Gambling Stories Ireland
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Gambling is big business and is becoming almost a part of everyday life in Ireland. The market is estimated at around €1.1 billion per year.Sixty-five million euros of this is thought to come from casinos or private members clubs; a whopping €134 million from gaming machines; €8 million euros from bingo; €310 million from lotteries; and €315 million from land-based betting. Gambling addiction is a common issue in Ireland. If you or someone in your life is affected by and seeking help for a gambling addiction, there are places you can turn to for support. It is possible to live a life without gambling.
A lot can be said about gambling and the Irish, considering “the luck o’ the Irish” – after all the expression had to come from somewhere!
Here’s a look at the characteristic gambling luck of the Irish, some popular gambling folklore from that side of the pond and just where it all comes from – and, of course, whether any of it is useful to you when you gamble.
The Two Gamblers and the Fairies
We found this tale in the book Irish Tales of Fairies and the Ghost World.
The story starts when two gamblers run into each other during their travels; deciding two heads are better than one, they form a gambling pair. Soon, one of them has a dream that there’s gold to be found – and of course, the two men go looking. Unfortunately, they find nothing.
Some time later, one of the gamblers sets out to look for the gold again – instead, he finds and follows a group of fairies. There, he finds a coffin and carries it home. When they open it up, they find a sleeping woman. The fairies later tell the two men that there’s only one way to revive the woman – and of course, they do.
The woman asks one of the gamblers to carry a letter to her parents. Once they get over the shock, they offer him her daughter’s hand in marriage – but soon “thought the man too small” according to this account, until he shows them his winnings. Still, they turn back home – until the daughter says, “He is the right man to be my husband.”
Inexplicably, the gamblers split their winnings between the two of them – one gets the girl, and one doesn’t. Both get money. We’re not sure what to learn from this story.
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The Hellfire Club’s Cloven Hoof
Like many legends, there are several ways to tell this story. The original story takes place at the Hellfire Club in the Dublin Mountains – a notorious club and the subject of more legends than we could list here. The story tells of a card game between a group of people: when one of the players drops a card – some versions say the Ace of Spades, of course – he spots a cloven hoof under the table.
Versions of this story can be found on Hellfire Club Dublin and the BBC– or you can take a ghost tour in Dublin to see the location of the game for yourself.
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Gambling in Ireland
Just how big is gambling in Ireland? Well, it’s estimated that as much as 40% of adult Ireland will have gambled at some point in their lives – and that’s just talking about the national lottery.
When compared to international statistics, approximately 80% of the USA admits they have gambled in their life, while 2016 statistics say that about 64% of Americans admitted they gambled on something or other in the past year.
The UK measures in with 48% of people saying they gambled in the past month.
The Irish land right in the middle there – gambling to more or less than the rest of us. So what about that luck?
The Gambler McCabe
If you dig a little deeper into old Irish tales, there’s the story of Gambler McCabe – also known as An Cearrbhach Mac Cába. It’s hard to find a translation that does the story justice, and the best link is the untranslated one.
Simply, it’s a story of a gambler who runs into Death – and, of course, decides to make a wager against his own life. McCabe wishes for life until a candle burns down; Death gives him what he asks for, and McCabe extinguishes the flame – meaning that the candle will never burn down.
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It’s not the only trick he pulls on Death – and it’s not the only version of the Faustian deal that has echoes of Robert Johnson mixed with a really bad bet.
The Four-Leaf Clover
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According to Irish Hedgerows, wearing a badger’s tooth is considered good luck for card games. There are a thousand-and-one other things that you can do for luck, but when it comes to Irish tales, nothing is more famed than the four-leaf clover.
If you have one, the luck only sticks for as long as the clover remains with you – and one more thing: You’re not allowed to tell anyone you have it.
Do you know the difference between a four-leaf clover and a shamrock?
The shamrock, national symbol of Ireland, a is actually a three-leaf clover. Also considered excellent for gambling luck.
It also makes a nice tea, though a little sour.
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Fats fact: did you know that by plucking four-leaf clovers, people have helped to thin out the pool of clovers – making them even more of a rarity? If you happen to find a clover, the luckiest thing might just be to leave it to grow right where you found it.
Irish stories don’t begin and end with the end of the rainbow. They are definitely next level when it comes to stories about gambling, luck and gold. But where in the end, does the term ‘luck ‘o the Irish’ come from? Turns out it’s an old minor’s saying from the Americas. According to Edward T. O’Donnell, an Associate Professor of History at Holy Cross College and author of 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish American History, “During the gold and silver rush years in the second half of the 19th century, a number of the most famous and successful miners were of Irish and Irish American birth … Over time this association of the Irish with mining fortunes led to the expression ‘luck of the Irish.'”
Sounds like a bit ‘o hard work, rather than luck!
The aim of this spread trading guide is to give you a method of earning money that I and thousands of other people in Ireland and in the UK use.
With a history that now dates back to almost 40 years, spread trading is increasingly becoming more mainstream. In the last ten years the spread betting markets has exploded, but even more so in the last five years. There are a number of reasons for that, notably the introduction of broadband and mobile phones, as well as huge volatility in the markets post 2008.
However, I have no intentions of giving you a history lesson, telling you all of the ins and outs of the stock markets or telling you how to use all of the functions of a spread betting firm. I trade indices and stocks with these methods. If you wish to apply these methods to trading Commodities, Forex Pairs, Stocks, House prices or a million and one other things, please do so. It will work for anything, but you have to know the area that you are going to trade in.
What I am trying to convey is that I do not trade in anything else, and therefore I cannot comment on anything else. It is up to you to watch and learn about anything else that you wish to apply this knowledge to.
I am going to give you the knowledge that you will need to make money spread betting.
Introduction to Spread Betting
Spread betting or spread trading as it is commonly referred to in Ireland offers a tax-free and efficient way of trading the price movements of thousands of financial markets including indices, shares, forex pairs, commodities and more.
Financial spread betting may at first seem dauntingly complex but this can’t be further from the truth and has a number of advantages for traders and investors who want to access the financial markets in a cost-efficient way. In fact there’s no comparison to be made between dealing with traditional Irish stock brokers like Goodbody Stockbrokers, Davy, BCP or Merrion Capital and dealing with a spread betting provider! Who are the recommended Irish spread betting firms? Marketspeads? Deltaindex? IG Index? CMC Markets?
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However, even before considering creating an account, make sure that you fully understand the risks and possible rewards. First and foremost, in the UK and Ireland financial spread betting is tax free, with no capital gains tax or stamp duty to worry about. But not only that, spread trading also allows you to take advantage of both rising and falling markets. Conventionally, stock investors would liquidate their positions stay out of the stock market when it was falling. They had little other choice then since they would probably have ended losing money had they stayed invested.
Spread betting allows you to open a ‘short’ trade, meaning you would make money if the price goes down. It doesn’t matter if you are new to spread betting, or if you have already tried it and are looking for ways to improve your performance. This spread betting guide contains information for the absolute beginner, and has much to help the experienced better, too.
This guide takes you step-by-step through the process of spread betting, comparing it with other methods of making money from trading, then introduces you to the techniques that you will want to learn in order to decide what bets to place. Finally, before you go wild, there are sections on how to manage your spread betting account, limiting your betting to what you can really afford so that you can continue to profit in the long-term.
“It’s because long only is a dangerous place to be in an uncertain world. It is because you get heavily taxed on pretty much every financial gain you make.”
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Note that nothing in this guide constitutes personal advice or provides any guarantee of profit. Best practices are explained, and it is up to you to apply them consistently to have the best chance of success. Good luck!