# What's up with young people's aversion to gambling? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 12, 2012, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345 "2012-01-12T23:10:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DaveBfd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DaveBfd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveBfd)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/21 "2012-01-13T01:14:32Z")
The only thing that I expect to even have a chance at going positive at in a casino is playing poker against other players. I can do that online, and even that is iffy after the rakes are counted. Everything else about casinos is guaranteed to rob you. Makes no sense to go there, there are so many more things Id rather do with my money than give it away. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/22 "2012-01-13T01:15:33Z")
My dad gambles a lot. He’s good enough that sometimes he makes payroll because of a good night in Vegas…but you have to have a lot of bankroll for that. I mean, I remember when he needed 30k for something and he’s like, “I gotta go to Vegas.” He came back with what he needed. He’s also a gambler by nature - sometimes he’ll play slots all night long - it’s how he decompresses on business trips. He puts in $1k and sit steady till he comes out on top with whatever amount is satisfying to him. “There’s something addicting about pressing the damned buttons.” He gambles at EVERYTHING in life. He’s made money and lost it, had five wives, I mean, you can figure the type. My ex plays poker in lieu of a job. The first few years were great, but he said the last few haven’t been as good. He’s not in the negative - he can still live - but his income has declined. He’s extremely picky, great with numbers, and thinks in graphs. He says too many losers gamble. He feels sorry for them because they are his friends, but that’s life. He wouldn’t make his own money if it weren’t for the other folk. He’s the opposite of my dad. The third friend who is only a few years older than me - that makes him 31 - spent post-grad gambling. He went all over the world and played in poker tournaments and practically lived in Vegas over the summer. Guess what? He just paid for law school. LAW SCHOOL. He’s DEBT FREE. Holy smokes. All of my friend have been to Vegas but me. I’m a Vegas virgin. It’s extremely intimidating. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/23 "2012-01-13T01:21:17Z")
I’m kinda curious. Are young people really gambling less nowadays? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/24 "2012-01-13T01:30:35Z")
Well. I just don’t enjoy gambling; even in computer games where you have some gambling minigame and you aren’t risking actual money I don’t like it. I don’t think “maybe I’ll win”; I think “I’m probably going to lose”. I get no thrill from it, so what’s the point? If I ever _did_ take up gambling I wouldn’t go near a casino; they stay in business because their customers lose money. My mother had a gambling problem; nothing too bad, she acknowledged it was a problem and kept it under control. But it didn’t give me a good impression of gambling. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/25 "2012-01-13T01:34:16Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > You absolutely can not get a statistical edge in casino blackjack. Counting cards won’t help you: they keep big enough shoes that you’re never going to get up on the house. And even if you could, the casinos would just ban you. Read “Bringing Down The House”. This is wrong. Most casino blackjack games are statistically beatable. (Excluding dumb shit like 6:5 tables and restricted doubles and other weird variations.) And you only get banned if you attract attention. Shoe size is not nearly as important as deck penetration. And single and double-deck pitch games are still available in Vegas; some even have decent rules. About half the crap in _Bringing Down the House_ is pure fiction, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/26 "2012-01-13T01:34:29Z")
> [@Diamonds02](#): > > That’s another myth. Most casinos I visit are very nice. I mean 4\* and 5\* hotels are connected to them, expensive boutiques near the entrance, fine dining, very tasteful interior and exterior decoration, technologically advanced slot machines, hot sexy lose women serving drinks, etc. > > Musty casino riverboats with 20 year old carpet, are in the minority. I’m sure they’re nice in actuality, but it’s the atmosphere that turns me off a little. Thousands of people gambling, half of whom have lost their rent money, desperately trying to get their money back. Even if you see a big winner, that person is almost certainly still a net loser for the casino. I’m 24, and casinos have a distinctly blue-collar association nowadays. My friends (who are mostly upper-middle-class white kids from a private college) can do math and don’t find casinos attractive. Maybe that’s it-- Vegas is no longer glamorous but rather seedy. We know that it’s a pristine veneer over an ugly drug-and-sex driven interior. We’ve grown up with an image of regular casino attendees as poor and unattractive. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > In those days almost 100% of male youth went through the military. Uh, cite? I know it was higher at that time than at any other, but almost 100%? I don’t buy it. > [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > The only fun I’ve ever had at the casino was when I worked at one. I was doing a faux finish on some trim in a dining room addition with a friend of mine, and we worked through the night by ourselves. We would take breaks and gamble as little as possible (nickle slots) in order to get free drinks. We actually managed to win a tiny bit, and it paid for the tips on the drinks a couple times. That was fun, but it was more the experience of trying to score free stuff and then painting drunk than the gambling itself. This sounds like the only way I’d enjoy a casino. I would love to go to Vegas, but I want to see shows and do other things that the gambling underwrites, not gamble. I’d lose money, and what’s fun about that? