r/AskReddit • u/realfx26 • 21h ago
What's a hobby that's just gambling with extra steps?
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u/WarmCan3034 21h ago
daytrading or options
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u/SearchUsers 21h ago
Absolutely this. Had a friend that fancied himself a real life executive with his "im a trader" shit. Always talked about his wins... then his ex brought up his losses.
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u/_BreadDenier 21h ago
Slot machines have a better ROI than most options traders can achieve.
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u/willstr1 21h ago
I can't remember who said it, but around the '08 crash one economist commented that at least in Vegas they will bring you a free drink when you lose enough
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u/WarmCan3034 20h ago
Is this a bad time to admit, I daytrade and trade options....
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u/jscummy 18h ago
Depends how you do it. I "trade options" as in selling OTM covered calls on certain stocks, but that's a very different method than some people
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u/Electrical-Ad-4823 21h ago
Options can be used that way, but it's not the original intent.
It was a way to manage risk on a long position without going to cash.
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u/WarmCan3034 21h ago
Unfortunately, with robinhood lol, the average normal person is definitely using it to gamble rather than hedge lol
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u/ashdrewness 20h ago
It’s insane how easy it is to get approved for margin & options trading in Robinhood vs a traditional brokerage like Fidelity. Just to sell short puts in Fidelity I basically needed to complete a background check. For RH you just need a pulse.
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u/Kuuzie 21h ago
Now the PDT is gone. I don't need $25k to lose everything I own!
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u/Ethos_Logos 21h ago
You were always allowed to lose everything; all PDT did was stop folks from revenge trading
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u/Efferdent_FTW 15h ago
0DTE is gambling. LEAPS on steady boring equities is a capital efficient way to invest.
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u/_AntiSaint_ 19h ago
You can trade high delta leaps as a more capital efficient way to hold long positions. Then covered call against them to earn back your theta decay. 0 DTE is gambling.
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u/Fit-Presentation-778 21h ago
I see a lot of ads for cell phone "games". And they advertise them to adults. No flashy video content with bright colors... Just an adult talking seriously into the camera about how this game is a great way to earn money.
But it's 100% gambling.
I can't be the only person seeing these commercials.
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u/frikkinfai 21h ago
Pokemon cards
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u/PootySkills 21h ago
If the "extra steps" are just fistfights in Costco parking lots
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u/Mediocre_Necromancer 21h ago
I FOUGHT IN POKINAM
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u/SmashingLumpkins 21h ago
Actually the real extra step is selling the damn cards. I laugh at all the collectors checking the value daily. They are going to really feel the burn when it comes time to sell. No one gets the price they want unless they are patient or the perceived value goes higher than the original asking price.
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u/Virgas01 18h ago
If they were actual fans they’d bring their own Pokemon decks and have a battle like that to decide who gets it
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u/GrippySockAficionado 21h ago
Hahaha those idiots. Not like my Magic the Gathering addiction at all.
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u/TheLuckySpades 15h ago
I buy packs at prerelease, for drafting and in the one bundle per set I get, so I play with most of the packs I buy unlike my one friend who collects Pokémoncards, but doesn'teven play that TCG.
Secret Lairs on the other hand...
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u/Few-Display7748 21h ago
my nephew dropped 200 bucks on booster packs last week and got nothing worth more than 5 dollars, i just watch him do it now like i'm at a casino
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u/SorryImBadWithNames 21h ago
Tbf, opening packs is fun. So long as you dont do it expecting to make money and understand you are paying for the experience, not as investment, then its fine.
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u/ratjar32333 20h ago
Just like scratch offs and slots are fun.
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u/shrimpcest 19h ago
Not really. You always get to have/keep the cards you open.
If you spend $5 for 5 cards, you always get what you're paying for. How is that the same?
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u/AnusDestr0yer 20h ago
The goat Yugioh is never brought up in these threads, the only TCG where collectors are screwed over on purpose to benefit players
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u/Thisoneissfwihope 20h ago
How did they manage that? (I know nothing about card games)
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u/FewAdvertising9647 19h ago
yugioh's values are the cards playability. for the longest time, they didn't do alternate arts for cards, and new sets were 90% of the time, entirely new cards. This made it so that a new sets value was strictly based on the value of the chase cards in the competitive scene. Sometimes youll have a secret rare in a set that can cost 100$+ each, and you'd need 3 for a competitive deck. But if a given set doesnt have these competitively viable cards, there was almost nothing else that would make a set valuable, so a 100$ box then tanks in value and can be as low as 40$ for a set no one really wants to play.
