Let's put it this way, we sure are glad we don't live close to a casino! At one time, we'd given it some thought about moving to Las Vegas, than, gave it some more thought and said to each other, "better not, no way". However, whenever we go to an Indian Casino, which has been some five years or so ago, we do see a lot, and I do mean "a lot", of Seniors playing penny slots. Last casino we went to was at Hard Rock in Tampa, Florida. We've both won at casinos. One time I won $500, from playing $20. Another time, my wife won $200, from playing $20 in the front of a casino and I won $200 from playing $20 in the back of the same casino. That was an Indian Casino in Temecula, California in 2000. We spent our Honeymoon in Las Vegas during a major rodeo. I won $200 on a slot at Circus-Circus and we were able to attend that rodeo twice. BTW, my gambling is done on a dollar slot, and, if I haven't won enough after spending $200, I quit.
In 1987 we drove cross country to visit a college buddy of mine. While we were there he asked if we'd ever been to Vegas reminding us how close we were(we were in San Diego). So on the way home we decided to stopping Vegas. We stopped at the CofC and they recommended that we stat at a new condo under developement because it was free if you agreed to listen to a sales pitch the next day. Well we did take the offer than went out to eat and try out our luck. We ended up losing about $20 play nickel and quarter slots. The next morning when we went to hear the sales pitch, we immediately told our rep that we had absolutely no intention of buying. He called his boss over and we were told to get out as fast as we could. So ended out only trip to a casino.
Back in December 2005, wife and I were in Las Vegas, and yes, for a major rodeo. My SIL, wife's sister, doesn't gamble or drink, but was there to see us. We were in New York, New York and I won $80 using $20. I showed my SIL the slip (paper) winnings and she said "how did you do that?". She was truly shocked.
I play a couple of small-jackpot Virginia lotteries on a semi-regular basis, but nothing to excess...maybe $10/week. In fact, I've played less than that since COVID and I'm not out & about as often as I used to be...plus I don't want to mess with the mask to go inside. I spoke in another thread of betting at the horse track, where I'd limit myself to $4 a race, but only made it up there a handful of times (the trip was well over an hour.) And I haven't done that since the 90s. I think I went to a poker game one time at a coworker's house. I have a friend here who won $1,000,000 "after taxes" in the state lottery 5-6 years ago.
I’ve made several trips to Las Vegas and one to Reno. Never won much, a few hundred. It was entertainment. Had more fun at the Indian casinos in New Mexico. Best one, Inn of the Mountain Gods, played golf in the day time, gambled at night. Sometime rode my motorcycle instead of golfing. Fun times. History now.
Never saw the attraction to gambling. I have bought a few raffle tickets and lottery tickets in my life, but I don't even like casinos and I find slot machines a bit silly.
No, I don't care about gambling; I'd rather waste my money at the mall. We used to like to go to a casino campground in Biloxi MS in the RV. My husband plays poker and I enjoy the campground near the beach. (Plus they have kick-ass buffets that we usually get "comped" as well as our campground fees since my husband is a player.)
Yes have placed bets at casino and a race track once. Fun, won and lost, but nothing big. Would not want to live close to track or casino.
Absolutely not! here's the reason. I used to explain this to my math class when I was teaching statistics, and it seemed to work. I explained something to them like the following: Take an example from the real world, and I will use jet planes to show you: Volume capacity of main deck and lower cargo of a 747–8F jet plane is 30,288 cubic feet. A golf ball has a volume of 2.5 cubic inches. (4/3 x pi x .85) and 1 cu ft = 1728 cu in.30,288 x 1,728 //2.5 = 20,935,065 , so lets just say 21 million. (no of balls for one plane) According to Lottery USA, the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302.6 million and the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. So, let’s just say the odds are 1 in 300 million. Now, suppose you have 300 ÷ 21 or appox. fourteen 747 jets on the tarmac of an airport filled with golf balls weighing the same, except for one that weighs 1 nanogram heavier. A golf ball weighs 1.6 oz, or 45,360,000,000 nanograms, so this ball would require a very precise scale, and couldn’t be detected unless weighed by an extremely sensitive scale) Suppose a person is asked to choose a golf ball at random. What is the chance that the person picks the heavier ball? The same as winning the lottery. In other words, you can’t win by gambling, so why would anyone choose to gamble by buying a lottery ticket?
I still really, really wonder about all of the Seniors we have seen at Indian Casinos. Not so much at the dollar slots, but definitely at the quarter and penny slots. On our way out here to Colorado, we stopped, for the night, at an Indian Casino/Hotel on the western side of Kansas City. We got our room at a great price for me being a Veteran. The buffet was good, but nothing to brag about and neither was the gambling. But, again, quite a number of Seniors at the penny slots. Some came in on a Tour Bus. Actually, I woke up around 3AM to a giant t-storm going on. Plenty of lightning/thunder, wind and rain.
I used to work at the Nevada Palace in Vegas and opened the Indian Springs Casino as the Exec. Chef and yes, I did gamble a bit. My first night driving into Las Vegas I stopped at the Hacienda Hotel and got a room then took my tired body downstairs for a coffee. It was about 0300 hrs and I took my coffee and wandered into the casino where very few people were actually playing. The crap tables were empty so I got curious because I’d never played craps before. I bought $20 in chips and since the minimum was $2 I put 2 beans on the pass line. Rolled a few times, won some and lost some. Then I got more curious when I saw the “hard ways” boxes. Hard 8’s and 6’s looked promising because they paid 10-1 so I put $2 on each. Then rolled a few times more and was on a winning streak on the pass line but had forgotten about my bets on the hard ways. I stopped for a second to take the last sip out of my coffee cup and looked up at the table and saw a whole bunch of black chips sitting where my $4.00 worth of chips used to be. I must have hit the hard 8 and 6 enough times during my streak to double and double again etc but I really wasn’t paying attention. I asked the croupier what all those chips were and he told me they were mine. So, WHEN DO I GET THEM? I asked. Any time you want them, he said. I’ll take them NOW if you do not mind sir, said I. Certainly sir, he said. Then he gathered all those shill chips and converted them to a little over 12,000 happy beans. All that said, no, I didn’t go back the next day for a repeat. I have played roulette 3 times and won 2 times and played quite a few hands of blackjack but the long and short is that I wasn’t in Vegas to gamble, I was there to work. Presently though, I do have a poker app that I like to play. I have a little over 1.5 billion uh.....points built up. Fun game.
But, sooner or later, somebody wins. I see it as entertainment, not from an investment perspective. And my math skills are okay.
Craps is supposed to have the best (least worse?) odds of any game you can play. I've never understood the rules, but never tried that hard to. Regarding Vegas: I've flown through there a few times and have never been out of the airport, but that's OK. They got slot machines in there!!! (I like the idea of extracting money out of people who are just traveling through and don't consume any resources.) Funny, it never even occurred to me to pull a coin out of my pocket and play at least once as I stood among all the machines.
Grocery stores are the good places for the slots. They’re very conveniently placed a few feet off the end of the checkout counters. Customer gets change from buying groceries, customer puts change in slot machines. One out of couple dozen or so walk home with their groceries paid for by gambling on the slots and the others go home without their change. When I worked at the Indian Springs Casino, sometimes I’d watch people get hundred dollars racks after racks of silver then pump it all on the slots. The hilarious thing is when the slot finally hits a hundred or so some of those players will yell that they won when in actuality, they’re still behind a couple of hundred. A little bit of adrenaline followed by a squeeze of dopamine and serotonin and it’s time to gamble some more!