What Is ‘Chasing Losses’ In Sports Betting?
Chasing losses is a behavior commonly associated with sports betting addiction, where a person continues to gamble with the aim of recovering money lost in previous bets.
No time frame defines chasing losses. Some people try to recover losses immediately, while other gamblers might delay their loss-chasing.
Some gamblers refer to loss-chasing as “getting out of the hole.”
While a bettor may initially be successful in recovering lost money, it’s almost always a matter of time before more money is lost. That’s because the mindset beyond loss-chasing is toxic and dangerous.
Chasing losses is also common because betting apps are addictive by design.
How many online sports bettors chase losses? It’s a huge number. According to a 2024 survey from Siena College and St. Bonaventure University, 53% of all online sports bettors and 61% of online sports bettors aged 18-34 have chased losses. The risky behavior is more prevalent among younger gamblers who may have less experience regulating emotions while betting.
This article will cover what you need to know about losing an inability to stop or control your gambling in an effort to chase losses.
How People Chase Sports Betting Losses
Gambling for higher stakes: Increasing the size of your wagers, despite the financial consequences, to win back your money
Gambling for longer & more frequently: Usually in tandem with betting bigger is gambling more often and for longer durations.
Changing Bet Types: Not all sports bets will bleed you dry at the same speed. For example, a sports bettor on a bad run of spread bets might start making long-shot parlays wagers (which have a higher house edge) to win back money.
Switching Sportsbook: Gamblers are often superstitious, so they might believe that one sports betting app is unlucky for them. This could lead to the mistaken belief that using a different book will increase their chances of winning money back.
Gambler’s Fallacy in Loss-Chasing
The gambler’s fallacy is essentially that you can be “due” for a win after experiencing more losses than you would expect on average.
An example is flipping a coin five times and getting heads each time. While this is unlikely, it’s certainly possible. The five consecutive heads results do not impact the odds of the next coin toss. It’s still 50-50 for heads or tails.
However, the gambler’s fallacy is that tails is due after so many heads results in a row. This faulty logic can provide the impetus to continue gambling to win back lost sums of money.
You are never due for a big win, but sometimes you do get very lucky. Let’s now discuss why winning big can actually lead to loss-chasing for many gamblers.
The Danger of a Big Win
It’s also incredibly difficult to walk away from gambling after initially winning big. The big win can play tricks on your mind.
For example, let’s say you win a long-shot sports bet and profit $1,000. You continue gambling and give half of the winnings back ($500). The euphoria of the big win is gone, and it now feels like you lost $500. In reality, you’re still up $500.
You should never gamble for more money than you feel comfortable losing. That’s obvious. But what’s also dangerous is that winning an amount that you feel improves your life. When you continue to gamble and give some or all of it back to the sportsbook, you could feel extreme negative feelings.
Compounding Losses
It’s never too late to quit gambling. Chasing losses can soon deplete your bank account or prevent you from fulfilling financial obligations.
For many problem gamblers, gambling losses have virtually no limit, as debt or theft could help finance more gambling. The most extreme gambling addiction stories often involve embezzlement or other financial crime to fund a gambling habit.
Many people addicted to sports betting won’t turn to crime, but it’s important to stress that chasing losses can put you on a path to rock bottom.
What to Do About Chasing Loses
Identifying the behavior of loss-chasing is the first step to correcting the problem and beginning life after gambling. It’s never too late to quit and seek professional help or the community of Gambler’s Anonymous.
The sportsbooks might give you so-called “strategies” or “tools” to reduce loss-chasing, such as “cooling-off periods” or self-imposed “deposit limits.” They don’t work for nearly everyone suffering from problem gambling, and they’re often as worthless as the vague and victim-blaming message of “responsible gambling.”
Furthermore, the sportsbook might tell you to set a vague “budget” for gambling.
Bottom line: Don’t look to the sportsbooks for help when you’ve gone down the dangerous path of trying desperately to win back what you lost.
Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay.