I don’t really count as a young person anymore, and I wouldn’t deign to nominate myself as a generational spokesperson even if I were, but speaking personally, the reason I don’t gamble is that gambling appears to be:
I could go with something that was just one or the other, but it’s a hard sell to get me to do something that’s both.
I’m 27.
I generally don’t gamble. When I lived in NJ, I went to Atlantic City once and ended the night $20 down, which I considered winning. I pretty much only went to check out the scene and drink with my sister and have a nice time in a different kind of place. About two months ago, a cousin came to visit me out here in Tucson, and we went to a casino on a reservation. I started with nine dollars, put it in roulette, and ended up approximately $500 richer. I used it to buy a mattress and a box spring, because I was sleeping on an air mattress on the floor at the time.
I still am not a gambler, however. I’m usually too poor, and even losing $20 hurts sometimes, especially when it’s gone in five minutes. It did feel really nice to get $500 in cash for no work, however.
You might be on to something. It might be along the lines of not driving drunk and not smoking. Behaviors that were socially acceptable only a generation ago are now frowned upon. There is maybe something to this that explains why horse racing is a dying industry.
Mathematics insists that the house has to win. With sports gambling the player doesn’t get that sense. If there is no vig involved and the player feels knowledgeable why not go with sports betting instead of casino tables?
The reason that the stock market is not a casino is that there is more money flowing to the players than what is being taken by the house. So yes, a person with a gambling mindset has the odds in his favor. Why not play the listings instead of the tables?
I have no gambling habit. I’ve been to casinos for fun and probably have won more than I have lost. The only reason for that is that gambling in a casino gets boring and, knowing that, I can get up and walk away when I’m ahead. Casinos hate people like me. Cash out, have a drink, go to bed.
Mathematics is the rule of the universe. Casino operate on that principle. Why pretend to be smarter than all of the mathematicians in the world? That’s not to say that taking a few bucks into a casino, sitting down, getting some drinks, having a sexy waitress rub against me isn’t worth the money. It is. Nevertheless, any and all money comes out of the entertainment budget, not the living expenses.
Gambling is a weird vice. Normally, drugs, alcohol, gluttony and sex will shut you down before you have lost everything, even if it kills you. Gambling will take everything from you and leave you alive to deal with the consequences. It’s a peculiarly insidious vice.
I’ll play a few hands of blackjack at the local casino from time to time.
I’d agree that most of the people in the casino are 40 and up. But there are also a number of young people, in their late teens and 20s (here, the legal age for gambling and drinking is 18). They mainly seem to like the table games: blackjack, poker, and roulette; but they don’t seem to like slots quite as much. Still, they are there, though outnumbered by the over-40s.
I should point out that the local casino is smoke-free, so perhaps that has something to do with it.
I played in a poker tournament tonight at the local casino. At my table, at least half of the players were younger than me…I’m 38. That’s about average for the handful of times I’ve been there. On the slot machine floor, though, the average age is probably around 60 or 70.
My guess is that poker, especially hold 'em, has picked up a popularity other forms of gambling haven’t. I think there’s also the belief amongst younger players that while slot machines are pretty boring there are more avenues for skill in poker. Of course, I’ve been using heavy duty statistics for about 15 years, have lectured on predictive modeling, and will be co-presenting on game theory at an international conference this year and it still hasn’t exactly helped me avoid crashing out (though I’ve gotten really, really good at bluffing because of it) because I still have the habit of making one dumb mistake. There’s still a large amount of luck involved in poker, but I suppose the younger people believe they can beat both it and the house edge. Me, I’m just cursing myself for betting into pocket aces tonight.
My friend, let me introduce to you betting on horse racing.
it doesn’t appeal much to me. when i go on cruises, i’ll wander into the casino once or twice and play the slots or video poker for a few, but that’s it. i’ve been once to the hard rock casino in tampa, which is nice enough but it’s just not really my scene. i never win, either.
Why should I care about cards? Video games exist.
I’d suggest that horse racing is too much work for most people.
I remember the days when, if you wanted to gamble, the track was the only game in town. There were no lotteries, no scratch-offs, no casino within a reasonable distance. There was Las Vegas and Monte Carlo and Macao, and that was about it, as far as most people were concerned. If you weren’t going to those places, the best you were going to get was a poker game in your buddy’s rec room, or maybe craps with the boys in the back alley.
