5 ms·
Friend of a friend does announcing online. Like, you pay him a little (<= $20 ?) and he'll announce your game of NBA-2K26 on twitch. He does have a good radio
by Balgair 7mo ago
Friend of a friend does announcing online.
Like, you pay him a little (<= $20 ?) and he'll announce your game of NBA-2K26 on twitch. He does have a good radio voice. A good way to make a little in the off hours.
So, he got a gig to announce the opening of loot boxes at some show. I think it was Fortnite loot boxes. I guess it gives you the total value of the loot box spree you opened. So, 2 people buy a bunch of loot boxes, then open them up, then whoever has the higher value wins and takes both of the people's total haul.
Sounds like a strange thing to have to announce, but sure the guy says you pay and I'll say.
No, it was gambling for the watchers on polymarket [0]. People were betting on who would have the higher value. 'Like a lot of people' he said.
That's High Card. "A lot of" people were betting on games of High Card, essentially.
You know, shuffle a deck, draw 2 cards, whoever has the higher value one wins. Repeat.
It is the most Degenerate form of gambling out there. There is no skill, no human factor, no nothing. Just pure random numbers.
My lord, what a plague we have unleashed. We'll be dealing with this for decades.
[0] no idea if polymarket and the like do things this quickly, but he said they were gambling somehow with another site off of Twitch and then waved his phone, implying you can access it that easily.
- chimeracoder 7mo ago> It is the most Degenerate form of gambling out there. There is no skill, no human factor, no nothing. Just pure random numbers. While I wouldn't use the word "degenerate", in terms of gambling, this isn't anywhere close to as bad as it gets. At least this form is (psuedo)random, and the odds are statistically fair and published (by law). Contrast to slot machines, which are not random, but are in fact preprogrammed to provide payouts in ways which maximize the earnings for the house and the addictive value for the player. The house always wins, but there is no form of gambling where that is more guaranteed and manipulated than slot machine games (which includes the video arcade-style slot games).
- nemomarx 7mo agoOne thing I saw in a study of slot machines is that really addicted slot gamblers eventually become irritated at the jackpot animations, because they break up the "flow" state of pulling the lever or swiping a touch screen continually. They might be the most evil form of gambling we've developed, basically brain jacks for hardcore gambling addicts.
- Retric 7mo agoOdds of winning are rather meaningless for negative sum games, you’re going to lose anyway. While I find most forms of gambling rather boring, if you like the experience it’s little different than spending 50$ at an arcade. My game of choice is the big state lottery and it’s simply for the fun mental space of the possibility of winning, actually checking your ticket is kind of depressing because the odds are so low. But look at it as paying for the experience of the possibility of a jackpot and realize when you buy one ticket or multiple so just buy one and it becomes a cheap thrill.
- frumplestlatz 7mo agoHow is this not degenerate? You know you’re going to lose. You know the money is wasted. You do it anyway — and knowingly just pretend those first two facts aren’t true. Then you lose your money. Which you knew was going to happen.
- bryan_w 7mo agoHow would you define degenerate?
- Retric 7mo agoGo to a movie and you are going to be put the ticket prices, it’s a money losing proposition clearly there’s no reason to do so. Obviously, people place value on some experiences so any argument which fails to consider that is flawed. If you happen to be at a casino, make exactly one bet in your lifetime and there’s a significant chance you’ll end up ahead. On average you’ll be out money but we don’t live out every possibility and average them. It’s just one event and you could easily end up ahead, it’s only as you repeat it with minimal gains and negative returns that things quickly become a near certainty. With Powerball the odds are low but not astronomical that you buy 1 or 1000 tickets and end up ahead. It’s the most likely outcome by a massive margin but due to non jackpot prizes a long way from zero. However again the odds of breakeven just reduce the cost of play they aren’t the only thing people get for their money.
- MaxfordAndSons 7mo ago
- glitchc 7mo ago> At least this form is (psuedo)random, and the odds are statistically fair and published (by law). Only fair until the manufacturer of said lootboxes gets in on the action. This is why gambling is so highly regulated in all jurisdictions.
- pasquinelli 7mo ago> Contrast to slot machines, which are not random, but are in fact preprogrammed to provide payouts in ways which maximize the earnings for the house and the addictive value for the player. this isn't correct. slot machines are random. my first job out of school was, in part, making sure slot machines were random. people think the machines are rigged because they don't understand the rules. the machines are fair, it's the pay tables that are rigged.
- uncletammy 7mo agoHow does someone break into that field. I have a buddy who used to announce pro sports ( he's sort of famous for it ) that wants this kind of work.
