Poll: Do you gamble? In person or online

[chemEguy]

Who play/gambles on cruise ships? How much does it REALLY cost to get comped cruise cabins?

It’s the only time I’ll play some blackjack. It’s a dopamine hit when you’re winning, but the stress isn’t much fun in the moment.

 

[Fermion]

We joke about the stock market gambling but I just sold 30 GIS June $32.50 calls I bought yesterday for $1.70 for $2.25 today. That is, I made $1650 on a $5100 bet and I did not have to put on pants (I did order the wife a short cocktail dress so we will see how that goes). The dopamine hit is real and now I think I would have to use the black chips in a casino to have fun,

 

[pjigar]

I’m sure you meant that as hyperbole because statistically it certainly isn’t true. Your odds of winning at most casino games, even some of the worst of them, are magnitudes better than actually getting struck by lightening.

I was referring to lifetime odds. If you continue to spend times outdoors till age 80 then you have 1 in about 15000 chance of getting struck by a lightning. If you continue to gamble till 80 with all your winnings then what would be the odds in gambling? Probably close to zero.

 

[DrRoy]

I play online poker for fake chips.

 

[Telly]

I’m sure you meant that as hyperbole because statistically it certainly isn’t true. Your odds of winning at most casino games, even some of the worst of them, are magnitudes better than actually getting struck by lightening.

Maybe he stays inside a lot?

There are a lot of people in my area that sure need to be struck by "lightening". Aww, lighten up, Telly! Naw, I'm fine, my BMI is great.

 

[Dtail]

You're correct that you don't know what cards will come up, but the idea is to change the odds in your favor. Of course, professional dealers spot card counters very quickly.

Many places use 8 decks now, which effectively cancels out most of the card counting.

 

[FIYes]

Lottery…when I was working, someone would always get a pool going when the lottery got high. I would put a dollar or two in the pool (I forget if it was a one or two dollar buyin). It was fun to join the break room chatter of what we would do if we were rich. Since retiring 16 years ago I have not bought a lottery ticket.

Horse racing…I have been a few times over the years. We live near a lovely race track but it has been a few years since I have been to a race. However, we go to the track early in the morning when it is not racing season and watch the horses exercise. We then eat an excellent cheap breakfast at the track kitchen. I prefer this to the races because it is not crowded.

Casinos…not interest at all.

Stocks…my 401k is conservatively invested and includes mutual funds. I also have mutual funds in my taxable account. Individual stocks….i have what I have always considered a “play” account for individual stocks. Now I know money is fungible and logically I shouldn’t consider this money as different. I also have some buy and hold stocks from when my investment club disbanded. Lately I’ve realized my play account has grown well beyond play status. Even in this account I don’t do a huge amount of trading since it is a taxable account. I do like to sell enough shares of an individual stock to recover my initial investment and let the rest ride. Example, when Oracle got over $200 I sold shares to recover all the money I had put in it since my per share cost basis was $17. I have Microsoft with a $39 per share cost basis. I also make mistakes, I bought KVUE right before the announcement linking ibuprofen in pregnancy to autism. I sold Tesla way too soon at a break even point. I kept a very few shares that I later sold at a ridiculously good profit.

 

[disneysteve]

I play online poker for fake chips.

I also play some online games for fake chips. And our brains being the way they are, I get the same dopamine hit from winning a big jackpot there that I do from winning one in real life with actual dollars.

At the real online casino I use, they also allow table bets as low as 10¢ on some games so when I feel like gambling with real money, I can sign in and play blackjack for 10¢ a hand and a few dollars can last ages. I'll never win much but won't lose much either and it's still fun.

 

[PaulR888]

What you say is true. However, having known someone that threw away literally all of their money (and more by going into debt) at casinos, I would have to add that I have never seen someone go broke in such a spectacular fashion on these other entertainment options. To this day they maintain that if they just bet the proper amounts in the right machines, they could win. After seeing that, I have no desire to even wager a dollar on anything.

When I was younger I gambled, especially horse races. The whole thing fascinated me, especially their illustration of an efficient market. Over time the favorites in races win the greatest number of times, the second favorites win the second greatest amount of times all the way down the longest shot winning the least amount of times. Unfortunately due to the combined track and government take of ~17% to 20% before the pools are distributed to the winners, one cannot make a profit using this information.

