Not really blaming the lottery for anything. Just pointing out how, once again, people (not only in CA, either) were duped into expecting a positive outcome from all this, and then wound up with the short end of the stick. Politics as usual, I guess...

When a politician is faced with a decision to cut a program that is popular with their base but unpopular with their opposition, or education, they will always chose to cut education? Why? Because it creates a problem that they can "solve" (never mind that they caused it in the first place). They can always dupe voters into raising taxes to support education, but cutting their marginally popular pet program might kill it forever. Even better, they can repeat the process over and over, and no one ever pays attention to all of the pet programs whose funding will never be threatened.

Now that this zombie thread is back, I'm curious what became of Mr. And Mrs. neighbor? Perhaps WD can tell us?

I wondered why this popped up again after all these years. Yes, that's a blatant ad. Can't get away from advertising these days. Every media source seems to be 50% ads and 50% content AT BEST.

As to my neighbors, he went to Australia in late 2019 for a few months (he used to live there). He got on the last plane out of Australia in March 2020. He quarantined in his house and she lived with us for 3 weeks. She was a great house guest, a truly smart, funny woman. She had been the county prosecutor for 15 years and I'll tell you she had some stories to tell!
She died in her sleep of a heart attack in March 2021. He goes back to Australia during the winter. I don't know about his gambling anymore, I stay away from that subject. I don't recall him saying anything about going to the casino for over a year.

Closed, soon to be deleted...maybe.

Edit: I was supposed to be mowing now, but we had a passing rain shower...so I have a few minutes:)

Actually an interesting thread. I removed some posts and will re-open...WD I will take your direction and act accordingly.

Since I posted on this thread 4 years ago I learned that my single older female neighbor was a gambler. She lost her house to foreclosure. She worked on a contract for a hospital after retiring from same and made good money, but she had too much time on her hands and money. She was divorced way back and had a long term relationship with a man that sometimes stayed there and sometimes not. He seemed to have some means as well, but they didn't ever get in the car together until he became too ill to take care of himself. A year or so of that and she threw him out to be taken care of by his own children.

Yes, she was a pain and I tangled with her many times over late night noise. She would be hosing down her driveway at 11pm right next to our bedroom window. Eventually I decided that she fit the profile of a neurotic. After the sale, a company came in to refurbish the house. Rats everywhere.

She was from another country west of us, he was another race from the U.S. I guess it's OK to mention that because her language barrier was significant even though she had a high paying job. She never even walked out of the door w/o being dressed and made up to the 9's. Wore stylish tinted glasses (about half dark) full time. Coal black dyed hair well past 77 when she left. She lost her car but somehow ended up with the one she owned before that one.

The day I moved here 26 years ago she was parked in front of my house driving her boyfriend's (some said they were married) 450 SL. I parked in front of it and she came running out yelling that I parked too close. That's when she learned that for 25 years we were going to be adverse neighbors. I'm just glad she's gone. Heartless beotch.

I don't think these comments will be cause for sanctioning. It's just that addicted gamblers are not normal but I think sometimes hard to spot. But when you do, the signs that have been there make sense.

I guess it's one of those things yuou'd not expect from people. We have some good friends, great people. A few years ago, the man told me about his wife's addiction to gambling. He found out after they married. It was bad enough he had to take out a mortgage on the house (paid off and owned before marriage) to settle the debt. It has since been settled and I guess they've moved on. We have lots of reservation cosinos around here. Once I recommended a restaurant in one of them, but he told me they'd never enter one ever more.

Well, I'm west of you and somewhat north.
As to what to do with the thread, I don't care. No one involved on my end is going to ever read this and one of them is dead. So use your best judgement.

A little levity to an otherwise sad topic:

My 10-year-old was watching a kid show. One character commented to the other that maybe he had a gambling problem. My 10-year-old chirped, "It's not a problem if you're winning!"

I think there is a gambling pandemic among younger folks that Draft Kings etc cater to. Hit a little close to home recently.
I think these app based platforms are very very dangerous.

I agree Greg.
Way too much advertising for it during sporting events now IMO.
I'm afraid a lot of young people are going to learn the hard way.

Gambling on sports got two friends of mine in deep financial trouble with their "bookie" in college...this was a long, long time ago and I can only imagine how pervasive betting on sports is now.

