The differences between betting and casinos

There are many ways to bet and gamble to make money online, through casinos, or sportsbook betting, card games, bingo—there are countless different options. So, how do we actually distinguish betting and casinos? What sets the two apart, and how do I decide which is right for me?

Well, to start off with, broadly speaking when we talk about betting, we mean wagering on the outcome of something we are not participating in—sports, or races. Casinos are about gambling money on a variety of games that you are directly involved with and with so many new casino options the choice out there is endless. 

This is the fundamental difference. But let’s break it down in a bit more detail. 

1. Games 

Casinos are attractive because they offer a wide variety of games you can play. For many, betting in a casino is about taking a single, traditional table game, and honing their ability to the greatest extent they can. Poker is perhaps the most famous example. Poker players pride themselves on their ability to play the game well, and beat their opponents by sheer strategy and no good fortune. 

Casinos offer many such games, and of course they do offer many games of pure chance, too. But the point is, casinos feel as though you have a direct involvement in the outcome of the game you are betting on. Often, you really do. 

Betting is about putting a wager on the outcome of something, without any way of knowing for sure the outcome. But that uncertainty would make it hard to determine winnings and losses-which is where odds come in. 

2. Odds 

Betting, at any bookmakers and for more or less any bet, is based on odds. The bookmakers set their own odds for the outcome of an event. Take a horse race, for example. In any horse race, every horse in the race is given odds of winning, and the horse with the shortest odds is the one most favoured to win—and who will, obviously, pay out the lowest winnings on a bet.

Shorter odds are what punters tend to go for. This means that, while the horse is predicted to have a lower chance of winning, you will win a greater amount for a successful bet on this horse. 

Odds are the basis of sportsbook and race betting, and no such system exists in casinos, really. When it comes to traditional casino games, there are no odds offered since every game technically offers the exact same odds of winning. 

3. Culture 

The casino scene is highly vibrant and comes with a lot more bells and whistles than you would find in any betting shop. This has led, over the years, to a distinction between professional and amateur players, specifically within the casino business. In other words, a distinction of culture. 

There are, naturally, career sports bettors who have built reliable incomes out of carefully planned sports betting. But this is much less common than professional poker players, or professional card players of any kind. 

Casino culture is highly glossy, at least in terms of perception. It is seen as a high roller lifestyle, and casinos have traditionally modelled themselves on palaces or otherwise been built to be very ornate and expensive in appearance. 

In 2016, casinos in the U.K. made £141.0 million pounds in profit alone. In 2020, sports betting accounted for only £14 million pounds of revenue. 

So, the distribution is very clearly weighted towards the casinos, and this is in part due to their perception as somehow fancier and more reputable.