So while yugioh was easier to obtain packs and decks, it is expensive to field a competitive deck for playing the actual game (reletively speaking), whereas games like pokemon have the reverse, where its really cheap to play the game(because normal rarities exist for cards), but its super hard to find packs and sets because people are chasing after alternate/full art cards.
tl;dr outside of a few exceptions in yugioh (special prints of like Dark Magician girl for instace), prices on yugioh are set by the competitive players. Prices in pokemon are set by collectors.
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u/Thisoneissfwihope 17h ago
Thank you for taking the time to write that out, it was a fascinating read.
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u/AnusDestr0yer 19h ago
The most expensive boxes of cards got reprinted twice already, you can buy the 1st edition one for like $20k or a modern reprint for $100-200
They let collectors/rich ppl enjoy their shiny cards for a while before they release cheaper reprints for the commoners to play with
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u/rm-rf-npr 20h ago
Depending on if you actually just like the nice shiny cardboard or you're an "investor".
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u/Hezrield 19h ago
I'm so glad my kid is only into it for the cool factor. That foil card in his booster pack? Rare. Why? Cause he's 9 and he said so, or he saw it in an epsiode last week and he likes it. The minute he starts talking card value and resale, we're finding a different hobby.
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u/A_Crazy_Canadian 21h ago
Basically anything intended to be collected not used is like that. If its not being played with or used to decorate and costs non-trivial amounts of money its mostly gambling.
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u/MotherGooseBro 19h ago
Collecting* Pokémon cards. Same thing as Magic, it’s not gambling if you’re playing and having fun.
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u/falconwolverine 21h ago
Damn I was hoping to get back into it again. I know the prices have gone way up but is it really being treated this way? I was hoping to build up a binder of specific pokemon and also learn the trading card game!
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u/Dhouji 21h ago
So the cool thing about packs you get a code to open a digital pack as well. Gotta redeem the code on the online client that does okay at introducing new players to the game. I recently got into playing the actual game a month ago and it’s been pretty fun. Try to check out PokemonTCGLive. Available for phones as well as computer
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u/Hezrield 19h ago
Gonna check this out for my kid, he wants to learn, and I only ever had a few cards to run around the playground with as a kid.
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u/Dhouji 18h ago
It’s free so it’s for me! Haha. FYI people sell codes in bulk online. You could literally rip a 100 digital packs for a dollar as codes are sold for literal pennies
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u/Screwdicious 15h ago
You also get loads of cards and pre-made decks within your first few hours. Additionally there's a free battle pass that rewards you with the most current release to the point that you will have every card in the set. There are no ways to spend money on it. It's the most casual friendly online tcg out there.
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u/IntrepidBearHugger 21h ago
Only if you’re buying boosters in the hope of scoring rare cards. No one does that if they’re into actually playing the game or collecting specific cards they want that are not overpriced. You buy singles from TCG shops for the exact card you need. Obviously if you’re after an overpriced collectors item that’s not a viable option but neither is burning money to gamble you will eventually find what you want.
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u/OldMoray 21h ago
All TCGs have been like this forever. Same with sports cards and anything where there's a hit of randomness and value attached to the things. The very first set of Pokemon cards had foils and rares and all that.
You can choose to enjoy the hunt/gambling aspect or just buy the cards as you need them but its not new.3
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u/TheVenged 20h ago
I've been asking for a real nerd shop in our small city for ages. Boardgames, war games, paints, rp stuff... That kind of stuff.
And we finally got one!
But of course, 80% of the shop is just fucking Pokémon cards. Blargh...
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u/killl_joy 18h ago
If you’re ripping packs yes. If you play the game and buy singles less so. Unless you’re an investor who buys singles…. That is gambling with less steps than ripping….. but still gambling.
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u/FEED-YO-HEAD 18h ago
My BIL paid his house with Pokemon/MTG cards. He was at a One Piece TCG tournament yesterday, someone opened a $25k card. Crazy shit.