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/27 "2012-01-13T01:34:47Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > Counting cards won’t help you: they keep big enough shoes that you’re never going to get up on the house. And even if you could, the casinos would just ban you. Read “Bringing Down The House”. I’ve never really understood why casinos ban card counters. Counting cards isn’t cheating, it’s a skill. It’s also really hard to do. I would think that the idea that beating the house is \*possible \*would just bring in more suckers who’d imagine that they had this card counting thing down pat, not realizing how hard it really is, and then get skinned. How can saying “if you play well enough to win, we won’t let you play at all” be good for business? Shows how much I understand about gambling, I guess… ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/28 "2012-01-13T01:43:54Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > I would think that the idea that beating the house is \*possible \*would just bring in more suckers who’d imagine that they had this card counting thing down pat, not realizing how hard it really is, and then get skinned. It does. Watch what happens to casinos that switch to all continuous-shuffle-machines or lousy odds on naturals or stupid rule variations. People simply won’t play them. They want to play on the beatable tables, even though they don’t put in the effort to even memorize the basic strategy charts, much less practice counting and memorizing deviation charts. Casinos have figured this out, and will only tend to ban counters that are making significant money. A positive expected value in blackjack requires _perfect_ play , _perfect_ counting, and _perfect_ betting strategy. Most people can’t even get the perfect play part right. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/29 "2012-01-13T01:45:00Z")
iirc, Atlantic City can’t ban card counters. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/30 "2012-01-13T01:52:25Z")
That’s true. They can fuck with them by lowering the limits and ordering constant shuffles and generally harassing them until they leave, though. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/31 "2012-01-13T02:05:08Z")
Perhaps gambling has gotten a bad reputation by being associated with the bankers who crashed the economy in '08? Maybe Occupy supporters and gamblers are mutually-exclusive. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/32 "2012-01-13T02:27:32Z")
I gambled once. I lost 20 bucks in 3 minutes. I was all, “really? That’s it?” I could have bought a really really good hamburger for that price. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/33 "2012-01-13T02:34:55Z")
> [@Diamonds02](#): > > That’s another myth. Most casinos I visit are very nice. I’ve been inside most of the ones here and they’re either downmarket-tacky or faux-opulent. Definitely not inviting. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/34 "2012-01-13T02:44:27Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > I’ve been inside most of the ones here and they’re either downmarket-tacky or faux-opulent. Definitely not inviting. My sister and I went into the casino in Sault Ste Marie. We wandered around for ten minutes, looked at each other, said, “This is _fun?_”, and left. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/35 "2012-01-13T02:49:34Z")
Young people _are_ gambling. But they’re into sports betting, not casino games. ---
**Author:** ![Jockstrap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5a626/32.png) [@Jockstrap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jockstrap)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/36 "2012-01-13T03:38:45Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Young people _are_ gambling. But they’re into sports betting, not casino games. I’m 28 and lots of my friends gamble on sports but none gamble on casino games. In Australia the minimum bet for most card games is around $20 (in my experience) on a game that can be over in minutes. You would need to risk hundreds of dollars in order to play for any extended period of time. Alternatively you can bet $10 with online sports betting and you get the excitement spread out over 1.5 hours or more. At least that’s my thinking. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/37 "2012-01-13T03:57:53Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Young people _are_ gambling. But they’re into sports betting, not casino games. Or the stock market perhaps, if that counts as gambling. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/38 "2012-01-13T04:08:08Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Young people _are_ gambling. But they’re into sports betting, not casino games. This. Informal betting on sports events between friends and coworkers is huge. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/39 "2012-01-13T04:14:08Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Young people _are_ gambling. But they’re into sports betting, not casino games. I would also guess that the type of person who, years ago, might have been into casino games because they found the actual game-playing entertaining would now rather play video games. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345/40 "2012-01-13T04:30:15Z")
> [@DaveBfd](#): > > The only thing that I expect to even have a chance at going positive at in a casino is playing poker against other players. I can do that online, and even that is iffy after the rakes are counted. If you live in the US, it has become almost impossible to play poker online. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-young-peoples-aversion-to-gambling/609345.md?page=3)