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Gambling to me is not exciting enough for me to lose money on!
Sure I'll buy a couple lottery tickets, never won more than a few hundred. I've played roulette at $100 a spin a few times but the fact of the matter is I can't win enough to change my life so why bother? Biggest win, $3200 net winnings on a trip to Vegas and it started with $100 of my money.
Could I quit my job? Buy a new house? Buy a new car? No.......so while I appreciated the win, I can't see myself attempting to duplicate it every time I drive by a casino.
My system for retaining the "win".....every payout from the dealer gets paid in $100 chips, the rest in smaller chips. The $100 chips never get put back on the table, the smaller chips can be played until they run out and then I leave. So a $770 dollar win would be 7 $100 chips, $70 in playable chips. By the time the chips run out I am usually annoyed by the cigarette smoke I'm ready to bail anyway. Also, NO alcohol while gambling, never seen so many "free drinks" cost people thousands of dollars.
Those big fancy casinos are not built on the winnings of patrons but rather the losses! They don't call Vegas the city of Lost Wages for nothing!
I can't say much because we go to Vegas a couple times a year and spend quite a bit on slots. We don't pay for anything else while there (comped) so it's worth it to us. We work hard so we play hard.
It's like drugs in many respects.....some people can handle the occasional trip to the casino and others just need more and more to feed their addiction. I know some folks, family members, who have lost substantial money gambling in casinos. One in particular lost just about everything and had to re-mortgage a house that had already been paid for. This was someone who, for many years, was exceptionally cheap with his money and never touched credit cards and always had substantial assets (rental income, retirement, pension, etc). He was diagnosed with terminal cancer that lasted about a year before he died and in that year he swindled it all away to the casinos.
In all honesty, when I hear of people who frequent casinos my first thought is always "You're an idiot."
And personally, the few times I've gambled (mostly on slots) the disgust I have with myself walking away having just blown $50 or whatever on a machine FAR outweighs the minor excitement I got from winning a few bucks.
Robert DeNiro's character, Sam Rothstein, said it best in the movie "Casino":
In the casino, the cardinal rule is to keep them playing and to keep them coming back. The longer they play, the more they lose, and in the end, we get it all.
Unfortunately, the people who blow their entire paycheck at the local casino on Friday night, are the ones who need the money the most.
How is this different than any other hobby though?
I know guys that are car nuts and spend every spare cent they can round up on cars. Some people drink it away. Smoking a pack or two a day adds up over the course of a month.
If someone blow entire paycheck and other possessions then it's not a hobby - it's addiction.
For people who occasionally blow small amount of money that not affects their life, yeah, you could say it's a hobby. But the hobby stuff ends the moment when it's get out of control...
I was once leaving the casino, going up the elevator to get to my car. This gentleman I was standing next to on the elevator was practically in tears because he had gambled away his rent money for the entire month.
I was once leaving the casino, going up the elevator to get to my car. This gentleman I was standing next to on the elevator was practically in tears because he had gambled away his rent money for the entire month.
And I'll bet he was back the minute he got some more money in his pocket to "chase it."
I had a friend who gambled on everything, all the time. He would get cut off from one bookie and get a credit line immediately from another. He'd email me a screenshot of his bets so I could follow along at home. The last time was over 30 bets totalling $100k from a credit line he was given that day. The bets ranged from $3000 for a team to win or hit the over/under (which paid roughly even money) to $3000 bets on 2,3,4 and 5-team parlays (which paid $7000-$90,000 each).
They blew the lead and he lost all of the above. He died soon after in a car crash. Right now he's probably sweet talking the devil into letting him back up just for the Super Bowl. I wouldn't bet against him making $10k on the coin toss.
Casinos should be blown up imho.
I live in a country where entrepreneurs are despised ("capitalists"), but Lotto winners are admired and envied. Talk of skewed morals.
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