Regarding the first paragraph, if I see someone driving 100 mph into a tree, I don't give up driving. My statement assumed intelligence and moderate behavior and I admit that is a big assumption. Ah but the horse racing. I have fond memories going to the track with my uncle. And also with one of my teachers in graduate business school. He was an operations research PhD and wrote books on applications to wagering and gambling. I can take a $100 wagering budget back then just like today and have a blast. Much easier today as back then minimum exacta bet was $5. Today it is $1 with even some $.50 bets.

 

[Out of Steam]

I was referring to lifetime odds. If you continue to spend times outdoors till age 80 then you have 1 in about 15000 chance of getting struck by a lightning.

I've been within 50 feet of a lightning strike twice in my life, one of those times in my living room. Maybe a lightning strike isn't a good representation of something extremely unlikely.

 

[AudiDudi]

I play online poker for fake chips.

Likewise - my original $25k play chips is now over $30mil.

 

[disneysteve]

Likewise - my original $25k play chips is now over $30mil.

That’s nothing. I’ve currently got $17 sextillion on the slot game I play.

 

[Winemaker]

No, per se. I'll get an occaisonal lottery ticket when the jackpots are large. In my wishful thinking, if we won, we'd have the proceeds pay the taxes for a massive Roth conversion, and give the rest away.

I made the "bestest" of al time bets when I asked a pretty school teacher with a 2 year old child, going through a messy divorce with her "practice" husband. We've been married almost 43 years, and have "won" many happy years together and have taken those "winnings" and built an extensive family and more than comfortable life. I truly used all my luck with that jackpot!

 

[PaulR888]

We were there in mid January, right after the CES had wrapped up, which is a huge event in Vegas. So it was kind of a slower time. During the week, the strip was active enough as were the casinos, but once Friday night rolled around and especially Saturday, it was packed everywhere. They certainly didn't seem to be hurting from what I saw.

Glad to read this. I own a triple net lease REIT that is mostly Las Vegas real estate ... VICI.

 

[Koolau]

I’m sure you meant that as hyperbole because statistically it certainly isn’t true. Your odds of winning at most casino games, even some of the worst of them, are magnitudes better than actually getting struck by lightening.

I'm sure that's true on any given game or bet. Maybe even any given trek to the casinos.

BUT for a life-time, you're gonna lose if you play often enough. It's just the odds and you can't beat the odds if you play long enough. Otherwise, casinos would go out of business.

 

[Car-Guy]

I'm sure that's true on any given game or bet. Maybe even any given trek to the casinos.

BUT for a life-time, you're gonna lose if you play often enough. It's just the odds and you can't beat the odds if you play long enough. Otherwise, casinos would go out of business.

This is why "most" casinos have a maximum bet policy. Even if you have really deep pockets and get on a real hot streak, with max bets you can't hurt them much. Max bets may be waived for real high rolling whales, but there ain't many of them, except in the movies.

 

[Sunset]

On line gambling is not an intelligent past time. It is designed like social media to lure you in. It has been the downfall of many a retiree. See the AARP magazine this month.

I just read the AARP bulletin (newspaper) about gambling online, totally amazing how they have developed it to squeeze $$ out of people.
I won't give away details, but definitely worth reading.

 

[Sunset]

Stock market is the biggest gamble of all. So we are all gamblers. Speculators are gamblers.

Life is a gamble... and just like the casinos (real or online), it seems we all end up losing.

 

[Sunset]

It was either 2012 or 2016- we were in Omaha for the Olympic Swim Trials both years- a hotel in nearby Council Bluffs. In order to get into the casino area you had to scan a card. We didn't even bother investigating what was necessary to get one.

The casino in Kansas I went to about 25 yrs ago was like this, had to register before being allowed to play as the machines and tables required a card. It was so they could see when you lost the limit of $250 (probably a State law).

Except I know actuaries who do. When I traveled with my boss to our offices in London and Brussels, he always searched for the nearest casinos. The UK required pre-registration and I went with home for that. Beautiful place, chandeliers, something out of a James Bond movie. He was informed of the dress code which included "no denim of any description".

This was what I was expecting when I went to the casino in Kansas as it was my first time in a casino. Instead it seemed ordinary or drab and extremely sad to see a bunch of old people hunched over the slot machines, smoking and looking desperate to win as they feed the machines. They didn't look like they were having fun.

 

[disneysteve]

On line gambling is not an intelligent past time.

Do you never do anything in life just for fun?

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

Do you never do anything in life just for fun?

I agree with your point.

And I try to accomplish that every day of my life.

