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not casino gambling, but back when "day trading" was a thing, I knew a guy (Mensa member) who retired early with a bunch of money, then did day trading til it was gone. Guess he wasn't as smart as he thought he was.
not casino gambling, but back when "day trading" was a thing, I knew a guy (Mensa member) who retired early with a bunch of money, then did day trading til it was gone. Guess he wasn't as smart as he thought he was.
I'm a Mensa member (I had a good day in 1980 when I took the tests), but I never got involved with the Mensa Investment Club SIG (Special Interest Group). It's just as well; their performance greatly lagged the S&P 500 over 15 years: +2.5% vs +15.3% annual returns.
I also never got involved with the Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) hedge fund, not associated with Mensa, but created with the help of 2 Nobel Prize-winning economists. Billions were lost. The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing recounts these tales, along with The Beardstown Ladies investment club saga.
I stick to the S&P 500 Index Fund, along with the Ohio Municipal Bond Index Fund (quadruple tax-exempt in Ohio). So no, I don't believe in experts.
When I joined Mensa, I dreamed of someday joining the Rich-M SIG: limited to those whose net worth is in the top 2%. Alas, now that I am close to or meeting that criteria, the Rich-M SIG no longer exists. There's no way my income was ever in the top 2%, so I would have had to settle for a brace instead of a hat trick.
I had a friend who had a gambling addiction. No matter where she said we were going somehow we always ended up at a casino. A couple times of that and I didn't accept invitations with her anymore.
When I had spent what little I cared to spend I wandered around asking people whether they were "up" or "down." The casino must have been giving money away that day. Everyone I asked was "up."
Her life became a daily scramble to drum up gambling money and launder it to keep her expenses hidden. The lies and schemes were crazy and I didn't want to be a part of it.
I thought it was bad, but as is usual with addictions, an observer is usually only seeing the tip of the iceberg. Within about four years they had declared bankruptcy.
not casino gambling, but back when "day trading" was a thing, I knew a guy (Mensa member) who retired early with a bunch of money, then did day trading til it was gone. Guess he wasn't as smart as he thought he was.
Yes, I had a friend who lost her entire 401(k). Her and her husband signed up for very expensive seminars on day trading. I think they spent about $20,000 on them. Probably similar to all those real estate “get rich flipping houses†seminars they advertise on the radio. Once they spent that money, not only did they feel like they knew what they were doing, they felt obligated to do it. However her husband was not out of control but my friend has an addictive personality and that became another addiction.
She started doing it more secretly and spending more money than he was aware of. For a time, she had the statements sent to my house so he wouldn’t see them.
I really don’t think it’s a matter of just not being as smart as they think they are, I think it’s a very addictive type of activity. The more she lost, the more desperately she felt she had to try to make it back, exactly as gamblers in the casino do.
I used to work in Atlantic City casinos. There is actually a voluntary list people would place themselves on who had gambling problems. If you were on the list, they didn’t let you into the casino. I think it was in partnership with Gamblers Anonymous, and the casinos were required by the Casino Control Commission to adhere to it. But that’s how helpless they felt to control their addiction. I feel sorry for gambling addicts today, because it is so so easy to just impulsively open an app on your phone and gamble now.
1) Friend of a family friend had a patent on something that was paying out crazy royalties. He was older and lived a very average lifestyle (condo, honda, etc). Apparently he would just gamble away his royalties every year which were hundreds of thousands.
2) Friends uncle married a woman who was a professional gambler and did pretty good. Was making $50k a year doing it.. until he found out she was almost $200k in debt from the losses she never mentioned
3) Was friends with a guy who drove the hour to Atlantic City. While waiting for his friends to show up he decided to throw $5 into one of the slot machines by the door. He hit for almost $3,000 he cashed out and went home. Only way to make money in a casino.
1) Friend of a family friend had a patent on something that was paying out crazy royalties. He was older and lived a very average lifestyle (condo, honda, etc). Apparently he would just gamble away his royalties every year which were hundreds of thousands.
2) Friend's uncle married a woman who was a professional gambler and did pretty good. Was making $50k a year doing it.. until he found out she was almost $200k in debt from the losses she never mentioned.
The casinos know who their high-rollers (aka big losers) are and they really pamper them- special game rooms for high-stakes gamblers, palatial suite in the hotel, free meals at the best casino restaurants, best seats at the shows, etc. Even back in the 1980s in NJ I remember a neighbor in our condo complex being dropped off at her place by a limo with the name of one of the big casinos on it. I'm sure a lot of people get addicted to that VIP treatment.
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3) Was friends with a guy who drove the hour to Atlantic City. While waiting for his friends to show up he decided to throw $5 into one of the slot machines by the door. He hit for almost $3,000 he cashed out and went home. Only way to make money in a casino.
I used to work with a canny old guy who went to a meeting of the Casualty Actuarial Society in the Catskills- would have to have been in the 1960s or so. He kept watching the roulette wheel and realized that the ball was landing on one side more often than the other. He began making bets, slowly building up to a few $$ hundred in winnings. After awhile the pit boss showed up and hovered nearby. My coworker quit and took his money with him. They immediately closed the roulette wheel down.
I had a friend who loved to gamble. $100s in scratch offs and lottery tickets every week. Loved to go to Vegas (even got married there) and used to take those gambling booze cruises off the shore of Long Island. She once won 10K on one of those booze cruises, which of course just encouraged her to continue gambling away.
She once told me that she was convinced that she was going to win the lottery someday.
He kept watching the roulette wheel and realized that the ball was landing on one side more often than the other. He began making bets, slowly building up to a few $$ hundred in winnings. After awhile the pit boss showed up and hovered nearby. My coworker quit and took his money with him. They immediately closed the roulette wheel down.
Unless the wheel was defective, he got very lucky. That is the reason they have added the displays that show the last ~20 spins. Someone will see that Red has hit four times in a row, so they bet on Black. Unfortunately, they don't remember that "The ball doesn't remember where it has been".
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