My wife loves playing slots. She’s not stupid about it though. She never plays to win, ever. She takes some small amount she can lose (actually, it’s better to say she’s using it to “pay” for her gambling) and then will just play slots for as long as it lasts. She will go from slot machine to slot machine, playing whatever machines look fun for her. If she has a lucky streak, it just means she gets to play for longer.
I guess it’s not all that different from when someone would get some money and go play video games at an arcade back in the day. If you were really successful your quarters would last a long time. At the end of the day that money was gone, but you had fun.
I don’t get the appeal. I don’t like to gamble in general, I really never do. Slot machines seem boring to me. But she clearly enjoys it, and never spends very much, so I figure it’s just like me and my video games.
I don’t have a problem with anyone who gambles because they have fun doing it and they can afford it. It’s just another form of entertainment they’re paying for. When someone tries to do it as a source of income (and solely engages in games of chance) then they are just being reckless. And anyone who gambles more than they can afford is absolutely being reckless.
If@MW_Degen_Gamblr has fun and isn’t financially ruined, I say more power to them.
Though I do think promoting the idea of slots as some kind of legitimate money-making method is spreading dangerous misinformation and is absolutely worth debunking, especially on a web site devoted to fighting ignorance.
No, he’s absolutely right that if you only play progressive slots, and only ones where the jackpot has reached a sufficiently high amount, you can expect to win money. Of course, you may have to look a long time to find such a machine, and you’ve still got to spend a few hours of your life pumping coins into the machine, and you still might lose anyway. But this is a theoretically valid strategy, while just wandering the casino at random playing whatever machines look fun is a near-guaranteed loss over the long run.
As an aside, I feel like slots are psychologically very different from most other forms of gambling. Craps or roulette players are going for the big dopamine hit of winning big, where slot players seem to want to just zone out and “achieve a lower state of consciousness”, as Calvin said about his Saturday morning cartoons. Like Atamasana’s wife, their goal is to continue playing as long as possible, not to walk away with a profit.
I don’t like gambling and don’t like casinos, but the few times I’ve been in one, it seems like that is a very accurate statement. People seem to become vegetative playing them.
I had never been to Vegas until a few years ago when I went to attend a wedding. We stayed in a casino hotel and I have to say wandering through the casino was a hellish landscape to me. Loud, never-ending loud noises, blinking lights everywhere, stale smoke smell, and drunkenness abounding. And the city itself was worn down and sad. I do not see the appeal.
I think you’re right about part of the appeal. I have a friend who owns a pachinko game. Obviously she’s not really gambling at all: she’s both the “casino” owner AND the player, but she says when her mind is racing, when she can’t stop worrying about something or obsessing over something happening – she can load up some balls and the glint of the balls and especially the noises just wipes everything else out of her mind.
Hey, cheaper than psychoactive drugs and a lot fewer side effects.
I love Vegas and have visited with my wife pretty much anually. I don’t gamble but there are some good shows, great restaurants, and fun stores to browse through. It’s a relatively cheap way to spend a long weekend.
Not every casino game will bankrupt people in the long run, provided that they play them correctly.
This is closely related to point #1, not every game is played against the house. Yes, the house always win. That is only true if that particular is designed that way! But there is Texas Hold Em, where you are competing against PEOPLE. Texas Hold em is gambling only if you’re bad at it lol. And it may be gambling in the short term, if you’re on the bad side of variance. Also, as I mentioned upthread, “gamblers” have a shot at +EV whenever progressive jackpots reach a certain amount. Typically, 3x the reset value (example a $50 at reset moving up to $150). Again, you’re playing against other players here. Once people go above that jackpots reset value, that money comes from the players and not the house. Cash out once the progressive is won.
I do agree that slots are boring as hell. I dont play them for fun, in a direct sense. I play them for their advantages. Like the free rooms. They’re not a main source of income, I have a job, but I have reaped a lot of benefits due to my educated gaming. I do find Texas Hold 'em fun though. It’s a social game and if you’re playing against decent players it is quite intellectually stimulating. But not too good players lol! You’ll lose a lot of money in the long run.
Outside of Texas Hold 'em and card counting blackjack, i’m not sure that gambling just for fun is harmless entertainment. I see so many players pissing their money and time away. They’re usually alone or just with their significant other staring blankly at the screen. Dont get me started on games like craps or roulette, they have even lower odds, and you’re always playing against the house. In some states, it’s still legal to smoke inside casinos. Most casinos have free fountain drinks. Outside of Vegas, most restaurants and food stands inside casinos serve a lot of junk food. It’s not common for responsible gamblers to turn into reckless gamblers after years of gambling. But it is not unheard of. A person might be one crisis away from turning into a gambling addict. And these new games are very tricky. The programmers are getting sneakier in makeing these games more addictive. I’d say get your wife a Nintendo switch or something.
Yep. Hustling slots might has its benefits, but I’ll be transparent about the bad things also. It is a bitch trying to hunt for machines in +EV state. Even more sucky when you’re competing against many other hustlers, which is often. You might spend 8 hours before winning anything. Walking. You can sit and “camp” behind machines, but that is very frowned upon. This is not a slacker thing. Not easy money. Not a get rich quick thing either.
As for gamblers who sit at slots and zone out for hours, we call them “ploppies”.
What the hell kind of shit you be getting yourself into? People are trying to get even with you in parking lots??? That is NOT the normal gambling experience! You don’t even play in competitive games, what are you doing to piss people off?
I always heard you get free alcoholic drinks if you are gambling which I thought would be an OK perk. Is that now reduced to free sodas? Hope you don’t mind me laughing out loud at that “perk”.
OP: was it the Sahara? (If you don’t want to say, that’s fine.) Stayed there last year and they had multiple elevator issues. Monorail elevator out of order my entire visit!* Couldn’t go to a rooftop pool due to a broken elevator. And half the elevators in the building with my room were out-of-order so there was always a crowd in the elevator lobby.
*Las Vegas Monorail is an odd beast. Elevators inside fare control are owned & maintained by Monorail, but elevators to get from the casino/hotel to the ticketing level is the host casino/hotel’s responsibility. Or lack of responsibility at the Sahara.
This was my impression of all the LV I saw on my one trip there: Old and dilapidated. Deferred maintenance everywhere you looked. I found it depressing.
Real life casinos invariably offer a machine with non-negative returns, typically placed at a more obscure part of the floor. It’s called a change machine.
