Do you like to gamble?
 

<iframe width="676" height="380" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vjPAYAsyRVs" title="&quot;Big Time Pool&quot; #shorts #movie #cinema" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

If you're in Lousiville tomorrow, you might want to buy a seat. T Rex (Tony Chohan) is a one pocket specialist, but I'll go with the run out Russian (Fedor Gorst) because of his amazing shot making skills.

https://gorstchohan.com/

Nope. I'm pretty sure that in the last 53 years, I've spent less than $20 on "gambling".
I've bought 2-3 lottery tickets (always at the request of a girlfriend). I spent $6 at Jai Alai in Tampa once. I've never bet on horses or dogs. I think I took <$5 to a buddy's place when I was in my twenties and a bunch of us played cards. That's it.
When I invest, I choose low cost index funds. That's probably as close as I get to gambling.

Doesn't do anything for me. I've gambled some money and knew it was gone before I started.

Other gambles, yes. Buying things.

Way back in 1978 or so, my brother and I decided last minute to go to Reno for Hot August nights. Since we were late going, we couldn't get a room in Reno, so headed south to find a place to stay. We ended up in Virginia City if I recall, and stayed at the Traveler's lodge. In the room we found vouchers for 'free' money at the local casino's so we decided to go play with that money. Got down to our last $3 of 'free' money and were playing the $1 slots right in front of the front doors to the last casino on our list. Hit a $100 jackpot and hooted 'n hollered so loud the poker table behind us all stopped playing wondering what all the commotion was about. That more than paid for our trip.

Never understood the appeal, but it's fascinating to watch people who like gambling, gamble. Something in the DNA or their upbringing, I suppose.

I prefer to lose my money on a sure thing ;)!

Went into a casino on a music cruise once .... bored as hell after just a few minutes.

Went to a dog track with buddies in Fl once ... had 20 Large riding on ten races... that's bucks.

Used to play penny-poker (with coins) ... with buddies .... a few times. Big pot could buy a 12-pack.... back when beer was cheap.

We used to bet on Backgammon in the dorms back in college .... nickle a chip.

I think I've purchased 5 lotto tickets .... if that.

It's not in my DNA :)

I've never been remotely attracted to gambling in any form. We have about three casinos on reservations within ten to twenty five minutes driving time. We go mostly to the nearest one to eat in some of the restaurants once in a while, but they are mostly fairly crowded. I like to see the contrast between the people in the commercials for the casinos and the people you actually see sitting around at the machines and tables. I haven't been to one casino where those people in the commercials are.

Horse racing yes. I'm from a horse racing family.

Card games no.

Casino. Not really, I'm one of the few people who have made money at Sky City casino LOL so I don't to be in the negatives by gambling there again.

If playing the share market is gambling - yes.

The repeated failure and frustration leads to a dopamine high as the body tries to heal.
The higher the stakes, the greater the high.
New earnings are just more chances to get that feeling back.

Boy, isn't that the truth! Indian casinos sponsor big pool tournaments here. It is something to walk past all the slot machines to get to a big room full of 100 pool tables..

Anyway, those playing the slots definitely not the young and attractive people in the TV ads. Nope..mostly seniors (They bring 'em in by the busloads) paying for the sins of their ancestors. Sure doesn't look like fun to me.

Gambling is an inherent part of pool. Probably why casinos host many tournaments...hoping the players head to the casino tables with their winnings. More than a few players are gambling addicted. Not many of the top level players are, though. When they play for money, it's usually backers money at risk, not their own.

I love to watch the top players, appreciate the almost unbelievable skill they have developed. I've never placed a bet...I did back my honorary nephew once, he panting to match up with a top Portland player. This guy insisted on playing for $50 per set, 2 sets, race to 9, 9 ball. After watching some fun pool for two sets, I paid for half the table time. Yep, it was a draw...each winning one set, with my honorary nephew winning one more game than the other guy. My honorary nephew was walking on air when we left the place. The guy he'd broken even with was Portland's #1...

It's all a pecking order thing. Either Cochan or Gorst would shoot the liver out of both my honorary nephew & this other guy.

Guess my point is...when top pool players match up with money at stake, it's not gambling...it's a true contest of skill. It's not hustling when both players are aware of the skill level of their opponent. The gambling is for the backers and those who make side bets.

Anyone driving East on I-15 into Vegas NV and seeing the giant casinos should take note and turn around. Those places were not built on winning gamblers. I freaking hate gambling, my only experience was in the 80's, put 4 quarters in a slot machine and lost them. Looked around at all the detritus sitting in front of slots and gaming tables and made a mental note to never again repeat that mistake.