 

[Cerys]

When I lived in California, we had donut shops. And you could go into the donut shop get a doughnut, and then get a lottery ticket.

We don't have donut shops in Pennsylvania where I moved to. We have bakeries, they don't sell lottery tickets. I could probably find them other places but that was my habit and if I can't get a doughnut what's the point. I love donuts. I also love how talk to text spells it both ways. I will look up and see if we actually do have donut shops, the only one I actually knew of they tore down the other day so...

Our casinos here also do not have entertainment. When I lived in California if we went to a casino it was to see an act of some sort whether it's musical, or comedy. Here the only thing to do in a casino is eat and gamble, and the one that's closest to me somehow got away with allowing smoking which is absolutely disgusting, so no. I have no need to go to a casino.

My other thing is if I'm going to a casino, I'm gonna play slots. And if I'm gonna play slots, I want an old-fashioned one armed bandit. I want the one that you put the money into and you reach up and you pull that lever, not stick your credit card in and push a button. I want that old Vegas experience.

And they're getting rid of those so that's another why bother...

We do have horse racing here, don't care for it.

 

[disneysteve]

When I lived in California, we had donut shops. And you could go into the donut shop get a doughnut, and then get a lottery ticket.

We don't have donut shops in Pennsylvania where I moved to. We have bakeries, they don't sell lottery tickets. I could probably find them other places but that was my habit and if I can't get a doughnut what's the point. I love donuts. I also love how talk to text spells it both ways. I will look up and see if we actually do have donut shops, the only one I actually knew of they tore down the other day so...

Our casinos here also do not have entertainment. When I lived in California if we went to a casino it was to see an act of some sort whether it's musical, or comedy. Here the only thing to do in a casino is eat and gamble, and the one that's closest to me somehow got away with allowing smoking which is absolutely disgusting, so no. I have no need to go to a casino.

My other thing is if I'm going to a casino, I'm gonna play slots. And if I'm gonna play slots, I want an old-fashioned one armed bandit. I want the one that you put the money into and you reach up and you pull that lever, not stick your credit card in and push a button. I want that old Vegas experience.

And they're getting rid of those so that's another why bother...

I’m curious where in PA doesn’t have donut shops or casinos with entertainment. In the Philly area there are tons of donut shops and the casinos definitely have entertainment venues.

As for coin operated slot machines, those have been gone for probably 15-20 years.

 

[MarieIG]

I voted for the occasional lotto ticket and "other." The "other" may be explained by looking at my play money brokerage account.

 

[Cerys]

When I lived in California, we had donut shops. And you could go into the donut shop get a doughnut, and then get a lottery ticket.

We don't have donut shops in Pennsylvania where I moved to. We bakeries they don't sell lottery tickets. I could probably find them other places but that was my habit and if I can't get a doughnut what's the point. I love donuts. I also love how talk to text spells it both ways. I will look up and see if we actually do have donut shops the only one I actually knew of they tore down the other day so...

Our casinos here also do not have entertainment. When I lived in California if we went to a casino it was to see an act of some sort whether it's musical, or comedy. Here the only thing to do in a casino is eat and gamble, and the one that's closest to me somehow got away with allowing smoking which is absolutely disgusting, so no. I have no need to go to a casino.

My other thing is if I'm going to a casino, I'm gonna play slots. And if I'm gonna play slots, I want an old-fashioned one armed bandit. I want the one that you put the money into and you reach up and you pull that lever, not stick your credit card in and push a button. I want that old Vegas experience.

And they're getting rid of those so that's another why bother...

We do have horse racing here, don't care for it.

I’m curious where in PA doesn’t have donut shops or casinos with entertainment. In the Philly area there are tons of donut shops and the casinos definitely have entertainment venues.

As for coin operated slot machines, those have been gone for probably 15-20 years.

Pittsburgh. Rivers maybe once a year has a concert. And strictly donut shops that maybe serve hot sandwiches at lunch -- not really here. People go to bakeries. We do have Dunkin', but they actually don't make donuts there anymore they get them frozen and fill them and they're disgusting. The coffee may be OK, but I want a donut with it. In fact most people I know go to Dunkin for the coffee and not for the food.

There are a couple of donut shops that do this weird thing where they make a doughnut and then they fill it and ice it in front of you. But your filling choices are raspberry jelly or Bavarian cream not the ubiquitous Pennsylvania white cream filling. And they tend to be not that good.

Yeah, I know Pittsburgh is weird. I lived in California for 38 years and I chose to move back to weird and I'm very happy.