Gambling, who does it?

I know someone very close to the family, who has flash tastes; a good job that’s very well paid, yet claims to have no savings or spare money, but can’t explain to his wife why not. He hardly ever goes out, and has no hobbies. He controls the joint account she also pays into, but doesn’t give her access. That’s a big red flag.

He just happens to love Online Poker 💁

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Those FOBTs are gambling crack, rather than reducing the stake to £2 max they should have been removed from every bookies.

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Premium bonds. State funded gambling is the devil I follow.

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I think he played 20 quid a spin!!

Like a lot of others, I gamble in some form quite regularly if I had to document it, but it’s never big money and my frugality always sets limits in certain situations and I go into “live setting” scenarios with the mindset of the amount I’m prepared to lose effectively being part of the ticket price.

I have a Euromillions direct debit, but that’s £20-25pm, so tiny. I’ll put the occasional bit on sports, but it’s every now and then on a big game or event. Never more than a tenner or so. I’ve won on the grand national etc, and (back in the day) it’d pay for my Saturday night out etc.

Since uni have played poker with mates. We’re now doing that on an app and zoom call. But that’s just a £10 per game fixed buy in, so loose change to us now.

Me and my friends have money on fantasy football (both nfl and Prem). The latter is just 5 of us and (again, pre-covid) the winner of each quarter got dinner for free when we met up. On those pay out evenings the winner got to choose the restaurant so we’d go somewhere nice. In all honesty it’s more about giving us an excuse to catch up as a collective (without other halves) a minimum 4 times a year.

As I mentioned above, I’ll go to the races every so often, but I’ll have £100-200 or whatever that I’ll withdraw before, and anything I come back with is seen as a bonus.

I do enjoy a casino though. No interest in roulette, but I do like blackjack. Had a nice croupier in Vegas who taught us some of the more basic approaches on my first trip, and have generally been up since. But still apply the same approach to a horse racing evening. I’ll take out £100 or $150 etc, and if it goes it goes. I did pay for a significant upgrade on my rental car in Vegas the second time because I was up about $500 over the first couple of nights when I went to pick it up. That made the road trip to San Diego and LA a lot more pleasant!

Thankfully all my mates are very similar, so not had any exposure to gambling getting more worrying. We were all a bit shocked on the last stag do I went on when one other guy on the day had over 4 figures on stradivarius, who then lost. That’s so far away from anything I could ever contemplate.

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I dont really understand it and not interested in it. In my last job Ladbrokes were one of our biggest clients, they HQ doesnt look much from the outside but they are rolling in cash. The house always wins.

Closest I get is a bit of online poker, but I put a tenner in and play micro stakes.

I have enough bad habits without adding gambling

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Oh god @stenard don’t mention black jack :see_no_evil:

I got absolutely creamed on a single hand in prague.
Got dealt 2s, dealer on a 6.
Split em (double the stake)
8 and 9. So playing a 10 & 11 against a 6.
Doubled em both.

Someone decided to remove all the tens in the deck at this point.
Ended up with 14 and 15. Dealer hit 19 or somet. Can’t remember through the tears :rofl:
That was my last game of that ever!

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Haha, yeah, painful when it goes wrong, but the mathematician in me says you did the right thing and over the long term the same tactics would yield a net positive outcome.

I only play minimum stakes tables, and then once up a bit vary my stakes after that. Its the only way to win. If you just bet the same stakes consistently, you will lose, as standard tactics are something like 98:102 in favour of the house

Yeah I was up… This was my last hand before we headed out. So dropped a ton.
A split and a double and I was playing a £400 hand.
Yes mathematically correct…but I was way outside my financial zone.

I still carry the “Mr Deuces” tag with some of my mates

Ah, right! Ouch. Yeah, if that happens when you’re playing stakes well above your usual standard, then I’d probably skip the splits/doubles. As you say, expected outcomes only works across your standard stake level

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My other tactic is once I’m 2x what I sat down with, I pocket those chips and they don’t come out again. Therefore at worst I’m break even. Ultimately it is intended to be “fun” for me, and so if I can have an hour or so at the table and not lose anything, happy days.

I always (naïvely) thought with black jack if you lose a hand, then double up on next one (repeat till win).
Then when you win go back to original stake.
That you should do ok…as long as you hit a win before you either run out of cash or hit max stake

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I’ve not bought a lottery ticket - or Sunday paper - since the first lockdown & haven’t been in a bookies since Grand National day about 25yrs ago.

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Yep, that works for sure, it’s amazing so few people use the Martingale method, when it’s so guaranteed!

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:rofl::rofl::rofl:
The only person who should use that, would be Jeff Bezos :speak_no_evil:

Table limits.

This.
I saw Fury in person, just going about his life, during the summer.
He’s absolutely huge in real life!

After watching that documentary on him, seems like a good guy.

That’s one fight I’m eager to see.

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I’m having all kinds of flashbacks now lol.
Hotel poker tournaments in Vegas. Played 5, final table in 4, 2 wins and a second.

Think this was a safe environment. Small investment, no rebuys, potential few hours entertainment and potential for big payout.
Didn’t drop cash anywhere else that week and went home with the holiday paid for

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I’ve been running with his dad… 40? times

For a 17 stone man he’s actually very fit.

Met the big guy twice, obviously very very smart, all that messing about really is for the cameras.

That fight has to happen this year, pity it won’t be held here

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I worked in a bookies for a year while taking a break at Uni. I witnessed the good and the very, very bad. Saw the usual folks who came in every day to put on their 50p bets. Then the odd encounter with the guy who’d lost his family, savings, home and was now putting his entire latest month’s wages on the next sure thing.

I think plenty of people manage to keep it from spiralling but ultimately it’s a fairly awful business, and if you get hooked the bookies don’t offer anything but token help. “When the fun stops, stop.” Facile.

My biggest gripe is how quick they are to shut people down if they start to do well against them…eg match betters laying off one against another…can’t have punters doing better than them so they get shut down if they win too much…

And don’t get me started on Vegas!!

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