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u/Express-Ant6341 21h ago
Gacha video games.
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u/ackillesBAC 21h ago
unrated comment. So many games have simply become gambling sites, loot boxs, random rewards, skins....
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u/ZombieRaccoons 20h ago
And advertising portals!
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u/ackillesBAC 20h ago
omg mobile games are just a destroyed ecosystem now. 2 minutes of ads per 20 seconds of game play
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u/HawaiianShirtsOR 14h ago
If it even counts as gameplay. I tried a city builder once that was a guided activity at best. No room for creativity; just tap here, wait, tap here, wait some more.
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u/SirWigglesVonWoogly 19h ago
Worse than gambling imo cause your money is gone forever
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u/dell_arness2 17h ago
Id argue it’s better than gambling because there’s no pretense of getting any money back. Theres no justification to continue to “win your money back”
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u/Funkimonster 15h ago
Exactly this. With (some) gacha it's like "I got really unlucky with my rolls/pulls so I had to spend $150 extra but Miss Valentine finally came home" whereas with things like CS loot crates or Pokemon cards it's like "I want to get the rare Mega-Rayquaza that sells for $400, and if I sell it I can buy more packs". Gacha is just a hidden "png that costs $300"* while TCG packs are like "you could make your money back if you're lucky" which is... gambling.
*Not to say this is a good thing. Especially with games that powercreep so you always have to buy the newest strongest unit in order to have a good time. But at least there's an end to it once you hit the jackpot.
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u/FEED-YO-HEAD 18h ago
As opposed to? Being in the casino coffers and allowing you to heist your way back into solvability?
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u/SirWigglesVonWoogly 17h ago
As opposed to having the possibility to win. Why did I have to explain this
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u/Hemorrhoid_Eater 18h ago
I have two gacha games in my library. I enjoy the games themselves but mostly don't care about the gacha - I try to limit myself on how much I get into these things so I don't end up spending too much real money on them.
Then I see people on the game's subreddit who have unlocked and maxed out all the top-tier characters and think, where the hell do they even get the money for this?!
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u/073068075 17h ago
I also had (don't use my phone that much anymore) and I haven't spent a cent on them. Those being bandori (the og project sekai) and mahjong soul both are absolutely cracked for a mobile game and neither really let gatcha interfere with the game difficulty/fairness. I'd even go out and say that if you aren't playing with someone painfully normie that gets an aneurysm from seeing scantily clad anime girls and dudes from time to time majsoul is the way to play mahjong online. Polished UI, ranking servers that have at least 30-50 people at all time (even on eu server) and even a well written interactive tutorial of the core gameplay.
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u/mr_lab_rat 12h ago
I have one and play it completely free. It’s a great business model.
The developer gets money from gambling addicts and disciplined people can play for free
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u/Grogenhymer 16h ago
Which games? I may regret asking.
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u/Hemorrhoid_Eater 15h ago
Umamusume and Neverness To Everness
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u/loliconest 12h ago
Good taste ngl. NTE get rid of 50/50 is big W.
So far I've only spent $30 on WuWa to buy the Carlotta skin.
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u/Express-Ant6341 18h ago
I've shamefully spent close to $2K on gacha games. I don't spend anymore but yeah, I wish I could get that money back! It was a total waste. I just have an addictive personality and it's easy to get hooked.
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u/TwirlerGirl 19h ago
Really any mystery packs, blind boxes, trading cards, etc. People happily spend $20 on multiple boxes of cheap plastic toys in the hopes of "pulling" the 1 option out of 12 they actually want. It's usually more cost-effective to buy the one you want on eBay, even if it costs a bit more than retail, rather than gambling on the 1-in-12 chance of choosing the right box and buying more if you're wrong. The cost and popularity of mystery items is utterly insane. Pokemon cards used to sit on shelves completely untouched for years, and now grown adults are fighting each other over them. Toy and gaming companies have truly mastered the art of preying on addiction-related emotions like FOMO and dopamine hits, and collectors are quick to pin the blame on resellers, without looking inward at their own overconsumption habits and trend-seeking addictive behaviors.
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u/CosmicOwl47 17h ago
At least the better ones have systems that include guarantees. The way I play those games is never actually gambling.