Additionally LV has tried to appeal to families the last 20 or so years past. A total dirtbag place once you get past the glitz. First time in my life I turned away a glass of wine, family trip with young kids in the big pools, on our way to a BB tournament, a very short pour at double the cost of a similar glass of wine in Del Mar CA.

Sucker bet all day long.

Las Vegas is all about the possibilities of a good time. The gambling is secondary to most people.
Drive your Porsche into the valet, Get dressed up, put on your bling, eat awesome food @ a place like Binions, see some great entertainment (got my Billy Idol tickets), go dancing and get lucky in more ways than one multiple times "all night long" :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqAvFx3NxUM

Only two of you know all the sordid details and you never talk about it till your there again.
What goes on the road stays on the road. Vegas baby!!

I gamble every morning on the MI Lotto gamesite.
Spin to Win is ok...but I have never won anything.
I play the Mega Bucks for $7 a pull...it's fun.
If I win anything...I quit playing.
If I don't win....I quit.

only with my life. I'm currently way up so while I've had ups and downs, it's been a fantastic ride so far. Not for everyone.

Every time I date someone new.....

Only on cars

I always thought gambling was stupid. Done it twice.

First time was on my honeymoon at Tahoe. Wife likes to gamble, and felt bad because I was reading the paper, instead of gambling. Happy wife, happy life, so I gamble until she is ready to leave. Won a few grand, paid for our trip

Second time was in Vegas. Guy I was working for switched our tickets for a conference in Chicago for Vegas. I was just kind of hanging out. Had a drink and wander around. He is at the crap table, wants me to hang out with him. Apparently, you need to have a bet on the table to roll the dice, or you did at this place anyway, could not tell you where, Bellagio maybe. He is trying to get me into gambling, so he puts a minimum bet out there for me, and I am "the shooter" in the parlance of the game. I make about ten rolls before I make my point without throwing craps, which has people excited. The dice get passed around the table, and you go until you lose, pretty much, as the guy with the dice. I am on one side of the croupier, and the guy on the other side of him hit about a dozen rolls before he craps out, so people are getting excited. The dice come back to me, and people start throwing chips on the table, because they think I am going to do the same thing I did the first time I get the dice. Turns out, that well, and a little bit better. Dice get to the guy on the other side of the croupier, hits his dozen rolls, it comes back to me, and I do it again. This went on for like an hour and a half. Then some guy showed up and started betting DON'T PASS and the table went cold. No idea how much that guy I worked for won, but he was laughing when he gave me a couple grand in chips. That POS embezzled money from me, so he tosses me a couple thousand, he probably made 50 or better.


Pretty sure I am the luckiest person on the planet, and it has nothing to do with the gambling stuff.

Kids I grew up with starting to play poker at some coworkers place in their 20s every weekend, then the Vegas trips started. I would go with them for the fun of going and shooting the breeze but only to discovered that they don't talk much at the casinos because concentration was needed. Not nearly as much fun as hanging out in one of their homes. I would throw a hundred bucks or two playing black jacks but I work too hard for my money to donate to their big buildings and plus, I am cheap so I stop after a hundred or two. I don't see the thrill or fun in it? These guys has great jobs, and were single at the time, so dropping a few thousand there was not uncommon but I shake my head. Thankfully they all outgrew it eventually or the get rich scheme just did not working out they realized. I still go to Vegas when I need to drive through the 15 and beyond. I like the cheap but very nice hotels, restaurants are plenty and pretty good. Spend the night and keep driving the next day is about as close to gambling as I get. Oh, we like the shows (kids like the magic shows).

Every few years, I drop 15-20 bucks on the lottery to see if my lucky day to get the new Turbo S. Not yet but it will come soon enough:D

I have a few times - played slots and 21. I get bored with it. You can burn allot of money gambling and yet it is big business. I find it amazing this vice went from a sin to a common place in main street America. I also find it comical when I see or listen to casino and sports book commercials is ended by " got a gambling problem call 1-800- XXXX"

I won a poker tournament in Vegas once.

First and last time I’ll ever play poker.

I was in Vegas about 14 or 15 years ago with 2 university buddies. One guy really wanted to enter a poker tournament, I did not mainly because I had no idea how to play.

Like was stated above, I went in with the mindset that whatever the buy in was would be my donation to the house… I agreed to a $40 buy in at O’Sheas.

The game started with 2 tables of 8. Once each table was down to 4 players, the tables merged. One buddy was out, the other was still in as was I.

