We're not set up for this

[Sir Spaniard the 12th]

The only time I've ever seriously gambled was when I had turned about 19, and was back in the old town I used to live, and a good friend of mine and I went out. I went in with $20 only to spend on it, deliberately, and came back out with $250. Since then, I've figured why push my luck and just lose money?

[symposes]

a coworker of mine was talking about this one time a guy he knew went into a casino and the FIRST dollar he played hit a $26,000 dollar jackpot.
talk about luck!

[sportsmom]

You know, as cheesy as this sounds, I only play the slots. I suck at cards- doesn't matter what game I'm playing. Plus, with slots you don't have to fraternize with other people- always a bonus

My mom loves the quarter slots. She has a jar that she keep all her quarters in and when it gets full, she figures that it's time to go to the casino.

That is the only money she will play with. When those quarters run out, it's time to go. That's the same reason why she doesn't care for the places that you have to put money on a card. She wants to see the money going in and be able to keep track of it.

[pbmods]

So she purposely blew $100, just to get $16 back?

(rough quoting from memory)

GD - Grease Depot Guy
HS - Homer Simpson
BS - Bart Simpson

GD: "Ok, four pounds of grease. That comes to... carry the five... forty-eight cents."
HS: "Woo-hoo!"
BS: "Dad, it took $20 worth of bacon to get that grease."
HS: "Yes, but your *mom* bought it!"
BS: "And she gets her money from you."
HS: "And I get my money from grease!"

[Dragon_Dreamer]

Anyone else heard about the man who went into a casino the other day, played the slots, and was told he had a jackpot? Three employees verified it, but then a manager came out and told him it was simply a glitch in the system. The casino offered the guy *buffet tickets* instead of the 200k the machine said he'd won.

The man refused, and is taking it to court. How legal is what the casno did?

[ZumZum]

From what I understand the casino in question is on an Indian Reservation, so it isn't governed by state or local law. It does suck, though.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Gambling isn't the big attraction to me when I go to Las Vegas. The buffets and shopping are.

If I gamble, I only play slot machines, and only the penny and nickel machines, and only play $10 or $20 here and there.

I think of gambling as a time killer and nothing more.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Anyone else heard about the man who went into a casino the other day, played the slots, and was told he had a jackpot? Three employees verified it, but then a manager came out and told him it was simply a glitch in the system. The casino offered the guy *buffet tickets* instead of the 200k the machine said he'd won.

The man refused, and is taking it to court. How legal is what the casno did?

If it's an Indian casino, it's probably 100% legal. Indian reservations are considered sovereign nations, and if the casino is located on one it is not bound by local, state and federal regulations.

I have heard other stories of the same thing happening at other casinos. But then again, if that is true, then what's stopping the Indians from saying EVERY jackpot won is the result of a malfunction so they don't have to pay up?

I steer clear of Indian casinos. I've heard the odds at those places are even worse than the casinos in Vegas.

[Lyger]

It still chills me, thinking of this guy losing everything.

That happened to my uncle. He managed to get a little bit of money to help his family once they were broke... and blew it all gambling, trying to earn more with it. Needless to say, my entire family wasn't speaking to him for about two years after that. Even now, nobody even thinks about letting him spend too much at one time.

My dad never blows his entire life savings on gambling, but he still does it from time to time... never manages to win anything though. Conversely, the one time I went to a casino, I came out ahead $88 thanks to a lucky spin at the slots... go figure.

[Anakah]

A few days ago this old woman about eighty years old won 1.7 million dollars on a dollar machine. I was sooo jealous. But good for her :P

For some reason naive little me didn't know they'd give her payments of her own winnings. Once a month she gets about 17-30 thousand dollars. She's unable to get it in one lump sum. That would make me upset.

[Banrion]

A few days ago this old woman about eighty years old won 1.7 million dollars on a dollar machine. I was sooo jealous. But good for her :P

For some reason naive little me didn't know they'd give her payments of her own winnings. Once a month she gets about 17-30 thousand dollars. She's unable to get it in one lump sum. That would make me upset.

Usually they will offer a lump sum, but it is significantly less than the annuity payment. Using the 1.7M annuity, the lump sum payout would probably be somewhere in the ball park of 400-600k. It doesn't usually make sense to take the lump sum since you pay far more in taxes and get alot less money. Heck who wouldn't be happy with a 30k a month payout for the next 20 years?

[Polenicus]

I've never understood the allure of gambling, at least not slots.

Okay, I put my money in the machine, and pull a lever or press a button. Pretty lights, some spinny dealies, they eventually stop...

... And that's it.

There's a rumour going around that if you play enough or just plain get lucky, the machine will spit your money back out at you, plus a bunch of other people's money, but even then its mostly a case f getting back $10 after putting in $50.

Where's the appeal? At least when I put a quarter in an arcade machine I get to play a GAME for 5-10 minutes.

Poker I can see. That's a game against other people, it involves strategy, resource management, luck and manipulation of the perception of others. The money just adds a sense of urgency and importance. It's not so much playing for the big win, it's playing to avoid getting cleaned out. That whole sense of danger thing.

But pure games of chance I've never found anything but frustrating and boring. I suppose I got jaded when I worked for a Lotto corp. That, and I have crummy luck, so I've learned never to rely on it.

[SongsOfDragons]

I went to Monte Carlo last summer. What a DUMP!! It's not all it's cracked up to be and half of it is off-limits to people without a million Euro. We saw one Australian guy lose 40k and immediately bet more on roulette, and the amount of people we saw screaming at the snotty cashiers because they weren't allowed for whatever reason to take their winnings.

[tollbaby]

Usually they will offer a lump sum, but it is significantly less than the annuity payment. Using the 1.7M annuity, the lump sum payout would probably be somewhere in the ball park of 400-600k. It doesn't usually make sense to take the lump sum since you pay far more in taxes and get alot less money. Heck who wouldn't be happy with a 30k a month payout for the next 20 years?

err... someone who's 80 and likely won't LIVE another 80 years? Can she at least bequeath her annuity?

I've never seen the appeal. I was once given a $5 voucher to spend at a racetrack that had slot machines, and I think I spent $1.25 of it before handing the rest of it to someone else because I was bored. My bf likes to gamble (poker's his game), but he always starts with a set amount of money, and leaves as soon as it's gone. I live ... 6 blocks from a casino, and I've never been even slightly tempted to go to it. I might go with the bf next time he comes to town, but other than that, meh.

[Jester]

I never did gamble much, and I actually quit gambling right before I started getting into magic heavily.

Which is a good thing, as really, we (professional magicians) are not very popular in casinos. To wit, if we are gambling, and they find out what we do for a living, they ask us politely to stop gambling. From what I understand, they only ask politely once.

As I had already quit gambling when I entered this profession, it was all good. When I was flown out to Vegas last March for a private show, I enjoyed the hell out of my stay, watching the more entertaining blackjack dealers, being one of the few people in my hotel/casino to pay for my own drinks, and entertaining some locals and bartenders at the bar with magic. And they seemed pretty damn impressed, which that being Vegas, made me feel almost as good as when I absolutely kicked butt at the private show I was there to perform at.

I don't play poker nearly as much as I used to...very few people are willing to invite a magician to their card games. And even if they did, it's a lose-lose proposition for the magician. If you win, they may very well accuse you of using your skills to cheat. If you lose, they will probably gloat that "they beat a magician at cards, ha ha!" So it's not really worth the effort even if they do invite you to sit in. Of course, I have always said the most honest card game ever would be four magicians sitting around playing poker. Who's gonna cheat?