Or the local track. Newspapers published entries, selections, and commentary; and results with prices later; and if your newspaper was really on top of things, it printed graded handicaps. The Daily Racing Form was widely available on newsstands, with its own selections, commentary, and gradeds. A big stakes race was discussed around the water cooler just as we now discuss the World Series and the Super Bowl. Everybody had a pick, and a reason for that pick.
But knowledgeable handicapping is hard work. I learned class handicapping years ago–from my mother, oddly enough, as she loved the horse races, and had a knack for selecting horses who finished in the money. Later, I learned speed handicapping. I attended (free) handicapping seminars put on by the professional handicapper of my local track. I could spend six hours with the Racing Form, making my selections for the next day’s races. Even if I didn’t make it to the track, I enjoyed watching the results so I could see how my selections did. When I did get there, my wagers were never large; but if I won, I generally won enough that I could spend my winnings from one race on a cold beer or two. It was a fun hobby.
Still, it was work. Week by week, I followed horses, kept records, made notes, and handicapped using the information in the Racing Form. For me, it was fun, and I generally ended each thoroughbred meeting locally on the plus side–but I can easily see that it wouldn’t be fun for everybody. Reading, understanding, and interpreting the information in the Racing Form, are all things I had to learn how to do. That knowledge is not necessary to play a lottery, a scratch-off, or a slot machine; all of which are now widely available, through now-legal-outside-of-Vegas (etc.) casinos.
So which is easier? Betting knowledgeably on a horse, or hoping you get rich on a slot machine in your local casino? I’d suggest the latter; and suggest also that this is why horse racing is dying.
This isn’t really a reason it should appeal to the young people crowd in general. In poker, only about 5% of the people who play are long term winners, and it takes a considerable amount of effort to learn to get that good, and most people simply aren’t capable to that level either.
Counting is possible but often boring and difficult for the way games are structured. You won’t get bothered if you’re laying down $5-10 bets, but then again your hourly wage might be less than mimum wage at that rate, also not a terribly appealing way to go.
I suspect a lot of the generational shift shift actually has to do with slots. When I was young I had a romantic image of casinos - playing table games mostly, drinking and having fun with the other people playing blackjack or craps with you. While you can still do that, casinos have transitioned to having the vast majority of their floorspace taken up by slot machines.
And the people who play slots baffle me. They sit there for hours, pressing a button over and over again, like a rat in some sort of reward experiment. They’re zombied out and sad. It almost creeps me out walking amongst them, always wondering wtf is wrong with them.
I think the younger generation isn’t as impressed by “press a button, watch spinning and lights” thing because we’ve grew up on video games that provide a far greater level of interaction and interest. Sitting in front of a slot machine all day has to be the most boring thing in the world, and yet it makes up the majority of casino patrons.
A lot of the time casinos are sort of sad and vaguely creepy places because of the people that inhabit them - this is espcially true of the less popular and/or locals oriented places… a place like the Venetian for example is a pretty busy place with lots of young people.
IIRC the half that was fiction was mostly the half about glamour and making a lot of dough. The reality was that what those guys did was way more like hard work, and won less money, than the book portrayed.
Your comments about blackjack being winnable are largely theoretical which is why casinos keep offering it.
Sorry if I missed it but I don’t think anyone has touched on the “social” aspect of gambling. (Not so much at slots, though I have had jovial conversations with fellow players.) When playing like roulette or craps or especially blackjack you’re invested in a certain amount of time with the people around you. Yeah, you can walk up to roulette table, slap $20 on red, lose, then walk away. (I’ve actually seen this happen with people betting hundreds of dollars, then lose and walk away. I’ve also seen a young person [VERY YOUNG - like 21years-old + a day] shove a teetering pile of chips onto the “field” spot of a craps table and win - and everyone was ecstatic for him!)
There have been instances where I’ve spent time at blackjack tables where people became so friendly they were buying rounds for each other and exchanging business cards. A good dealer can make your day, despite how much you’re losing. My favorite memory was on my wedding weekend we had a dealer at Balley’s in Las Vegas who called himself “Al” (because he was supposedly from “ALCATRAZ” - whatever!) He was a gem. At some point I declared whenever anyone got a blackjack, they had to do the “blackjack boogie” - which was a combination of the “Cabbage Patch” and the “Washing Machine” and completely horrible. A year later we were back for our anniversary and Al was still there. We were all “AL!” and he immediately busted into the “blackjack boogie.” Good times.