There was one ‘shark’ there - if you could call him that. It was at O’Sheas and it was a $40 buy in.

He was systematically going around the table and forcing guys to go all in and he’d take them out. He tried this with me once but whatever my hand was, it was better than his.

By the time the tables merged, almost everyone that was in the game stuck around to watch. The people from my table definitely wanted to see how this would play out as many were knocked out by the ‘shark of the $40 table’…

In the end, it was down to him and me. The dealer said that we could split the winnings if we wanted or play another round. It was 2:00 or so in the morning so I said I was game… the ‘shark’ said he wanted the practice so we played one more round… I made him go all in (I had more chips than he did) and whatever my hand was was way better than his. About 10 people were standing around watching this and all cheered.

I think my winnings were about $360…

The last time I played poker, I won a tournament in Vegas. I’m not sure how but it’s the god honest truth.

I don't remember gambling at all growing up...maybe a "numbers runner" on a bad detective show but that was it in my little world.

College was an eye-opener. I knew guys that were in for hundreds, maybe thousands (think late '70's!) to a freaking bookie because gambling was illegal in California at the time except for "Non-banked card games in cardrooms". I had to look it up.

As some comedian said, if you are late night betting the over on obscure college teams you haven't heard of to "get well", you aren't.

^^^ LOL .... I bet "the shark" wasn't wearing draggin' azz jeans either.

..... better to be lucky rather than good.

Mo' better to be both ;)

I was never exposed to it growing up. Like the opera or the ballet, just not in my world.

As a freshly minted adult and out on my own I had some friends that were really into poker. I played some low limit poker games and the occasional wins were not enough to make me think I could do that and come out ahead.

As a kid my great uncle was in my eyes a million years old. He was a former card trick performer, riverboat gambler and professional poker player. He taught my brother and I to never play a card game with a person in the game as the dealer. I watched as he let me shuffle the deck, and he shuffled it a few times and dealt out hands. He then he told us what hands he had dealt us. All good hands that most people would assume were winning hands, but his were always just a little better. He said cheating is too easy with cards and a human dealer.

^A good card mechanic is sorta like a top pool player...amazing skill development. Casinos don't have to cheat...the odds are in their favor.

Ron Madaio said something when he was here that will always stick with me. New York wisdom:
"Gambling is a business, Paul. If you're not in the business, it's best to stay away."

I went to Reno for my 21st birthday with a buddy who said he had a sure fire system. As a result, I lost every dime I had, and received a long & broke drive home as a birthday present. It was an expensive lesson at the time, but a valuable lesson that stuck well.

Like I said, I don't bet on pool games...just love to watch, admiring the skill..there's many layers to the game, something many don't understand.

Something that I'd like to point out before this and any of my subsequent posts. I don't think that everyone that places a bet on a pool game or a sports game or that buys a lottery ticket is a gambling addict any more than I think that everyone that has ever had a drop of alcohol is an alcoholic. There are extremes, and in between the extremes are infinite degrees. The folks at or near the extreme end of drinking too much, smoking too much, gambling too much, doing drugs too much are addicts. There are folks that can drink, smoke, gamble, or do drugs that are not addicts and do those things for whatever reason. And there are folks that probably don't do those things at all.

Back in 2001 when the doc-com bubble burst, I got laid off. While looking for another IT job, I took what I could get. I was getting unemployment, and found a job making cash. The place had been a shopping center with 2 huge stores. One of the big stores hosted bingo in the morning and the other hosted bingo in the evening. In between the two bingo halls was a small room that probably held 20 electronic slot machines. I worked in that game room. In Texas gambling is not (was not) legal so those sorts of game rooms got around that by giving "prizes". THe prizes were usually vouchers for credit to play bingo, but occasionally, they would bring in gift cards to target. After the night time bingo session, people would come play the games. I gave them free sodas and snacks, and many would chain smoke cigarettes and play. It was not surprising for people to spend $100-200 or more trying to win $150. The worst that I ever witnessed was when one of the regulars came in to play one of the new "high roller" machines (10¢/roll - $300 jackpot) in the morning. She played all day trying to win $300. I think in the end she ended up spending $1500-2000 trying to win $300 and didn't. She left and someone won pretty shortly after. Because she was a regular, I think the owner ended up giving her a pretty hefty cash refund. Even after that I don't think I saw her for a month or two. Most of the folks that came in and played weren't, I don't think, terribly well off. It was interesting at first, but eventually got depressing. It wasn't quite as depressing as watching the alcoholics when I was a bartender, but it was close.

