Over the years, gamblers have developed various techniques and beliefs that can influence the outcome as well as the way they approach the game. Fallacies are one such thing that depends on the way a gambler perceives a game in particular and gambling in general. These are perceptions that gamblers hold of the game and believe that these beliefs can determine and influence the outcome of the game. Based on these beliefs, they will choose steps that are unorthodox but deemed necessary. This takes the randomized results and they believe gives them a little control of the outcome.
What are gambling fallacies?
These are beliefs about how gambling in general works. Even though they are false, but the players believe that if they acted in a certain way the results will be different. This makes them think that they can influence the outcome of the game which otherwise is not possible. For this to happen, they will choose their numbers in the game and take out the random factor. There have been various researches as to why such beliefs are formed and due to the complexity of the human mind, there are various answers to this. To start with, the mind tries to make sense and create order out of the chaos. Researches further notice that the way people respond in the short term and long term is different. In the former, the response will be stable and consistent.
How it is measured?
Researches have been carried in various countries and data has been compiled to understand the structure. The fallacies are measured using the Gambling Fallacies Measure (GFM). It assesses all types of fallacies and is generally a questionnaire kind of thing. In Appendix A, you will get 10 multiple-choice items, and each one will have the correct answer. If your score is high, then you have a higher resistance to fall into the fallacies. There are other levels of scores that depict your vulnerability to the fallacies. The tests have been carried out in many countries on more than 15000 people. The fallacies often give birth to the gambling problem and the lack of acknowledging the randomization of the games and a false belief in the perception of gambling reflects poorly on the games. This is however not confined to one game only but affects the overall gambling experience.
Is gambling fallacy true?
Of course, the fallacy is true. A lot of misbeliefs have been attributed to gambling and they just get stuck. In gambling each outcome is independent and they are not influenced by the past occurrences.
Conclusion:
Gambling fallacy is that the probability of an outcome after a series of outcomes lessens than that of a single outcome. However, this is a wrong assumption, to begin with gambling is not just a game of chance, there are a lot of things that come into the picture. Factors like numbers are the most important. Every game is independent.