Poll: Do you like to gamble?

i have no money to begin with, and pretty bad luck when it comes to winning stuff. so no gambling for me.

Where's the most obvious answer?

I did it a couple times... it did nothing for me.... was boring... not interested in doing it again. *shrugs*

That's pretty close to my answer. I can take it or leave it. It's a matter of their being better ways to spend my money. I do buy lotto though.

*shrug* pretty indifferent to it. once on a boat to nova scotia my dad gave me five dollars in dimes to play the slot machines. I managed to lose only $1, so I had $4 to spend while my brother and sister had lost all of theirs. haha. It wasn't an unpleasant experience, but, again, *shrug*

and i'm definitely not opposed to gordon or lawrence buying lotto tickets, because i know if they win, i get a piece of it. :)

Poker at Hill Haus was the only gambling that interested me. Now that there's no Hill Haus, there's no gambling. Magentes.... :(

I don't understand gambling in any of its forms. Why would you take money and bet against the odds? Why not just buy a nice handsome CD (of the bank variety) and actually make money? I heard a newscast last night about Toledo considering bringing gambling to the city. They say that the Detroit casinos employ an average of 1,500 employees. Guess where the money comes to fund them? :)

yeah, and as far as the lotto goes... you know the old saying...

The Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.

only not. I play it knowing I'll most likely lose whatever I spend, but on the minute chance that I don't, the payout is quite nice.

and I think to me that's the general appeal of gambling - you spend a little money to have some fun (because I do find the table games fun, because they're social) and you have a chance of making some or all or more of it back. in the case of the lottery, the fun part is dreaming about what I'd buy if I won. :)

it's really all a matter of perspective.

Heh...the funny part is, Nate's bought lotto tickets.  :P

Once. :) It was an office pool thing... never bought 'em myself.

OK, Mr. the-lottery-is-a-tax-on-people-who-are-bad-at-math-but-I-thought-multiplying-my-chances-by-20-might-actually-help.

:P

*shrugs* It was moreso something fun to do with cow orkers. :)

> The Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.

must be a regional dialect. here in ohio it's called the "idiot tax" :-)

Hehehe

the only gambling that was ever fun was poker nights at Norg's place way back when he lived in QC with Danya, Sebas and him.  ... aww.

I totally agree - it's all about the horse racing. A night at the track is loads of fun.

The most fun I had was about 7 years ago when I still worked for the car dealership in Oakville. We won this big award from Ford and the boss took all the employees to Woodbine, bought us dinner, drinks and gave us all $50 to gamble with.

If you think betting is fun with your own money - try it with someone else's. :)

I went out with my friend Andrew once to a casino. We'd both just gotten paid, he played some card game, lost his entire paycheck than tried to bum money off of me. I don't gamble (with money) because of him.

haha - slots.

we used to go up to Casino Windsor for fun. one night, my best friend got a ton of money from her dad she wasnt expecting. so in exchange for driving us, we convinced a friend to come out to dinner with us (she'd pay ) and go up to the casino.

we went in the casino with $90 canadian. she gave us each $20 and told us to go play some slots. and she went off with the other $50.

we'd all but run out of the "free" money when our friend put his last 2 $1 coins into a machine - and got $120 back.

so we split that up and went out again - this time, i took out 2 $100+ jackpots, he took out a $300 jackpot, and my best friend took otu a few more hundred on more slots.

all told, we left the casino with over $700cdn, after bringing in $90. :)

after converting to US dollars, she gave us each $100US, saying that she wouldn't have won it if we werent there, and she kept the rest.  it was a great night with lots of good luck.

we were never able to do it again, and we really havent been back there much :D

Yes, I'm admitting that I gamble way too much. Of course, right now, I'm up about $2700 playing blackjack over the past 6 months to a year. So, I guess it's easy to have a casual attitude about it.

Blackjack is a great game. I love the social aspect of it...you sit at a table, and within minutes, you're talking to 6 people you'd probably never meet otherwise...like all those people I used to meet at Fru-shows. ;-)

I play basic strategy, once in a while, I'll bet big...but I usually stick to $25 or $50 a hand. I never play too much outside my means...if I started to do that, THEN I'd be concerned...

Hope everyone is doing well,

Chris

I have a friend with a pretty serious gambling problem, so it doesn't look good to me at all. I know that doesn't mean everyone who gambles does it with rent money, but it makes me not want to try it.

Its not that I have anything against gambling, I just never have felt that I had enough spare money. I used to spend a dollar or two on the lotto but really, that's nothing but a cheap daydream, I never expect to win. My former business partner used to go to Vegas or Tahoe at least three times a year. He looked at it as part of his entertainment budget, he figured that if he could spend several hours, maybe win a bit, maybe lose a bit (his usual limit was $50) then it was cheaper than going to a show or going to a bar and blowing it on booze and only having a hangover to show for it. Guess it depends on your idea of fun, I'd prefer the show *shrug*

That's exactly how I saw it. I've been to Casino Niagara twice, and Turning Stone casino once. I played $20 each time. Once given to the casino, I consider that money lost and gone forever.

Luckily, I won money on 2 out of the three trips. More than made up for the $5 I lost on the other trip.

isn't that kind of the point of a casino? you're not supposed to be able to beat the house in the long run.

Heh...that sounds like me with the NCAA March Madness pool last year.

Me: Huh...uh....well, USC is ranked way higher than UNC-Wilmington...but their records aren't that different....I don't know anything else about either team...but, uh, let's go for UNC.
Jocks who actually knew about this stuff: Gee, Becca...you made some, uh, gutsy picks, there.  *Coughcoughsnickersnicker.*

I had so much fun gloating when UNC won.  Of course, after the first round of the tournament I didn't do so well...but still.  :)