Did I lose?

I recently completed my last Vegas trip believing that I came back barely a winner in terms of gambling, but then I remembered two things that either put me ahead or set me back. For the purposes of my spreadsheet, how should I count these two wagers?

1) The Mrs. put $10 on Uruguay at 50-1 to win the World Cup. So because we decided to wake up at 5:45 a.m. and go downstairs to watch their match, I made a $15 bet on Uruguay at -150 to beat South Korea. The match ended in a scoreless draw. Should I count this as a bet? I did absolutely no research into this bet — I made it mostly for her to add some extra excitement (as much as there can be) to this match.

2) I played Roll to Win craps and lost $13 in potential money because I screwed up and made a $6 "Place to lose" bet on the 8 instead of a "Place" bet, and rolled an 8. But it occurred to me that the previous week I played this game at Cache Creek and ridiculously made the same mistake TWICE but won an equivalent amount when I should have lost. So in theory, I won the bet that I had intended to make in Vegas and lost the bets I intended to make the previous week, so for accounting purposes I could swap the two bet totals. (I finished the session ahead $27, but would have won $40, and I finally figured out that I pressed "Place" but in tiny letters beneath, it says "to lose" — and the Place bet button is where the Come bets in "real" craps usually are.)

So without taking the above into account, I won $5.73 in my Vegas trip.
If I count only #1, I lost $9.27
If I count only #2, I won $18.73
If I count both #1 and #2, I won $3.73

(Feel free to call me a loser for even thinking about this so much.)

Quote: smoothgrh

I recently completed my last Vegas trip believing that I came back barely a winner in terms of gambling, but then I remembered two things that either put me ahead or set me back. For the purposes of my spreadsheet, how should I count these two wagers?

1) The Mrs. put $10 on Uruguay at 50-1 to win the World Cup. So because we decided to wake up at 5:45 a.m. and go downstairs to watch their match, I made a $15 bet on Uruguay at -150 to beat South Korea. The match ended in a scoreless draw. Should I count this as a bet? I did absolutely no research into this bet — I made it mostly for her to add some extra excitement (as much as there can be) to this match.

2) I played Roll to Win craps and lost $13 in potential money because I screwed up and made a $6 "Place to lose" bet on the 8 instead of a "Place" bet, and rolled an 8. But it occurred to me that the previous week I played this game at Cache Creek and ridiculously made the same mistake TWICE but won an equivalent amount when I should have lost. So in theory, I won the bet that I had intended to make in Vegas and lost the bets I intended to make the previous week, so for accounting purposes I could swap the two bet totals. (I finished the session ahead $27, but would have won $40, and I finally figured out that I pressed "Place" but in tiny letters beneath, it says "to lose" — and the Place bet button is where the Come bets in "real" craps usually are.)

So without taking the above into account, I won $5.73 in my Vegas trip.
If I count only #1, I lost $9.27
If I count only #2, I won $18.73
If I count both #1 and #2, I won $3.73

(Feel free to call me a loser for even thinking about this so much.)
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If you are doing accounting for the IRS, I don't think there is a fat-finger clause in gambling reporting requirements. If you are keeping track for your own edification, I think you really, really, honest to goodness, intended to place a big bet on Saudi Arabia to win over Argentina.

I can't follow your explanations. You're overcomplicating things.

If you bet money on this trip, it counts as a wager, win or lose.

I used to agonize over things like that. How do I classify the $500 in free play I won? Did I win $500 or did I win the $360 cash it turned into? I used to get a lot of match plays and would keep those winning separate from others. I came to the conclusion it was all mental masturbation, and all that mattered was money in and money out.
Life is too short was my final conclusion. Yours may vary.

Quote: TigerWu

I can't follow your explanations. You're overcomplicating things.

If you bet money on this trip, it counts as a wager, win or lose.
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I do tend to overcomplicate things.

The summary:
#1 The bet was a gift rather than a wager that I would make on my own.

#2 Based on intentions, I won that bet, and by coincidence I can say that I did make money on it as long as I list my other bet as a loser.

If you placed real money on an event and either won or lost, then I think it is correct to put the net profit or loss into your spreadsheet. Yes I've bet on the wrong thing (the horse I bet on in the Welsh Grand National actually won!) and, especially at table games, have occasionally been paid when I should have lost. Essentially count money out, money in and enter the difference.

Where it is a free bet, freeroll poker, or whatever, I think you should enter the net profit. If it is an enhanced odds type of thing, then I treat it as a regular bet (e.g. one lucky bet/day where BJ wins pay 2/1). I don't include free gifts, e.g. visit eight times to get a free microwave, unless they are cash.

I probably wouldn't include raffle tickets, online competititons, etc. but would include lotteries if the prizes were cash.

Wouldn't a bet on a side of a soccer match be a loss if the game was a draw?

Yes a draw would mean bets for the home team and bets for the away team would both lose.

In the UK most bets would be for the 90 minutes (plus any additional/added time but NOT extra time). So in a Cup/knockout match the default would be "90 mins", but sometimes such as in the FACup, there might be an "overall winner" bet.

On betting sheets, these are typically called "1" "2" and "X" for Home, Away and Draw; these are A4 sheets with all the matches for the weekend, thus allowing multiples etc. You can see one at https://wizardofodds.com/blog/gambling-united-kingdom/ .

Quote: DRich

Wouldn't a bet on a side of a soccer match be a loss if the game was a draw?
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Pay attention! It was a loss! He just isn’t sure if he should count it as a loss because it was some sort of gift to his wife. Or something like that.

But to answer your question…. the books I use have three distinctly different ways to bet.

First type is ‘three way’. Either bet on team A, team B, or a tie.

Second type is ‘tie no bet’. Bet on team A and if there is a tie there is no action.

They also have ‘two way’, where you win if your team ties or wins.

Of course the odds are significantly different depending on which.

Certain offers require me to bet a certain amount to qualify for something. I picked the favorite using the second type bet when it is allowed. Luckily only bet I had on the Argentina/Saudi Arabia game was over 2.5 goals.

Back to the trip. It’s not over! If Uruguay wins the WC you have to rethink everything!

I decided to count #1 as a loss and #2 as a win, based on intentions. If I had won the bet, I probably would have counted it in the spreadsheet, despite it being a gift to the Mrs. And I'll count the craps mistakes because of what I intended to bet, the bets even out monetarily, and I'll count the previous win as a loss.

It's like Avengers: Endgame — the plan works because they *intended* to return the Infinity Stones after the time heist!

So I won $3.73 on my Vegas trip! Yay!

And I count free play when I win because it's money from the casino — as stated earlier: money in, money out.