I`ve never understood the attraction. I`ve been to Vegas when I was younger and enjoy the horseraces every great now and then but always conservative with how I threw my money away. Probably lost less than a grand over all our trips the past 40 years. I have several relatives that only take vacations where there is a casino of some type. Oklahoma and Cruises out of Galveston come to mind. I even quit elk hunting with one cousin because him and his friends that were in our hunting party started going to the Casinos in NM between hunts. My dad was always shooting dice or play dominoes for $$ when I was a kid and losing $$$ he didn`t have to lose. I`m glad I didn`t pick it up from him. It`s funny that everyone always tells you about the times they won big, but never the times they lost.

I’m not a gambler either, but the wife loves slot machines. Her family loved to gamble, though not with serious money, and the MiL always said that she won. Well, statistically, that’s not possible, so it took me years to understand what she meant. She was meaning that she won at various times on the slots, and occasionally hundreds of dollars. She didn’t take any money home, so she didn’t win in a way that I would consider a win. She just won a few times, getting the adrenaline rush, and than putting the money back in the machine.

Oldest daughter used to work for a casino in Shreveport. They had meetings to discuss where to set the odds on the electronic slot machines. If they were losing customers to a nearby casino, they’d loosen up their odds a bit and advertise they had the best odds. The daughter was often tasked with going to the nearby casinos and gambling with company money so they could see what the competition’s odds were. She didn’t get to keep any money if she won, and she said that any buzz she ever got from gambling was gone forever.

They always think "I'll win on the "next" hand"..

My Grandfather was a huge gambler, it was his entertainment hobby. He also had the money to loose. My mom can play penny slots for hours and have a blast.

Ive had some fun times and had some big pay outs but now my kids and hunting budgets take precedence.

Gambling to me is like vacation. You are going to pay for the vacation, even a”free vacation costs”, if you dont have the money dont go on vacation. You dont go on vacation and think vacation is going to pay for its self, some times you might get a surprise , but the minute you depend on a surprise is when you need to go home or dont go.

I'll pull a handle once in awhile but that's about it. I've worked to hard for it and not gonna p*ss it away.
Stop and think with a $.50 annie on each hand of blackjack the house is making $2.50 per hand at each table (5players). They didn't build those places with their money.

Don't know how the casinos stay in business. Everyone I know always 'won enough to pay for the trip'.

If and when I gamble, I go in with a certain dollar amount. I will play and if I win (almost never) or I lose (which happens 99.99% of the time) I pickup and go do something else. I'm through gambling that trip.

The house always wins...enough said.

My wife likes the slots so we go to Louisiana 2-3 times a year. Not big gamblers ration off 250 dollars a day to lose. Usually stay 2 nights. So 1000 between us. What we do different is when you hit 40.00 dollars or more you cash out. And put the ticket up until it’s time to leave. So we always bring money back. Sometimes less sometime more. Not for everyone but it works for us.

The casinos are for suckers who generally know that the odds are that they are going to lose. And the big money is made on the slots.

Blackjack should be ok for a guy who can calculate the odds. However, in Oklahoma (tribal games) you pay extra per hand to the house. There goes the odds again.

I was in Las Vegas last month. Hadn’t been there in about 50 years and wife wanted to play the slots. I gave them $50 and quit.

They don’t build those places to just provide entertainment.

Those that have an addictive personality are addicted to the rush of winning. It has probably been over 10 years since I've been to a casino, but there was a time when I would go a couple of times a year. I was often times lucky enough to walk away while I was up, so I won often. I thought I was smart enough to walk away at the right time, but, I eventually figured out that I was just lucky enough to pick the right time to walk away. It's too easy to go from being up to having to dig back into your pocket for more cash. Nowadays, the only gambling that I do is an annual poker game with some buddies at a $20 buy in. We'll usually play 2 rounds, so the most I'll lose is 40 bucks. And it's not about winning then, it's about hanging out with the guys.

Worked with a great guy with a VERY addictive personality. He got in DEEP with some loan sharks. It got pretty scary for him. He was an alcoholic too.

I agree with Mr. Angus, I'm too tight with my money. Hate losing it. I pick and choose, like when I put $10 for cold bore shot which I always lose

Tonight, is Left. Right, Center. I have won a couple pots but mostly lose my $9 ante.

My mother in laws best friend has lost everything several times. She and her husband both worked in casino's. They aren't close anymore because of it and my MIL loves to gamble. she just knows when to quit.

Waiting for blk to show up and tell us how he was the inspiration for the movie “ Rounders”

BWHAHAHAHAHA

and the 1965 Rounders with Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda

That is always curious to hear.

I don't gamble but I've known many who did.
It's the adrenaline rush, in hunter's terms - buck fever.
To a degenerate gambler winning or losing doesn't matter much, it's the adrenaline and they get that either way.

Adrenaline drives a lot of addictions.

That MArk Wahlberg movie..............The Gambler I think, great movie

I've interviewed several bank robbers who said they started because they needed the money but after a while it was all about the juice they felt from hitting a bank.

Not enough juice for the squeeze if they get caught.

lol

I know an old black guy that told me a story about gambling. He was in the group of the first marines that went into Vietnam but he got a hardship discharge when his father died so he came home. He moved out to Los Angeles and was working security at an illegal gambling facility until the mob showed up one day and killed his boss because his boss had been skimming. He moved back to Houston and then started selling dope for decades. He said that there is no drug he has ever seen that is as addictive as gambling is to people and considering how he lived his life I believed him. In case y'all are wondering what I'm doing hanging around an 80 year old ex-con I'll tell you, I go catfish fishing with him occasionally.

My mom gambles quite a bit. She's slowed down some since she retired but goes to Vegas 3 or 4 times a year and Lake Charles about once a month. She does pretty well. She gets free flights, rooms and playing money for Vegas, Biloxi and Atlantas all the time. She used to get two free loaner Mercedes a year before she retired and stopped playing as much. Hell, she got married in Vegas on 7/7/7 and has a triple 7 tattoo on her leg.

I was in the commercial construction business for 31 years. That was enough of a gamble for me.