Let your lady do the handicapping

An interesting article from Bloomberg News states that women, in general, have more success with gambling than men. So, I suppose, all of you should seek out advice from your wives, girlfriends, and mistresses. And peakplayers will be increasing the male to female ratio on our panel.

Female touch a winner in gaming
By Jonathan TironeBloomberg News
Published July 11, 2007

High-stakes women gamblers who use the Internet to wager on games win more often than men, according to a Harvard Medical School study.The results of the 40,499-person study "favor women as exhibiting more effective sports gambling behavior than men," wrote Medford, Mass.-based author Richard LaBrie and his team of researchers. The study results, to be published later this year by Berlin-based Axel Springer, were released in late June.

Women wager higher stakes with more intensity than men. According to the study's sample, women risked an average 15 euros ($20.17) per wager and bet 15 percent more often than men in a defined time period. Men, who made up almost 92 percent of the study's sample, wagered an average 11 euros per bet.The study used data from Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, an Austrian online bookmaker. The conclusions are based on eight months of gambling patterns observed in 2005.The survey's biggest bettors were 50 percent less likely to lose than smaller players, according to the 16-page report, titled "Assessing the Playing Field: A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Internet Sports Gambling Behavior."

People who wagered a median 44 euros per bet lost 9 percent of the time, while people who wagered 1 euro per bet lost 18 percent of the time."Individuals who made larger wagers lost proportionately less than individuals who made smaller wagers," the researchers said. "These players place extreme amounts of money at risk, but extreme losses did not moderate their play."The study, which received funding from Bwin, cast doubt on assertions that online gaming is addictive."The findings reported here do not support the speculation that Internet gambling has an inherent propensity to encourage excessive gambling among a large group of players," the report said.The authors recommend further study to test whether Internet gamblers fail to "meet other obligations."