You know you are getting old when:

Having been raised by a professional gambler (and, to be honest, bookie), gambling was always a business to me. That said, my dad had noting - nor do I have anything - against a $5 or $10 bet for rooting interest or the occasional lottery ticket for fun, as long as one is clear that gambling is a business and a "fun" wager is entertainment (like going to the movies).

From that silly early kickstart on money, math, odds and skill (I was at racetracks by the time I was seven - both my father and grandmother took me - she was a gambler too) - I landed up on Wall Street in a trading seat and really, truly and deeply learned about the business of odds, betting, future outcomes, emotions, luck, skill, strategy and everything else that goes into successful gambling.

And, yes, one can be a successful gambler, but it is a very hard job. While many on Wall Street also love casino gambling, Wall Street indirectly taught me to hate casino gambling. I have no interest in betting in a construct that takes +/- 18 cents of every dollar out for the house and then sets the rules of the game so that the odds ensure the house wins. If anyone doubts the later (the former is hard fact; although, the exact amount of the take might be a bit different today), remember that "card counting" was made "illegal" because it was a very fair way that the house could lose.

Gambling addicts, like all addicts, deserve our sympathy, but they are not approaching Wall Street or casinos as a business or as entertainment - it's sadly just an enameler of their addiction. Gambling as a serious business is best, IMHO, played either against others - like in poker - when there is no house take or on financial markets where the house take and vigorish is very, very low (honestly, if you learn the ins and outs, it is silly low, even for the retail investor, on Wall Street - and only lower since the transparency of the internet).

I make my living doing this and have my entire professional career - it's a hard business, but what isn't? I also, as noted, have no negative view of betting as entertainment. The key is not making a category error; i.e., know when you are gambling as a business (then, make sure you've done your homework) versus as entertainment (then expect to lose everything - you might not - set your limit ahead of time and have fun).

To the last point, you can go to a Broadway show and dinner for, easily, $300 a person in this over-priced city or go out to the race track, make $5 and $10 wagers on each race, lose everyone, and still not spend $300. For my entertainment dollar - you can't give me a theater ticket for free (I can't stand going to the theater), but a nice weather day out at Belmont a few times a year is heaven.

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Watch out for the
“tootsie-frootsie” dude!

2jakes said:

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Watch out for the
“tootsie-frootsie” dude!

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The very one!

LizzieMaine said:

The comic strip "Bringing Up Father," which achieved great popularity in the US before the first World War, was based on the popularity of illegal lotteries in the 1910s. Mr. Jiggs, an unremarkable shanty-Irish hod-carrier, won an immense fortune in such a lottery, and his wife Maggie took to the nouveau-riche life with great gusto, creating the stereotype of the aggressive, gauche lottery millionaire in American popular culture. But Jiggs, although he began wearing at all times, on his wife's violent insistence, the stereotypical cartoon capitalist's outfit of top hat, wing collar, white tie, swallowtail coat, striped pants, and spats, at heart remained exactly as he was, a rough-hewn working-class fellow of no pretentions whatever, who'd rather eat corned beef and cabbage in a bar with his cronies than partake in any way of the social ramble.

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That strip was extremely popular among second and third generation Irish Americans whom I have known who grew up with it. Classic threads of "shanty" vs. "lace curtain" Irish identification, and the folly of acting too big for one's britches. They all "knew people like that." But I think that part of it was that by the time George McManus started drawing the strip, there were enough Irish Americans who saw themselves as comfortably Middle Class that they could afford to engage in a little self- deprecating humor.

tonyb said:

Perhaps there's a third category: those who know the arithmetic and behave accordingly. You might win, you'll probably lose, and on balance you'll likely lose 15 or 20 cents for every dollar wagered at a tribal casino...

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Quite true. The last time I actually gambled (i.e., not simply throwing a buck or two at a lotto/lottery ticket) was 20-25 years ago. My wife and I spent the weekend in Laughlin, Nevada, with friends, and "the girls" decided they wanted to go dancing at one of the casinos on Saturday night. I, having zero interest in dancing, perused the casino floor until I found a Blackjack table with an empty seat; I had $20 in my pocket that I could afford to lose, so why not? Four hours later "the girls" found me and informed me they were ready to leave. During those four hours at the table I was "up" a little and "down" a little, but at the time they came to retrieve me I was up by $5 so that's what I tipped the dealer as I thanked her and left. If I had burned through that $20 (which is what I expected when I sat down at that table) I would have left the casino floor much earlier, but I had four hours of fun and walked out of the casino with the same amount of money I had walked in with; I think I came out ahead.

BlueTrain said:

I recall a television program about card games, such as are played in casinos as well as on Saturday night with your buddies. The host stated that the casinos were all perfectly honest. They had no reason to cheat as the odds always favored the house...

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In this context, I suppose the definition of "cheat" depends on how the casinos go about making sure the odds favor the house. My wife married her second husband in Las Vegas, and while they were there they visited a friend who worked at one of the casinos as a host. This friend joined them when they decided to go out gambling one night, and warned my sister and her husband in advance, "Listen, if I come up behind you and tell you to walk away from a table, you'd better listen." Sure enough, my sister was sitting at one of the card tables when the friend walked up behind her, watched a few hands, then told sis to walk away. By that point my sister had indulged in too many free drinks, was "up" by $5,000 and thought she was doing well, and ignored the friend's warning. Not five minutes later that $5,000 was once again in possession of the house. So anyone who believes the dealers don't control the cards is uninformed, misinformed, gullible, or just plain naive. We do it, and they call security; they do it, and it's just "business as usual".

