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Steve · 06-14-2020, 09:25 AM

While I never used the Casino feature in the league, I know a lot of players do. I am not for or against it but there could be some long term effects to learning about gambling even in this virtual world we live in. There are a lot of users that are under the age to gamble legally and there could be that seed planted that carries over into real life that could be damaging. With that said, any addiction is a personal thing and if it isn't gambling, it could be one of many other addictive acts. Just don't get carried away with gambling and this system works fine. It looks fun as well.

An interesting feature in a hockey sim. I would be all over it if I had a clue on who or what to bet on. I don't keep up with the league as well as I should. Something the big winners are good at is the knowledge of the teams and league in general, or they are spit ball'n and getting lucky. If it's a feature that brings players together and have fun, I am all for it and would even expand into different features that do the same thing. I am not sure this is the content intended for this task, I thought I would share my view on the feature.

Mook · 06-14-2020, 09:41 AM

Casino is a great idea for the league, but with FHM I think it gives us many more options for options for bets. Instead of just betting on teams and their seasons, I think we could move into a full Vegas spread eventually. How many players will break the PPG threshold, How many players will break 60 pts, How many goalies will be under 2.3GAA. The options are vast and gives plenty of opportunity to be able to string together different types of bets. The Challenge Cup bet is such a long shot that it could be replaced by something that more players have confidence in so its not throwing 1M away. Possibly having a "Does East or West win the Challenge Cup" and having 2:1 odds on the bet. The casino, where its at right now, is a good start, but I think we can go further with it. Even having "funny bets" Like how many GM punishments are handed out during the season, how many TD threads are held, how many people add late submissions to PT's.

***Snussu*** · 06-14-2020, 09:41 AM

I haven't used the casino before so in that regard it hasn't affected me at all. But how it has affected the league is a different story. Others it has affected very much. Some users in this site have lost all of their career savings on their gambling problems while others have quadrupled their savings in few goes. Casinos are always tricky because to those who lose might start thinking they are getting played and the ones who are constantly winning are getting favored, while in reality those who win have confidence in what they are betting and are betting big. Bet Big Win Big. That's the principle of Casinos. Also research and luck are need in Casinos. You might not want to bet on the horse with 1000/1 winnings because they most likely wont win unless you know they will be strong because of improvements/different training. It all comes down to luck in the end. If you don't have luck, don't gamble

UrsinZ · 06-14-2020, 10:42 AM

Well i think the casino adds an interesting aspect to the league to make easy money if you want to take a small risk! You can make pretty save bets to earn money :D
If there ever was a bet i regreted? Jeah in this years over under i bet 1mill on NEW going over and i dont think they will be able to reach 36 wins or more :( So i probably will lose 1mill thanks to me being stupid haha but eh that's the risk and the fun of it :D
Also i really love the new SMJHL pickems! Grum is doing a great job at managing these!
I would like to see a NHL Pick Ems tournament in the SHL! Would be awsome to bet for RL things with unreal money!
The casino did affect me a bit because thanks to it I have a bit more money! (After this one less lmao)

KenitohMenara · 06-14-2020, 10:42 AM

Santtu Rasanen doesn’t gamble. This isn’t because he has anything against gambling or thinks less of people who do gamble. This is purely from a family standpoint. No one in his family gambles nor have any of his friends from Finland or Anchorage. He has never felt the need to but he does enjoy the odd card game once in a while. He does, however, think the SHL Casino is a rather interesting concept and seeing other players use it has made him think a lot about how it's implemented.

To him, it feels like an honest extension of the “Bet on myself” mentality that a lot of players carry with them into junior and professional leagues. That a player has that level of confidence in themselves that they are willing to bet money on themselves can be seen as boastful but for Santtu, that’s just the nature of people. He saw his own brother a couple of times when he started studying accounting. The fact he was using his own resources to further education and get qualifications is a rather inspiring thing.

*CptSquall* · 06-14-2020, 10:48 AM

I am going to be brutally honest here but, like gambling for me in real life I ignore the SHL Casino. I played when it first came out, didn't bet a huge amount but walked away with heavy losses anyway. NEVER had any interest in doing it again. I wouldn't say it has effected me at all. I largely ignore its existence, I don't bother making bets, or usually even engaging in the seasonal conversations about what bets to make. Hell I have not even so much as ragged on the Casino until this post. I don't want to waste the breath (or in this case time typing I guess) about my apathy for it. No reason for something I don't enjoy to take up free real estate in my mind, nor make others feel upset with me over my distaste of it. Is the Casino bad? Not at all, just not for me. Like the Thunderdome when I started, if I don't want to go there and interact with it, I don't. Simple as that.

Weretarantula · 06-14-2020, 11:10 AM

The Casino has been a roaring success for ol' Weretarantula. Came up with some big wins that have healthy inflated my bank account to 'not being a scrub anymore' levels, and I hope that that trend may continue going forward for many seasons to come. The best thing about gambling is the chance to come up big and the casino has done that fantastically. I am a really big fan of the parlay feature too. Being able to put that extra slice of risk into it makes it even more satisfying if it pays off. and boy it pays off big. Honestly if I had to choose between doing casino every season or schlepping it writing media you know I'm going to gamble on that casino every time. I didn't dive in on the first season as my funds were a little scarce, but it's definitely been worth the investment. Great addition to the site and one I will be using until I'm broke and homeless.