Another time I was playing a slot machine while my husband was playing craps. The guy next to me struck up a conversation and happened to mention that he was hoping to propose to his GF that night (who I think was also playing craps, heh) and to be fair was really freaked out about it. We got really into it and he showed me the ring and everything. My husband (and she) showed up at about the same time. As we departed I gave him a squeeze on the shoulder like “good luck!” To this day I wonder if she said yes.
If you look at it besides “here is a way I will win or lose money” you might actually enjoy it. I mean, (if you drink) you go into a bar knowing full well you’re going to lose money, yet might get a few hours of interesting (or possibly offensive) conversation, or even meet someone special that you strike up a friendship (or more!) with.
Like most here, I don’t really dig the atmosphere and have better ways to spend my money. I went a couple of times (as company of people who really wanted to go) and both times ended 50 euros in the plus. I played low limit roulette and both times, once I got up a bit, I decided to stop when I was only up 50…which I would reach rather quickly.
I must say the casinos here in Holland (Europe in general?) are a bit fancier than what I remember from Vegas. Mostly in that it is considered a night out and people in general are dressed up pretty nicely. You don’t find many young people there and the ones I know tha do like it, seem to go a bit too often really (almost weekly).
Maybe I’m too cheap for it to work for me, both times I gambled, it was tense and I ended up pretty tired. If I have a bit of money spend on one of life’s vices, I can think of more relaxing options.
Regarding the depressing aspect of casinos: I was in Albuquerqe last year on business, and decided to drive out to the indian casino. It was brand new-but it was 95% slot machines-with hundreds of old people (usually playing the 10 cent machines, just sitting there, smoking furiously, each staring blankly at the screen.
There seemed to be a lot of people dragging oxygen tanks around (smoking as well).
What a depressing dump-who would want to spend an evening at a place like this?
On the occasions I tune past those idiotic poker tournaments on ESPN, the players mostly/entirely seem to be 30 or younger.
There’d better be a continual stream of people willing to lose money in casinos, seeing as how many states have jumped on the legalized gambling bandwagon, all expecting to get tons of tax revenue from suckers.
:dubious:
I see casino executive as essentially the same as tobacco executives (in tobacco’s heyday), and have no interest in giving them money.
A friend who runs an ad agency submitted some concepts to a local casino that was agency shopping. He described the contact person as the most repulsive person he’d ever had professional dealings with.
If you’re playing blackjack AND paying for drinks, you’re doing it wrong. The lone appeal of a casino is “free” drinks.
I don’t *lose *money at a bar, I *spend *money. Meeting people is nice, but for me personally, I’d rather meet people who enjoy the things that I enjoy, which is not hanging out at casinos.
I’m not young, but I’ve never enjoyed gambling. I detest losing money and I detest the games themselves. While playing Fallout New Vegas, I found it almost unbearably tedious to play the slots or blackjack enough to get banned from the casinos…and that was with a luck statistic high enough that the game was actually cheating in my favor. I absolutely can’t be arsed to learn to play Caravan. I just do not see the attraction some people have to cards, dice, slots, and the like.
I am way to cheap to gamble, not that I’m young. But I’ve never once been to a casino, and my brother was a manager at a hotel attached to one, and I never once went there, even tot get a room! Too cheap, boring, expensive.
But, ya know, I live in Kentucky and we have Thoroughbred horseracing here, as you may have heard. It’s gambling but it’s also a fun day outside in the sunshine in a beautiful setting with beautiful animals and (if you choose) dressing up and playing aristocrat. It’s a completely different experience and betting just makes it more fun.
Have we actually even established that young people nowadays are, in fact, more adverse to gambling than they were in previous years?
All I’ve seen is a bunch of anecdotes from SMDB members (which isn’t exactly a good population sample) and speculation of why it would be, but no actual indication that it’s actually fact.
In the US, at least, we have an aging population, more (and easier access to) casinos and probably dozens of other factors that can affect who is at a casino even without a change of who is interested in going to a casino.