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[robot_god]

Ever since I went to a casino night with my parents when I was like... six... I thought gambling was the coolest thing in the world.  Now I realize it is exactly the third coolest thing in the world, which is still very good.

It's kind of interesting how some people have a serious aversion to gambling for seemingly no reason, while other people who do not even have addictive personalities are drawn to the addiction like a magnet.

Table games, sports betting, slot machines, lottery.  Knockout pools, pick 'em pools.  Can't get enough of that shit.  Poker used to be the hip game for real men until it blew up into some lowlife fratboy shit.  I probably played poker for a million hours before it was ever on TV.  When it was cool.  Dice games used to be big in the hood.

A friend of mine got into some real serious debt.  Shit is crazy.

[Doc]

I never got into debt with it but when I used to go clubbing more regularly there was rarely a night that didn't involve the casino. I used to love roulette, I think it was the illusion that all the probabilities were completely transparent unlike, say, blackjack where you couldn't know where they are in a deck etc. I was just thinking about this the other day actually, but student me can't afford to lose money the way working me could.

[AugustWest]

I guess I'm what you'd call a social gambler.

My parents used to take us to the racetrack when I was a kid, probably starting when I was 7 or 8.  I'd make a few $2 bets.  I still go to the race once a year or so.   I've been to a few casinos, but that whole scene doesn't do much for me.  I'm not sports savvy enough to be a serious sports bettor with a bookie and all, but I participate in office pools and such.

I think if I took a fancy to it I could become a good poker player.  Card playing is in my blood and I figure if I can become a decent bridge player than I ought to be able to do ok at poker.  But I need another hobby like I need another hole in my head...

[Carlos del Vaca]

I'm a gambler, but I'm definitely a low roller.  I like craps and blackjack, but I like $2 tables ($5 if that's all you can get).  I had a poker thing going for a while, but haven't been playing much lately.

Last month in Vegas, I watched a dude at Aria playing craps at $10K a pass.  He was on the main casino floor, but at a roped-off table with no minimum posted, just "Reserved."  (If you have to ask, you can't afford to play here!)  Just him and the four-man crew.  I didn't recognize the white chips with red and blue edging, and had to go to another table to figure out those were $5K each, and he was putting two at a time on the pass line.  And he did NOT appear to be doing well, in the time I watched him.

I lost $200 that trip, which is pretty much fine by me.

[jay-ell]

I made extra cash in college by occasionally dealing blackjack for corporate parties and charity events, which was fun, but honestly I like watching other people gamble (even with fake money) much more than I like doing it myself.

Except that one frat party. All half-dressed floozies spilling beer from paper cups on my table felt, all getting hit on by popped-collar douchebags while their girlfriends weren't looking. No offense to anyone who was in a frat, this was no high-class establishment like the one A-Cap undoubtedly belonged to. I'm talking about every negative stereotype about fraternity houses all rolled into one big drunken clusterfuck.

So yeah, I have the addictive personality in other areas of life, but gambling has just never appealed to me the way other games do. I think I'm too much of a cheapskate to enjoy the prospect of potentially losing money.

[CortJstr]

For many years my parents went to Vegas every year. I've only been twice, for my 21st and 30th birthdays. I'm a craps man. I like that the odds bet is the only true odds bet you can make in a casino, I like that most people don't understand the rules, I like that it's the only game where you don't tip the dealers directly, and I like how everybody at the table gets excited together even if only 1 or 2 people actually won money on that throw simply because the rest of us didn't lose.

But yeah, $3/5 tables all the way.

[Carlos del Vaca]

and I like how everybody at the table gets excited together

This is a fun aspect of craps.  By and large everyone plays the pass line, so if you make a point, everyone is your friend.  I have never high-fived total strangers more often than at the craps table.

[greenkoolayd]

i lost $40.00 at hollywood casino in hershey.  thats enough for me.  forever.

[littlefallsmets]

When I got the bread to lose, I enjoy blackjack. The illusion of math being on my side.

I put a buck or two on the lotto when I think of it. Every time I'm in a new state, I try to collect a losing lottery ticket from that state.

That's about it. I'm a low roller at best.

[Choop]

five-buck single-shoe blackjack for me. i don't count cards, but i can keep track through a shuffle if there have been more high cards or low cards dealt. usually i come out close to even.

slots, though... i don't care for slots so much. it's too damned random, but for some reason, the only times i've won in vegas have been at slots. a couple times they've paid for the trip there.

but i will not go to a casino outside vegas ever again. every other casino i've been to has sent me busted quick and without even a decent cocktail.

[jaydub]

Hate is probably too strong a word for the way I feel about gambling.  Strongly apathetic?  Anytime I'm in a situation where all there is to do is "go to casinos" I spend all my time thinking about the other stuff I could be doing.  Like folding laundry, sleeping, drinking beers in a hot tub - whatever.  Even worse if the people I'm with are into the one-armed bandits.  The images of the faces of the people I've seen there, woodenly feeding dollar after dollar into the machines & slapping the buttons on the cabinet (not even yanking the old-timey lever) - mix of desperation, boredom, and hope on their faces...it makes me think of the rats in addiction studies banging on the lever to pump more cocaine into their systems.

The main exception to the above is playing poker with buddies.  That's usually a good time, assuming there's no douche friend-of-a-friend along who's convinced he's the next big thing in the World Series of Poker or whatever.  All criticising my inept shuffling, "They'd shoot you in Vegas for dealing like that."  Whatever, dude.

[Choop]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbmkdD1rwGM

[littlefallsmets]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v1JEz3GvHI

[side_show]

I've always hated gambling.  My grandma was a gambling addict and a boy/friend when I was in knucklehead times had a mom who gambled away his and his twin bro's entire university fund.  I see plenty of destitute people who's money would be much better spent on basic needs gambling, and I hate it all the more.  I call it "a tax on people's dreams."

I spent too long not having cash.  It's hard for me to be cavalier about the dockets.

[pmcd9]

I'm with Jaydub.  Gambling in a casino, to me, is tedious and boring.  I enjoy playing poker with some friends around the kitchen table, quarter ante.  Even that is only mildly amusing and is way more about being with friends and having drinks and conversation than the card game.  We could just as easily be having a game of scrabble or putting together a puzzle, whatever.  I'm always up for that, I should invite some friends over, it's been awhile.

But gambling in a casino, I'll pass.  Ha ha, get it.