Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A4

December 15, 2022

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home 禄 Opinion

Why are people who normally never watch soccer betting on games?

By Lu Feiran | 00:11 UTC+8 December 15, 2022 | Print Edition

My friend Liang Bingbing, an elementary school art teacher, received her first World Cup lottery prize after the group stage was over 鈥 34.5 yuan (US$4.80). She was so happy 鈥 that I didn鈥檛 have the heart to remind her that she had lost more than 300 yuan in previous games.

Liang was never a soccer fan. She doesn鈥檛 watch any professional leagues, but just knows which team is traditionally stronger 鈥 that鈥檚 why she bought Germany over Japan, and Argentina over Saudi Arabia, and suffered losses.

鈥淓veryone around me are watching games and buying lottery tickets, and I wanted to try my luck, too,鈥 she told me. 鈥淭hey say usually it鈥檚 casual viewers rather than hardcore fans that can win big.鈥

Her words are quite representative. There are no official statistics on how many lottery buyers 鈥 and underground gamblers 鈥 can actually make a profit out of it, and no one did around me. Some one might have a big win in one or two matches, but the gains cannot make up for the losses in others.

The Qatar World Cup is especially unfriendly to gamblers. A series of unexpected results, no matter if it was Germany and Spain losing to Japan, or Croatia knocking out Brazil, left plenty of empty pockets.

Yet people are still throwing money like there鈥檚 no tomorrow. Recently, police in Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province cracked a cross-border soccer gambling case, seizing more than 250 people. More than 50 million yuan was involved.

A similar case was reported in Heyuan of Guangdong Province as well. Three gambling rings were cracked, and more than 100 suspects were seized.

I鈥檓 never been a gambling guy. Even in Las Vegas all my money went to shows and buffets, not a single buck to slot machines. So it made me wonder why a global sports festival would turn into someone鈥檚 casino, especially for those who don鈥檛 even know the difference between offside and out-of-bounds.

I expected psychological therapist Xu Peng to answer my questions.

The therapist said the appeal of gambling or buying soccer lotteries comes from our very own human nature: We tend to have 鈥渟urvivorship bias,鈥 which means that we tend to put ourselves in the winners鈥 rather than losers鈥 shoes.

鈥淲e always tend to believe that we鈥檙e lucky, or we could gain great fortune from nothing like Jack Ma,鈥 Xu said.

鈥淭his is how our brains work to make us feel good. Apart from gambling, things like success science books and romance dramas work the same way, that鈥檚 why those things have a huge market too.鈥

Xu said the World Cup as an extremely popular global event could attract much projection from people, no matter if they are soccer fans or not. People tend to project their own desires onto that event, so that they could join the event in their own ways.

But a fact is that our brain does need such stimulation from time to time, and that鈥檚 why there is a reason why official soccer lotteries exist.

Unlike underground gambling, in which the bankers can always cheat, legal lotteries tend to satisfy our needs of stimuli in a more fair and controllable way.

And the methods of getting away from gambling? To enrich your real life.

鈥淲hen you find gratification from real life, you need less such quick stimuli,鈥 Xu said.

Now that the World Cup is halfway through the game, my friend Liang鈥檚 passion for buying lottery has waned dramatically.

鈥淚鈥檓 not even interested in watching the games anymore,鈥 she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 now my usually me again.鈥

Finding oneself is always a reason to celebrate, isn鈥檛 it?

Opinion
锘

 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend


锘