I suspect it's always been pretty common. In the past it was hidden better. I don't think the sin part has changed. I also don't think that the addicts have changed.

I think the addiction part is basically the same as almost any addict. I think addicts are mostly genetically predisposed to being addicted. I suspect it's got something to do with their biochemistry. And in some cases, there may be psychological reasons, but probably 98% is biochemistry. That goes for alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, etc....

I think substance abuse addicts often replace alcohol/whatever with caffeine and/or cigarettes or something else. I'm sure there are things that gambling addicts do in place of gambling.

Some folks get one shot at something and are hooked. Other folks can try everything under the sun a couple of times and that's it with a "meh, did nothing for me" sort of attitude.

Wow, super interesting.

^^^^ Spot on with that "addictive gene" thing....

Other than this place .... I got lucky :D

Many people drive over to Las Vegas in a $25,000 car and come home on a $250,000 bus.

The convenience store I used to go get my beer at also sold lottery tickets. Over the years, I would be in there getting another 6 pack, and see many regulars buying lottery tickets and scratch off tickets. I would ask several if they had any luck yet, and they always said not today, but maybe tomorrow. It is just a tax on math impaired people. I have yet to spend one cent on lottery tickets as I now how to do math and have a basic understanding of odd.

Lottery tickets...considering the odds, the best way to look at it is that you're buying a fantasy...the "what if I won million$?" fantasy. At my age, that could ruin my generally happy life. I've often wondered if somebody gave an uncollected winning ticket to a legit charity like tunnels to towers if it would shaft the fed & state tax collectors?

Scratch-offs...funny tale. Cindy once won $100 worth of scratch offs in a radio contest. After scratching them all, $23 in winnings. Turning them in, she was asked if she wanted more tickets.
She took the cash, saying if she did that she'd only have $5...

I've said before, I don't buy lottery tickets. In the last 50+ years, I've maybe purchased 5 tickets, and each time it was at the request of a girlfriend. In each case $2 was little enough that I didn't mind doing it that time all things considered (I knew it wasn't going to be a regular thing).

If you want to play the lottery, my recommendation would be to play the games that don't pay much, like $5k, $10k and that sort of thing. The odds are much, much better of winning not only something, but also the jackpot. Even after I discovered that, I still don't buy them, but if I was going to, it would probably be those. I'd rather have a small chance at winning $5k than an astronomical chance of winning $4mil.

I'm a lotto player. Probably the worst lotto player ever. But around here it's quite a well run organisation that spends wisely on charity. So with my constant losses I'm giving to charity with, as Paul says, the fantasy of winning big.

Have at it. I don't have anything against folks that buy lottery tickets. It doesn't do anything positive for me so I don't do it. And I believe that just like there are folks that can have a drink with a meal or a drink or two from time to time to relax or in social settings that are not alcoholics, I also believe that there are folks that can place a bet here and there or buy a lottery ticket that are not gambling addicts.

I don't want anyone to take what I said wrong. THings aren't binary, but there are extremes and infinite degrees in between.

Some of my reluctance to gamble is I know my "luck" is terrible.

I have attend Porsche Parade for the last 21 years. At every single banquet they have door prizes for all people that bought meal tickets. In 21 years and many many meals I have never heard my name called. Some people have won two sets of tires, and win something almost every year. Not me, so far my record is perfect.

Was at an Indian Casino (is there any other kind?) that was having a concert we wanted to see.........wife and I each pulled out a dollar at the penny slots. "See who can lose it the quickest" was a statement heard...........2nd pull, I get mega-bonus $368 payout. Which is exactly what I did, cash out.

Winner!

Sorry...but it's supposed to be ..Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
As loud as you can shout it. :)

I know what you mean Steve. I've been at the shops and seen people who are obviously poor, checking hundreds of dollars worth of lotto tickets :eek:

These people are on a losing streak and should know when to stop.

I was in an Indian Casino a few years back and one of my friends pulled a $200? winner on a slot machine. Before the machine re-set...I took a pic with my phone.

There were two guys that escorted me out...'no pics taken in the Casino'

I have a very good friend who has been married for around 25 years. He once confided in me that after he married his wife, he found out she had a "gambling problem." He had built his house and owned it outright before the marriage. Turned out his wife owed gambling debt. He had to take out a mortgage on his house to pay off the debt. He insisted she get help, which she did. I know they still had a balance on the mortgage as recent as two years ago.

^^^ Pics of said wife would help with our opinion. :D