Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Gambling thus requires three elements be present: consideration, chance and prize. Typically, the outcome of the wager is evident within a short period. The term
gaming in this context typically refers to instances in which the activity has been specifically permitted by law. The two words are not mutually exclusive;
i.e., a “gaming” company offers “gambling” activities to the public and may be regulated by one of many gaming control boards, for example, the Nevada Gaming Control Board. However, this distinction is not universally observed in the English-speaking world. For instance, in the UK, the regulator of gambling activities is called the Gambling Commission. The word
gaming is used more frequently since the rise of computer games to describe activities that do not necessarily involve wagering, especially online gaming, with the new usage still not having displaced the old usage as the primary definition in common dictionaries.