• Subverb@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      On my honeymoon 7 years ago my wife and I took a very expensive 13-day Mediterranean cruise on a huge ship with a casino. One afternoon I went there and spent $300 over about an hour.

      I still kick myself for throwing that money away.

      • Frozengyro@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Best thing that could have ever happened to you. If you won it ‘big’ you’d have ended up losing way more than 300 bucks. A moderately priced lesson.

      • vrek@programming.dev
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        7 months ago

        One time a coworker asked me and another friend to go to the casino with her, her mom and her boyfriend after work and me and my friend said yes. We arrive and when we walk in we are told “if you sign up for our players card you get 20 dollars preloaded for free”… What the hell why not, free 20 dollars. Everyone besides me and my friend had one already so we said we’ll meet you inside once we get the card.

        So we go to the counter and fill out their one page form, take maybe 10 minutes being generous. We get the card and go to walk onto the floor, keep in mind this place only had machine games, no tables or anything and my coworker is walking out with her family. “what’s up? I thought you were playing.” she responds “nah, we are leaving, we already lost $1500”

        Somehow they lost $500 each in under 10 minutes… I still don’t know how.

      • lautre@jlai.lu
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        7 months ago

        I went to the casino with friends around 12 years ago. We agreed to get a few coins (around 20€ or so) at the beginning, play them and leave once we run out of coins.

        Everyone lost their coins except me, I left with like 27€. It was the only time I went to the casino.

        So now I can never go in a casino again ! I have a perfect record, I’ve always won against the casino and I intend to keep it this way my whole life.

    • ours@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      You’d be surprised. The biggest gambler I know is the biggest cheapskate.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        7 months ago

        An important thing to keep in mind when gambling is that luck isn’t real. You can get lucky, but you can’t be lucky. It’s all statistics, and if you play long enough the casino always wins. Odds are a few people gain some money, but more money is always lost than gained, and you’ll eventually be a loser.

        • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          While that is true, also due to the nature of randomness and big numbers, there will be someone out there that wins an abnormal seeming amount. Like with the lottery. You can’t win, but someone always does.

  • miss_demeanour@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 months ago

    Quitting an addiction is so simple, I’ve quit 100 times.

    Also:
    “I’m addicted to placebos: I’d quit, but it wouldn’t matter.”
    – Steven Wright

  • wanderwisley@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    Quitters always quit before they hit the jackpot. Respect the hustle! Sell the wife, sell the kids.

    • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      If you do the math, there is literally 0% chance of winning in most gambling. Especially because of the fact plenty of them are rigged.

      Arguably the safer bet if one wants to gamble is stock investing, but only after doing due research and willing to be patient to see its results. For those willing to do CFD stock trading, the person would require not just research and patience, but also nerves of steel not to panic.

      But I think that most addicted gamblers don’t like the win, they just want the dopamine hit of playing.

      • plyth@feddit.org
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        7 months ago

        Especially because of the fact plenty of them are rigged.

        Arguably the safer bet if one wants to gamble is stock investing

        Haven’t you seen Wolf of Wallstreet? How do you avoid paying commissions and how do you get information before the big players have already cashed in?

        • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          You don’t pay any commission if you do your own investing in many trading platforms.

          Not all companies to invest in are sleazy. It is true that insider trading happens but if you did your research well and invest in more reputable companies, you won’t be cheated. I mean, how many people have you heard become wealthy through investing alone as opposed to gambling in dice and racing games?

          • plyth@feddit.org
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            7 months ago

            You don’t pay any commission

            In the same way that Google and Facebook are free.

            • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              Most trading platforms make their money from those doing CFD and spreads. Trust me, I learned that the hard way and now I have normal investment portfolio.

  • Default_Defect@midwest.social
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    7 months ago

    I went to a casino once because my roommate at the time wanted to go for a bit. He even spotted me $10 because I had no cash on me. Turned that $10 in to $40, paid back the roommate and left with the $30 and never went back.

    • slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org
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      7 months ago

      When i was in Australia, i was kinda surprised how widespread gambling was. There were some gambling machines in almost every pub. I put 5 dollars in a machine and won 50. Never ever gambled again.

      • silasmariner@programming.dev
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        7 months ago

        There’s a study on this… I o py remember it pretty vaguely, but the tl;dr was that if people win at gambling it doesn’t hold much appeal – the initial drive to continue gambling only comes after losses. Something about ‘making up for’ anything you lost drives the addiction behaviour far more. This struck me initially as kinda counter-intuitive (you’d think that people were more motivated by behaviours with positive outcomes, right?) so it always stuck in my head…

          • Corn@lemmy.ml
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            7 months ago

            In Japan, people literally line up around the block at pachinko parlors before they open.

            Somehow the vibe is slightly less gross than watching 20 retirees just pressing the slot machine button over and over.

    • ours@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Some people are built differently.

      I have no impulsion to gamble either. But one of my family members? So much money burned at casinos.

  • vatlark@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    It’s kind of nice that some things have carried over from red-it, like the same memes popping up repeatedly, and people in the comments (me) complaining about it.

  • Rodneyck@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    My partner and half his family have this gambling bug. You can see it in their eyes. You can see it when they win (not that often.) You see it in the veiled “next time we will win” excuses when they lose (most of the time.) I am glad I don’t have …this vice.

      • Burninator05@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        He’s not an alcoholic. Alcoholics go to meetings.

        Seriously though, if anyone feels they MUST do some optional thing its likely time to take a break. That goes equally for something you consume or something you do.