- Balgair 7mo agoHe just kinda hustled I think. I don't know him all that well. But from what I do know, he started announcing for his buddies who referred him to other people and so on. Eventually he had a website going and would schedule when he was available for announcing (dude has a family and day job so not all the time). Made a niche in online basketball games and was open to really anything. If your buddy is somewhat famous, then get on the socials and network with the players in the files already, they all seem really open as it's still a big and unaddressed market. Payouts are gonna be small at first, think beer leagues and largeish friends groups. And from what I can tell the competition for big gigs is tougher as you go up in the field. Honestly give it a try, seems like a great side hustle. Edit: be a great idea for AI in the low end, but it's the human touch that really makes it. The guy I know is pretty funny and I assume his wisecracks help him
- bombcar 7mo agoAs mentioned in the other comment, scout out local events - bars that have trivia nights, bowling contests, etc. Find the ones where it's obvious the bartender is also the MC, and offer to do it for them for free/drinks/small fee. Have business cards ready to go and have them laying out.
- mapt 7mo ago> It is the most Degenerate form of gambling out there. There is no skill, no human factor, no nothing. Just pure random numbers. Never go to Nevada.
- ceejayoz 7mo agoBut you have to go to Nevada for that. You don't have Nevada 24/7 in your pocket. Or you shouldn't.
- soerxpso 7mo agoI don't see how this is more degenerate than betting on roulette at a casino. Prediction markets usually provide more efficient odds than casinos because the house profits from trading volume instead of from the spread, so it's essentially just a way to bet on a game of complete chance with a much better average-loss than you could get on games of pure chance in the past. If people want to bet on coinflips, it seems objectively better that they have access to a way to do that in a way where they only get fleeced for 1% of their bet rather than 5%+ of their bet. For sporting events, for example, the alternative to prediction markets 5-10 years ago was to use a website where you bet against the house directly, and they'd usually take around a 15-20% spread, and they'd ban you and keep your account funds if they decided you're winning too much. Now you can bet on the same events on prediction market sites, with around a 1-5% spread, and the house doesn't care how much you win (so there's actually an argument that you're playing a game of skill, compared to the old format where you definitely weren't, since you'd be banned for being too skilled).
- pwillia7 7mo agoHow is that different from roulette?
- xandrius 7mo agoThe regulation behind who can operate such establishments legally and who can participate, etc.?
- gosub100 7mo agoRoulette uses a physical process and is not compromised.
- Projectiboga 7mo agoI know roulette is random enough but here is a fun book by some physics whizzes who tried to make money off the game. The Eudaemonic Pie is a non-fiction book about gambling by American author Thomas A. Bass. The book was initially published in April 1985 by Houghton Mifflin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eudaemonic_Pie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eudaemonic_Pie The book focuses on a group of University of California, Santa Cruz, physics graduate students (known as the Eudaemons) who in the late 1970s and early 1980s designed and employed miniaturized computers, hidden in specially modified platform soled shoes, to help predict the outcome of casino roulette games. The players knew, presumably from the earlier work of Shannon and Thorp, that by capturing the state of the ball and wheel and taking into account peculiarities of the particular wheels being played they could increase their odds of selecting a winning number to gain a 44 percent advantage over the casinos.
- gosub100 7mo agoYes if you hold a camera and capture the speed and position of the ball and wheel you can gain an edge, people have tried it. Good point.
- CobrastanJorji 7mo agoBut if that physical process were somehow complicated, why, you could break the bank at Monte Carlo!
- thrance 7mo agoIn my heart of hearts, all gambling is equally degenerate: from stock markets to assasination markets.
- 12_throw_away 7mo agoEconomics sort of works ok when money transfers are used to mediate, y'know, the exchange of goods and services. Nearly everything else turns out to be a pretty obvious moral hazard.
- virgil_disgr4ce 7mo agoReminds me of the cheap bets casino from National Lampoons Vegas Vacation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byfewcZsug4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byfewcZsug4
- MattGaiser 7mo ago> It is the most Degenerate form of gambling out there. There is no skill, no human factor, no nothing. Just pure random numbers. How is this any more degenerate than slot machines? At least it is truly random, rather than rigged.
- pasquinelli 7mo agoslot machines are truly random. the rigging is in the pay table.
- thayne 7mo ago> It is the most Degenerate form of gambling out there. I don't think so. At least you have a 50% chance of winning. Unlike say a lottery or a slot machine.
- HWR_14 7mo ago50% chance of winning, but there is a rake from the site.
- eloisant 7mo agoIt's not the chance of winning that matters, it's the mean expected value. If you have a 50% chance of losing $2 or gaining $1, you have a negative expected value and that's bad. If you have a 10% chance of gaining 100$ and 90% chance of losing $1, that's an expected value of $9 and it's a great deal.
- thayne 7mo agoYes that is bad, but it isn't as bad as the expected value of a Powerball lottery ticket. I didn't say it isn't bad, just that it isn't the worst.