when you have hidden
information well, and your opponent is guessing as much as
practicable. see: gamblingprobabilities.wordpress.com
Many players focus on having balanced betting lines. They
think things like, “I can’t bet here as a bluff because I would
never bet here with a value hand.” In theory, this is a strong
way to think about how to play poker. If one were attempting
to play near-optimal poker, it would be a critically important
way to think.
About Balance And
Exploitability
A betting line is “unbalanced” when an opponent can identify too specifically the sort of hand you’ll have and can make a play different from the optimal strategy that exploits
your tendency. Your line is balanced when you have hidden information well, and your opponent is guessing as much as practicable. Many players focus on having balanced betting lines. They think things like, “I can’t bet here as a bluff because I would never bet here with a value hand.” In theory, this is a strong way to think about how to play poker. If one were attempting to play near-optimal poker, it would be a critically important way to think. In practice, your goal is to play Blackjack against people who aren’t as good as you. Being not as good as you, they will be much less able to identify and exploit your mistakes than you are able to identify and exploit theirs. This means that you should spend your time trying to identify and exploit your opponents’ unbalanced lines without worrying too much about your own. Why not worry about your own unbalanced lines? Because doing so at small stakes will have you tripping over your own feet and not winning the maximum. Think about it this way. Say you watched a boxing match between a champion and the top challenger. How would you expect it to go? You’d expect the fighters to give each other respect. To feel each other out. To jab and probe, looking for weaknesses without exposing themselves to a knockout punch. This is analogous to playing poker with an eye toward keeping balanced lines. Now say you watched a boxing match between the champion and your humble author. How do you think this one would go? I hope it never happens, but I’d bet the champ would come right at me, slug me a few times, and that would be it. If instead the champ decided to dance and probe with me, you’d be thinking, “What the heck? Why doesn’t he just finish this?” Coming right at a weaker opponent is analogous to ignoring your own unbalanced lines and just going on the attack. With weak small stakes players, you don’t have to worry so much about where you open vulnerabilities in your game. Just go on the attack. Sure, a savvy opponent could counter-punch you where it hurts, but that will happen rarely. Most of the time your attacking play will get the money much more efficiently than balanced play would. Bottom line? Go ahead and think about where you are balanced and unbalanced. But when you see a mistake your opponent is making, pounce on it, even if it makes you unbalanced. Chances are high that no one will notice your vulnerability. At all but the very toughest online games, attacking your opponents full bore will get the money much faster than keeping up a good defense.
Betting
Betting is the staking or wagering money or something else of value on an uncertain event, such as a sports match, race or suchlike. At a global level, betting is the fifth most permitted land-based gambling market and is allowed by 82% of respondent jurisdictions. For online sales channels, betting is the most permitted market (73% of respondents).
Ownership and licence models.
For both land-based and online betting, the ownership and licence model most commonly seen amongst respondent jurisdictions was that of an unlimited number of licences with significant private/commercial sector provision. The next most common structure, for both land-based and online betting, was a state monopoly.
Post-tax revenue distributions.
For both land-based and online betting, post-tax revenues from the betting market predominantly went to private/commercial interests, reflecting the liberalised market structure in place in many jurisdictions. Sport was the next major beneficiary of post-tax revenues, but government/treasury, charities, culture and local/tribal governments also benefited from some betting activities. There was a broad mirroring between the balance of beneficiaries for post-tax betting revenues between land-based and online sales channels.
Sales channels.
The most prevalent sales channel for land-based betting is through shops operated by the licence-holder (93%), with 36% of jurisdictions also permitting betting sales through land-based resellers. Online sales channels are available in 89% of jurisdictions and some jurisdictions (21%) also allow sales via other remote means, such as through telephone betting.
Permitted gambling types.
Various types of betting are permitted in different jurisdictions. The majority of all jurisdictions (over 85%) allow fixed odds betting on single events, fixed odds betting on a combination of events (sometimes called accumulator bets) and pari-mutuel betting. Betting exchanges are less common and are only offered in 38% of those jurisdictions that permit betting.
Age restrictions.
Permission to participate in betting broadly follows the age of majority. Globally, the most common age to bet is 18, but in a few jurisdictions it is higher (up to 21). The average variation from the age of majority, across all jurisdictions, is +7.7%.
Foreign investment.
The majority of jurisdictions (58%) reported that there were no restrictions on foreign investment in the betting market (where that market was permitted). There were some restrictions in 31% of jurisdictions, which in some cases required investors to have a physical presence in the jurisdiction. Foreign investment was only prohibited in 12% of jurisdictions.
Bingo
Bingo is an online numbers game. It is a game of chance where players pick numbers on a card, or an electronic representation of a card. Numbers are then drawn at random, with the winner being the person who first has all their numbers drawn. At a global level, bingo is the second most permitted land-based gambling market, after lotteries, allowed by 94% of respondent jurisdictions. However, it is the least permitted online market (35% of respondents).
Ownership and licence models.
Of the 29 jurisdictions where bingo is permitted, 80% permit private/commercial operators to run bingo tournaments. In 43% of the respondent jurisdictions, bingo is hosted by the state/public sector, whilst 27% allow local/tribal government to deliver bingo games.12 In the commercial bingo market, for both land-based and online sales channels, the most common licence model is for an unlimited number of licences to be available. This is mirrored in the charitable bingo market, apart from for online sales channels, where a state monopoly approach is equal in prevalence to the unlimited number of licences model.
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