MarlinManiac4 · 06-14-2020, 11:29 AM

I personally have not participated in the casino myself, but I do know a lot of users from my draft class that have. While I don’t really have any plans of participating in the future, I do think it’s a good feature to have on the site. It can help new users really dive in to the details of the league in an attempt to make smart bets to improve their bank account. Encouraging this type of engagement in a sim league can only be beneficial down the line as new users change into veteran users and become the backbone of the site. It even gives current veteran members more reason to actually pay attention to more aspects about the sim that does not involve their own team. From what I can tell, the casino has been run well over the seasons, and I’m sure it will continue to be a positive feature of the site.

BlackLabelBird · 06-14-2020, 12:08 PM

While I have not participated in the SHL Casino in any capacity, betting on sports (even simulated leagues) is an enjoyable way to pass the time. I think it is a good way to increase your bank account, gambling has that inherent risk/reward payoff that makes it enjoyable. It's also a great way to get some income if you don't have the talent for graphics or the time for media. I also think this is a great way to keep players engaged with the league, especially in regards to other teams and players that they might normally not check in on, because they're focusing on their own team or personal player progression. I'm sure if i had money riding on a game, I'd pay much closer attention to the players on those teams to see their history and stats. As stated previously, I have not bet on any games yet, but I wouldn't mind giving it a shot in the future.

Jerppu · 06-14-2020, 12:50 PM

***Hallsy*** · 06-14-2020, 01:01 PM

I wished I made a bet this season but I also don't wish I made a bet. In the last 3 seasons, I have made a bet once and that season we had a poor playoff performance, where we uncharacteristically took a ton of penalties and it costed us the series and maybe another championship. In the 2/3 seasons that we didn't make a bet Hamilton ended up winning the championship. It might be silly to not do something so beneficial especially when you have someone like Aaron Wilson making bets every season and making 20mil. You can just copy his bets and make some money off that. Also I feel like a lot of new guys aren't aware of the Casino and its probably one of the easiest ways to make money quick and it doesn't takemuch effort. The risk is somewhat low too as it only costs like 1mil to make a bet. It has high earning potential that could set you up money wise.

***notorioustig*** · 06-14-2020, 01:02 PM

The casino is definitely an interesting addition to the league. It has allowed several members (especially particularly dedicated ones who do their research) to gain tremendous amounts of money very quickly for relatively little input. However, I find that the people putting big bets down in the casino are the ones who already have plenty of money, as people who actually need the money they have are unlikely to risk it. This leads to a scenario where the rich get richer, and the poorer don't participate much or at all. It is my opinion that this creates a significant class discrepancy in wealth and status, where the bourgeoisie casino participants accumulate and multiply wealth while the proletariat working class seems able to only to stick to regular methods of earning, with casino participation as an aspirational event only. It is my proposal then that the proletariat use their greater numbers to overthrow the ruling class and establish a lower stakes casino option, seizing the means of production and breaking free of the one thing they have to lose - their chains

***SDCore*** · 06-14-2020, 01:08 PM

Oh the Casino, how I love and hate thee. I used to make a lot of bets at the Casino, but I was not very good at it. In real life I can be a bit of a degenerate gambler, so it's not surprising that I would take to this really sharply. The biggest thing I've noticed and enjoyed was the pick em's, though the first season was a bit of a bust with the randomness that was Simon T. Since more than half the group got kicked out after the first round of games, then it ended early, because well it was really hard to predict what was going to happen. I think it was a good case study for how random SimonT could be. Going forward, I'd like to see more random bets, like first player to lose a fight, or who will have the most checks, though I guess that could effect in game play so maybe not great. Another cool bet to have would be daily spreads, I don't think we currently have this, but I'd love to put money down on the puck line and see if Chicago can cover the spread versus a team like Baltimore or Tampa Bay. What would the odds even look like, how many points would you be giving Tampa. At that point if the puck line was 8, would you take the dog, just in case?? I don't know but now I want this to happen, is this already happening?

fever95 · 06-14-2020, 01:15 PM

*Scrufdaddy* · 06-14-2020, 01:29 PM

The casino hasn't affect me much, I've never placed any bets. I haven't been interested in placing a season long bet probably because I wouldn't risk enough money to make it interesting on that time scale. If there were much shorter time scales, like a weekly bet, the amount I'd risk would better match the gratification delay. I wouldn't like betting on single games because they are way too unpredictable, but maybe something like the 3on3 showdown that's aggregated stats. Maybe even adding a money component to that PT. The baseline TPE is a free bet, but you could back up your choice with some money to add some risk/reward to it.

Even though I haven't participated in the casino myself, I do really like the flavor it adds to the league. There is a new dimension to the story of who wins and loses because we can talk more precisely about underdogs and favorites. It changes from "everyone thought that Team X was bad but they did ok" to "Team X was only supposed to win 10 games but they took 20!".

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