Online Weight Loss Betting

New weight loss betting sites seem to be popping up with every passing month, which shouldn’t be all that surprising once you realize that there’s solid science to back this concept. Unlike traditional gambling sites, weight loss betting services are pretty much one-time affairs – after all, once you drop the extra pounds, you probably wouldn’t want to put them back on again. Consequently, those sites offer no bonuses or promotions to attract their customers – instead, they allow you to add a major financial and social incentive to your dietary efforts. In the end, even if you don’t manage to win money over your weight loss wager, you’ll still end up getting healthier and more physically fit.

How to Bet on Weight Loss

Most weight loss betting sites give you the choice between finding a diet game or starting your own. Each game requires you to specify the percentage of your starting weight that you want to shed, as well as the buy-in amount that contributes to the overall prize pool. Once the game takes off, you’ll have a pre-determined number of days to accomplish your goal, which creates a healthy rivalry between all the participants of the game.

In order to prevent fraud, each site will require you to submit a photo that proves your official starting weight, as well as a photo that verifies your weight after the contest is over. The photos are reviewed by the site’s staff and are kept private by default, so you won’t have to worry about keeping your wager to yourself. After the game ends and the results are made official, the prize pool is usually split between the winners, which means that the more ambitious your weight loss project is, the more money you are likely to earn.

Why Does It Work?

The latest weight loss studies published by the Journal of the American Medical Association indicate that people who have no financial incentive are about five times less likely to actually succeed in shedding weight than people who actually stand to lose money by failing to reach their target. Weight loss wagers provide the dieters with a powerful double incentive, as failing to reach the desired weight results in losing their cash deposits, while achieving their goals allows them to earn rather lucrative prizes.

Furthermore, weight loss wagers introduce the elements of competition and encouragement, which is another factor that contributes to the higher success rate when compared with individual diets. According to a recent Harvard study, social networks are very important when it comes to preventing obesity, as they affect a person’s tolerance for overweight. All in all, weight loss sites combine the power of social dieting with real cash rewards and a safe gaming environment, which makes them an excellent choice for people who struggle with finding enough motivation to drop their weight on their own.

How do Weight Loss Betting Sites Earn Money?

Weight loss betting services tend to earn their money, cover their expenses and stay profitable by claiming a chunk of each prize pool before the payouts are split between the winners, which means that the players that don’t win aren’t required to pay any fees. The specific size of this cut usually depends on the size of the initial bet or the buy-in required to join a weight loss game.

The tiniest bets tend to be least rewarding, as the fee may get as high as 25%. On the other hand, massive wagers of $500 and more usually involve a small fee of 10% or even less. Keep in mind that while most winners double their initial deposits, it is possible for the entire group to win. In such a case, each player would lose money despite accomplishing his goal, so it’s important to look for a site that operates a “no loss” policy and guarantees that it’ll forfeit its cut in games with a high percentage of dieters who reached their target.

Is This Legal?

The services offered by most weight loss betting sites simply fail to meet most definitions of gambling, which makes them perfectly legal pretty much all over the world. In the United States, gambling is defined as risking something of value upon the outcome of a game of chance or a future contingent event behind the sphere of your influence. It would be nearly impossible to argue that shedding your weight isn’t under your control – and if that wasn’t enough, the outcome of the game doesn’t actually depend on the amount of progress that other people make, as every person that manages to reach the goal is declared a winner.

Making a Deposit and Cashing Out

Weight loss betting sites tend to offer a limited amount of banking options, particularly when compared with online casinos, sportsbooks or poker rooms. In most cases, you’ll be able to fund your on-site account by using a credit card like Visa, AmEx or MasterCard or an e-wallet service like PayPal, which makes the entire process very easy and quick. In addition, some sites allow you to split the largest wagers into several monthly payments, which means that weight loss betting will never feel like a serious financial burden.

Finally, it is worth pointing out that many sites have rather strict limits when it comes to sizing your bets – in most cases, the minimum amount you can bet is $10, while the maximum is $100 for public games. However, if create a private game, the limit can be raised to $1,000. If you’d like to go for a game with even larger buy-ins, most sites will require you to contact the support staff first.

As briefly touched on above, weight loss betting isn’t considered gambling in the United States, which means that making a deposit or withdrawing your money via PayPal is perfectly possible even despite the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Withdrawals on the other hand are almost always handled via an e-wallet payment or a traditional bank wire transfer, which makes them absolutely free and lightning-fast.