Casinos? They don't build them to lose money.

I agree. How did this ever become legal in the first place? How ironic that the endless TV ads for on-line gambling all have tiny print at the bottom (probably a requirement) offering help for those with gambling problems. This just adds yet another new segment for the growing and very lucrative 'Addiction Recovery' industry to go after.

$100 says he winds up divorced.

The last time I played poker, I won a poker tournament in Vegas.

That is the god's honest truth.

It was also the first time I played poker. I was there with 2 friends who insisted that we enter a poker tournament. I told them I would watch them play but couldnt play because I didnt know how or what the cards were or anything.

It was a $40 buy in at O'Sheas. Eventually, the 2 tables of 8 that started merged into one table of 16. One of my friends was out at this point. There was this ameture shark at our table that would systematically gt the guy with the least amount of chips to go all in and he would take them out. He tried this with me once bt I had a better hand... no ****** idea what is was.

In the end, it was about 2AM, it was just me and the ameture shark. Almost everyone stuck around to watch becasue they couldnt believe what ws happening. The dealer offered that we could make a gentlemen's deal because we were both 'in the money'. I siad that would be fine but 'buddy' wanted to continue. I had more chips than he did so I forced him to go all in. Apparently, he had a great hand... Mine was better - apparently legendary. I have no idea what cards I had.

Buddy couldnt read me.. I had no idea what I was doing.

But I won and I will never play poker again becasue the last time I played, I won a tournament in Vegas... $350 or whatever.

I wish I knew how to earn through betting but I don't. Iused to bet on sports via https://www.bettingpoint9.com and made some cash on it but it was more because of curiosity and mostly for fun. I understood pretty fast that it wasn't the right way to make money daily. Moreover, I could lose much more than I win. I consider myself as a non-gambling person. Or maybe I just didn't hook up and left it on time.

The last time I played poker in Vegas, I got thrown out of Harrah's poker room.

That is the god's honest truth.

We were playing Texas Hold Em at a table with about 5 people. My friend was pretty drunk and kept throwing sling bets. He got warned a couple of times. Finally the pit boss came over and told us both we had to leave. I was totally innocent! Just a victim of circumstance!

This friend is the same guy in this story, which I've told here a couple of times. I looked it up:

"My friend and I were in New York and had closed a business deal that was going to do very well by us and we were feeling pretty good about things. We took our morning run in Central Park and went looking or breakfast. Passed Cartier and I was hooked on this watch in the window, but they wouldn't be open until 10:00 AM - another half an hour. The more I thought about it the more I wanted that watch. I was feeling down because I'd been dumped by my girlfriend and was feeling like some retail therapy. We were at the door when they opened at 10:00. I talked to this very prim and proper salesman "Charles" while my friend chatted up the guard - big, big guy. My friend asked if they didn't normally serve champagne to good customers, and Charles sent the guard to get a bottle. We finished it off in about 15 minutes, with my friend laughing and telling me (loudly - right in the middle of Cartier Manhattan), "Buy it! You deserve it. It's prettier than that b&%$# anyway and probably gives better blow jobs." My friend finished the bottle of champagne and slid the empty across the glass counter and said, "Hey Chuck! Ya got any more of this stuff?" I can still hear the screeching of glass on glass as he slid that bottle across. That kind of set the theme for the rest of the day. I bought the watch and we finished the second bottle of Champagne before 11:00. Then we went a couple of doors down to Hugo Boss and had them model dresses for us for about an hour and serve us more champagne. The day got a little crazy after that. We got thrown out of Chef Babbo's and as I recall unsuccessfully hit on some 20 year old Swedish girls at that bar at the top of the Marriot Times Square before we called it a day. Good times.

This would be me:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1716554051.jpg

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Wow, reading your story was truly eye-opening. It reminded me of a time when a close friend struggled with similar issues. We used to enjoy the thrill of betting on sports together, but he got carried away and ended up in a mess like Mr. Neighbor. It's tough to witness someone you care about succumb to addiction.
You know, there's this fantastic casino site, including maxwin303. I've had some great experiences there, keeping things light and within budget. But stories like yours serve as a reminder of the dangers of going overboard.