A former significant other of mine always wanted to go to Atlantic City and do some small-time gambling (as we didn't have much extra money). So we'd make a weekend of it, getting a room many floors up for the view.

We did many fun things over the two days the various times we went, even winning an overnight stay one time. But of all the things we did, the least favorite for me was the casino. She would pick a couple of slots, and play some blackjack, and I would either watch or walk around observing the surroundings.

What I never failed to notice was what appeared to be the sheer desperation of many of the 'regulars,' dressed in Walmart chic and often looking miserable while feeding what looked to be whatever they had into the gullets of the slot monsters.

Could it have been pure entertainment for them? Possibly. But, observing the amounts of time spent at it, and the looks on some faces, as well as some attire, it looked so much like desperation. Do I know for sure? No, but gambling is often described as a sickness. Not being a gambler at all, and taking the time to observe people, as I often do, I believe I saw a lot of it when I was there.

I have only been in one casino, when I was at an IEEE symposium in Atlantic City. In order to get to the restaurant you had to go through a large hall filled with slot machines, being played largely by grandmotherly looking women. The din of all the electronic noise that those machines made and the sight of hundreds of people fixated on playing them was to me a scene from a nightmare. That was enough for me, I have no desire to repeat the experience.

scottyrocks said:

A former significant other of mine always wanted to go to Atlantic City and do some small-time gambling (as we didn't have much extra money). So we'd make a weekend of it, getting a room many floors up for the view.

We did many fun things over the two days the various times we went, even winning an overnight stay one time. But of all the things we did, the least favorite for me was the casino. She would pick a couple of slots, and play some blackjack, and I would either watch or walk around observing the surroundings.

What I never failed to notice was what appeared to be the sheer desperation of many of the 'regulars,' dressed in Walmart chic and often looking miserable while feeding what looked to be whatever they had into the gullets of the slot monsters.

Could it have been pure entertainment for them? Possibly. But, observing the amounts of time spent at it, and the looks on some faces, as well as some attire, it looked so much like desperation. Do I know for sure? No, but gambling is often described as a sickness. Not being a gambler at all, and taking the time to observe people, as I often do, I believe I saw a lot of it when I was there.

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If the amount of time spent in these places was great and by the
way you described these folks, it’s probably an addiction for them.

I have been told that I have a look of intense
when I’m on the tennis courts or other physical
activity.

But inside, I’m having a blast.

Unless I lose at the end of the match
or I am totally exhausted!

My mother taught me to play poker when I was six years old, and I used to sit in on the neighborhood game she ran with her friends -- no big money changed hands, but occasionally I'd pick up a little bit of pocket money. My grandfather had taught her when she was about the same age, so it was very much a family thing. For a while we had an illegal slot machine in the back room at the gas station, and my mother, as a child, once hit it for eleven dollars worth of dimes and ran and hid because she was afraid she'd broken it.

We've never had any particular mystique around gambling in my family -- it wasn't considered any kind of a sin or a crime or a vice, nor was it an uncontrollable addiction. I play the lottery regularly, and once won a five-figure jackpot which allowed me to take care of a few things that I would not otherwise have been able to take care of, so I know I'll probably never win much of anything else. But it's a couple bucks worth of enjoyable fantasy, which is a lot less than it costs to go to a movie nowadays.

I grew up learning that it was a sin, and I haven't changed my mind. I much prefer having something to show for my monetary expenditures (hats, guns, knives, vacations sheet, music etc.) but that's just me.

It's not gambling; it's "gaming."

BlueTrain said:

It's not gambling; it's "gaming."

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That's what the industry prefers we call it.

BlueTrain said:

It's not gambling; it's "gaming."

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Cue Lizzie's "The Boys From Marketing."

BlueTrain said:

It's not gambling; it's "gaming."

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Spin, spin, spin to my loo . . . (sung to the tune of you-know-what).

BlueTrain said:

It's not gambling; it's "gaming."

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I've been "gaming" since I was six
when I first opened a 1 cent bubble
gum baseball pack hoping by chance
to find a DiMaggio.
All I got was a rookie by the name of
Mantle.

I know I am getting old because I am shaking my head in affirmation to most of these posts!

And shaking your head makes you dizzy.

Feraud said:

I know I am getting old because I am shaking my head in affirmation to most of these posts!

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Nevertheless it feels good!
Knowing that there's still a few of
us left in this crazy world that can
relate to things from long ago.

At least it does for me!

BlueTrain said:

And shaking your head makes you dizzy.

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I changed the oil & filter yesterday.
No problem.
Except now I get dizzy when I get up too fast.

So I sat on the ground and thoughts of
the Fedora Lounge came to mind.

Opening scenes from the movie,"The Green Mile", where everyone is gathered
together in a nursing home watching an old movie reminds me of this thread.

Nothing much is happening to us that didn't happen to previous generations somewhere along the line. Everyone loses their parents and their friends. Everyone, if they're lucky, gets old and finds out what it feels like. The world has always seemed like it was spinning out of control. There's hardly an issue today that previous generations haven't had to deal with in one way or another. Everything happens to everyone, if there's enough time. There usually isn't. We aren't that special.