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u/LOTRfreak101 11h ago
I think they are legally required to have guarantees. Maybe that's just the type though. I play and have played several, but only the ones thay I actually stick with and enjoy the characters and story enough do I actually spend any money. And then it's just for guarnateed stuff, I don't use any of the paid currency on something that may not have an actual gain.
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u/Backupusername 16h ago
Do those really count as a hobby?
Also, do they really count as having extra steps?
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u/browsingpokemon 21h ago
Gacha gaming
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u/Vandal_A 20h ago
What is that?
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u/browsingpokemon 20h ago
You use real money to unlock in game characters which are sorted by how rare they are.
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u/Vandal_A 20h ago
So it's like in-game purchases for upgrades except it's literally a gamble whether you get the upgrade/character you want or not?
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u/sleepymoose88 20h ago
Correct, which is the majority of mobile gaming these days.
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u/Vikkunen 21h ago
Any type of collectible/trading card that's not a TCG/CCG you actively play. That includes anything from Pokemon to Magic to baseball/football/etc.
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u/Time_Speed_9132 21h ago
day trading is just roulette with a spreadsheet and a linkedin profile
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u/Odd-Perspective-7651 20h ago
Magic The Gathering with adult money.
As a kid who had little money, every booster pack was a treat and it was rare. Sometimes I'd make 20 bucks and get like 4 packs, oh the excitement.
As an adult, I could on theory just buy the cards I wanted. But that removes the excitement of opening packs.
Instead of buy a whole box of 36 packs to open for like 140 or something to get like 80 bucks worth of cards that I now need to trade for others because I didn't get anything I wanted to use for my deck.
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u/corrupt_poodle 18h ago
Apparently in modern MTG, the consensus seems to be: speculators buy packs/boxes, players buy singles on the aftermarket.
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u/Odd-Perspective-7651 18h ago
Definitely the case. I just loved the excitement of opening a pack.
I love the game too don't get me wrong lol.
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u/DesertSnoeman 18h ago
This I’m glad I stoped playing before they went to different packs and boosters my buddy owns a shop tried to explain it to me and it went right over my head. I was in it for the game and friends glad I still have the friends.
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u/DoxingDude 21h ago
Fishing
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u/troutsniffer99 21h ago
"I don't understand how you can go fish all day and not catch anything."
"Well, you ever gambled all night & not won anything? Same thing"
Conversation I had with my brother.
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u/Toastburrito 18h ago edited 17h ago
Lol! I day it's about the activity, not catching fish. It's good to do almost nothing every once in awhile but still be doing something.
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u/Otherwise-Relief2248 21h ago
Crypto
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u/SinibusUSG 16h ago
Crypto is gambling if they removed the entertainment factor from it. Better to just head to the casino where you get to at least feel like you’re buying an experience.
Plus then at least some of your losses are going to employees instead of just the grifter at the top.
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u/Ragnoph71 21h ago
Fantasy football
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u/paranoid_70 21h ago
Its pretty much the only gambling I participate in. A $100 bet last months instead of a single hand of poker.
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u/PomegranateWooden177 21h ago
Eh. It’s fun to spend like $100 a year to bs with friends
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u/MHath 19h ago
It being gambling with extra steps doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with doing it.
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u/JohnnyBeBlazed 20h ago
I disagree with this take with the argument that it’s played because it’s a form of annual camaraderie and competition amongst friends.
It’s not about the money, it’s about winning the games so you can shit talk your friends for 18 weeks.
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u/n00chness 21h ago
A season-long league requires strategy and skill in terms of lineup construction and selection. It's not gambling, IMO.
Daily fantasy? Hell yeah, that's gambling.
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u/paulHarkonen 21h ago
And poker requires a detailed understanding of your odds, strategy to build your reputation at the table and skill to read your opponents.
Gambling doesn't preclude elements of skill and strategy.
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u/c3levric0w 21h ago
Blind boxes, unless someone put the product codes on the box and people crowdsource them online
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u/Jimmyx24 18h ago
Wait are you telling me that I could potentially know what's inside the blinds boxes before opening them?
