Mynxee a well known player in EVE, recently penned an article for CZ about the players and services that revolve around gambling in New Eden. I thought I'd throw my hat in and weigh in on my feelings about this style of play.
The first thing that caught my eye was the distribution of players among the various services. And I think I know why EVE BET is more popular than any other active alternative. There's a lot of mistrust in EVE, and a lot of players call these kinds of services scams or RMT in disguise. And sometimes they're right, but it seems this perception is having an influence on the types of gamblign pilots do.
EVE BET despite still being gambling, has an element of randomness that is beyond the control of the site owners. The real world events that are bet on within the service cannot be fixed by EVE BET, and they can't lie about the outcomes. This translates to them being perceived as being more reputable than the other services. Some of whom have complete control over the odds and outcomes of their games. It's this difference that leads a lot of players to mistrust other services.
I personally think much of that mistrust is misplaced. The odds are set so the house always makes money, this is always true. But, a smart gambler who plays with a thought out plan for how much they spend will usually be able to come out slightly on top. And with a little luck, make billions of ISK in the process.
A player with a large contact base can also monetize their viewers/comrades/listeners via the various affiliate programs to earn ISK, although this requires access to a huge potential playerbase as the conversion rates are laughably low. As again, most players in EVE are very much suspicious of gambling for various reasons.
(Disclosure: I do promote IWantISK as an affiliate, my personal testimony about usage found around this blog is legitimate and unpaid.)
I think this sentence from the article is beyond salient:
"In the end, players have to decide for themselves which services to
trust and how much exposure to potential loss they can tolerate. "
This is advice not only for EVE, and gambling within it, but life in general. Being careful about the decisions you make, while also knowing when to take risks is the hallmark of a wise person. The choice is yours after all. I personally came out pretty far ahead in terms of gambling in EVE, profiting around 10 Billion ISK on IWantISK alone. But that doesn't mean I or anyone else can expect to repeat those results. And getting trapped in the mouse wheel of chasing old victories is just a dumb idea. If you come away a winner once, walk away.
I've seen far too many bitter players lose billions gambling and then shout about the game being fixed. And even if the game is fixed, the poor strategic choices made by these players kept them chasing the dream long after it had passed. To me, this indicates that some people may have issues adjusting to their decisions, and have a problem with gambling.
The psychology of gambling and addiction is an intimidating and interesting subject. I recommend an article from Scientific American for a quick starter on the subject. Problem gamblers often suffer similar stigma to drug addicts. And this is a real issue. Now gambling in EVE may not be as big an issue, but I would not be surprised to see some people becoming addicted.
Brace for soapboxing, but I personally feel that gambling isn't inherently dangerous, as any activity can be addicting. But education about how to prevent and treat addiction is necessary.
If you or someone you know has a problem with gambling addiction, visit or contact the NCPG now.
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