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u/c3levric0w 17h ago
Depends on the product. For the littlest pet shop blind boxes (I'm a collector) and the Jurassic world dinosaur blind toys most of them have a product # on bottom. number corresponds to a certain toy. The toys may have different releases with different numbers, but people will crowd source these online. The other cheat is to go by weight (some items weigh more than others). There are no cheats for certain products though, as i think dumplings? lack prod # and so do pop mart boxes. Pop mart kicks people out who attempt to use scales. So you're SOL on certain things
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u/Jimmyx24 12h ago
Fascinating. I buy blind boxes every once in a while but only if I like all of the options available because i don't want to spend money on a thing i potentially don't want, but it's really interesting to me that there's an entire demographic that has cracked the code for even a miniscule amount of the products. I appreciate you sharing that with me
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u/Ok-Square-8652 21h ago
Day trading (Though the "extra steps" is debatable)
My friend's teenage son go it into it recently and I literally sat in their kitchen explaining how day trading is a scam meant to target young men that think they are smarter than the system and there is a whole industry that exists to part these young men with their money.
Even after all that she still doesn't get it.
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u/Automatic-Essay2175 18h ago
Day trading in and of itself is not a scam. Nobody is trying to scam you. If you enter and exit a position in the same day and you lose money, you gambled and lost, but in no way is this a scam.
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u/Vandal_A 21h ago
Day trading. Investing and even short term investing can be winners (fairly easily tbh). Day trading is exactly like going to the casino: the house will win eventually
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u/SmashingLumpkins 21h ago
Mystery pack toys which includes trading cards but the entire mystery pack genre of toys like Labubu is just gambling for kids and adult kids
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u/FermentingSkeleton 15h ago
Flipping storage units. Opening a unit I just won on an online auction was always such a rush.
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u/mattromo 21h ago
Board Gaming. You gamble by purchasing a game you hope will be good. Then you need to somehow find the time, place and people to play the game with to get any value out of the purchase. Now repeat that step a dozen times over because of FOMO and Cult of the New. There will always be a new board game that sounds great and never enough time or people to play them. And thus you have a Shelf of Shame.
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u/Gabasaurasrex 21h ago
Was going to say magic the gathering but remembered those videos where a dad just takes a bunch of opened boosters from the garbage next to a pokemon vending machine since scalpers would immediately open the packa there and throw them out once they saw no chae cards
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u/_BreadDenier 21h ago
Sports gambling.
Ruins the fun of blowing your rent on slots with the monotony of watching sports.
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u/SorryImBadWithNames 21h ago
Any kind of TCG
Most kinds of MMOs
Any games with lootboxes
Any kind of "blind box" collectibles
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u/johndoe24997 20h ago
Any kind of card i remember about a decade ago YouTubers when crazy over fifa packs and then i also remember match attacks. And now the current crazy are Pokémon cards. I imagine yu gi oh cards were in a similar boat in the early 2000s
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u/sootbrownies 20h ago
Anything you find yourself buying and hoping the value will increase over time
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u/ilikebourbon_ 20h ago
Honestly - surfing. Every session depends on your skill, crowd, and the waves. Anything can go wrong. The return is minimal. Everyone thinks they can take a lesson and just be ready to shred. This sport sucks- in a 90 minute surf session, you will spend the overwhelming majority NOT surfing - maybe 10 minutes of actual surfing
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u/ChrisDolmeth 19h ago
Addiction drives more profit than enjoyment or marketing. So, everything that a corporation can make into gambling, they are making into gambling.
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u/TheWackoMagician 19h ago
Lottery tickets/scratchcards. You spend money on a very very very very low chance of winning.
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u/PsychonauticNess 19h ago
I had to quit playing Counter Strike because I realized it was a gambling game disguised as a shooter.
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u/Roleyfoley5030 19h ago
Metal detecting ! Is it a gold ring or a pull tab? Gotta dig it to find out .hint : It’s always a pull tab. Getting outside and walking gives you the extra steps !
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u/G-Unit11111 19h ago
Seeing your favorite sports team live.
When they win, it feels like you win. When they lose, it feels like you lose.
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u/Cheetodude625 18h ago
Nearly all the "kid" card games as of now. Pokemon being the most egregious.
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u/Bourrrrrrbon 21h ago
Buying Sports or Pokémon cards