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So, Kiev then...or possibly Las Vegas

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    #51
    Betting is generally a way to lose money. Occasionally you come out ahead. Those times feel great. But there are some gambling that's fun for me - and if I'm having fun, then I consider my initial stake to just be entertainment money, no different to buying a ticket to a football match. You don't expect to leave with your money, any more than you would at a football match. But you hope to have fun on the way. Betting on sports can do that - it can get you really invested in a game or race that you previously didn't care about. I enjoy craps because it's communal - you are playing with everyone else at the table, not against them: generally if one person's winning everyone is, and the mood is great. I never properly engaged with the other table games, but my guess is that they produce a similar thrill. The trick is to not expect your money back. It's always going to lose you money, but then so is, say, going to a concert or the cinema. Never bet more than you're willing to lose.

    I'll agree that most of the slots are utterly soul destroying. There were a handful that had games within games when I was in Vegas about 10 years ago, but that seems to be dying a death and the slots thing seems more joyless than ever. But some people love them, and I guess they get the same thrill I do at the craps table.

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      #52
      I don't see how anyone who has spent 15 minutes on a slots floor could imagine that "thrill" has anything to do with it,

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        #53
        You mean the dead eyed look of the people perpetually feeding money in? Yeah. It's soul destroying to see them. But I have to assume that they get something out of it.

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          #54
          They are addicted.

          There is no thrill involved.

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            #55
            Obsessive Fitba Gambling being normalised with yer Ray Winstones, ledge paddy power cunts Having the Laff etc, I'm convinced this will look as fucked up as anything in 20 years or so, like smoking in bars or restaurants does now, these fuckers are as evil as the worst Medellin cartel. Even working for Ryanair seemed normal compared to being a gambling industry shill. I hope every horse owner and trainer dies from fucking foot and mouth or a revolt of their wee jockey cunts. JP McManus choking on the coagulated blood of all the horses he had put down, all the wee men that went through his stables for fuck all wages for indentured labour conditions.
            Last edited by Lang Spoon; 27-02-2020, 23:21.

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              #56
              Is there any strategy or skill to craps at all?

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                #57
                One can lose one's money more slowly . . .

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                  #58
                  I don't actually know what craps is, I only understand the rules of blackjack, poker, Black 5, 7s and Scabby Queen. I don't remember the last three being offered by the online cunts.

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                    #59
                    Craps is the dice game.

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                      #60
                      Ah. The one where you want a femme fatale type to blow on the bones and roll them across the table in a don't give a fuck (tho it's all yr life savings) kind of way. Least it's not roulette. That's a loser's game.

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                        #61
                        When I was a kid I used to spend all my meagre holiday money in amusement arcades, usually on "gambling machines," within about the first 30 minutes of my arrival. Maybe that bitter memory is why I have absolutely zero interest in any form of gambling now, to the extent that when I've been to office parties at which you're given fake money to use in the casino set-up that they've established, I just give it to a friend and go off to have drink, chat or bop. Occasionally all three at the same time.

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                          #62
                          Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                          Is there any strategy or skill to craps at all?
                          As Ursus says, there are ways to temper your losses, to extend the entertainment, to give yourself better odds.

                          The biggest skill is getting off the table at the right time if you're up.

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                            #63
                            Never played craps. It looks too intimidating, but I've heard if you play with someone who knows what they're doing, it's good, and there are bets you can make that are basically 50/50 bets, like red/black in roulette. When I turned 21 I really wanted to play roulette. It's a very quick way to lose money.

                            The only table game I can play is blackjack. I'm not interested in putting up a lot of money, though, and any casino that you'd actually tolerate spending time in has a $10 wager minimum now. When I was younger, we'd go to the Sahara. It was on the Strip, and it had $1 tables. I'd be able to spend a few hours playing with just $40, getting free 7&7s and shooting the shit with people at the table. Now the Sahara is gone and I haven't played blackjack in years.

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                              #64
                              Originally posted by Lang Spoon View Post
                              Obsessive Fitba Gambling being normalised with yer Ray Winstones, ledge paddy power cunts Having the Laff etc, I'm convinced this will look as fucked up as anything in 20 years or so, like smoking in bars or restaurants does now, these fuckers are as evil as the worst Medellin cartel. Even working for Ryanair seemed normal compared to being a gambling industry shill. I hope every horse owner and trainer dies from fucking foot and mouth or a revolt of their wee jockey cunts. JP McManus choking on the coagulated blood of all the horses he had put down, all the wee men that went through his stables for fuck all wages for indentured labour conditions.
                              The revolt of the wee jockey cunts- wasn’t that a Goodies/Two Ronnies sketch?

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                                #65
                                I'm with NS here. I learned early on, in things as simple as that machine where you dropped pennies in the hope that they would knock off other pennies that gambling is just a quick and not enjoyable (to me) way to lose my money.

                                I stayed in Reno once which is Las Vegas without the fun. It seemed utterly miserable. Never played in a casino just stood there and watched it on that occasion. Ironically I might be reasonably good at it (well in the sense that I might take longer to go broke), because I can - and do - count cards whenever I play normal card games with people. In fact I assumed everyone did and it was only watching Rain Man that I discovered that it's somehow illegal in casinos (though it still confuses me how you can ban people from playing cards because they're playing cards). Surely not counting cards is the weird option?

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                                  #66
                                  How can they tell that you're counting cards?

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                                    #67
                                    From Rain Man it appears they just guess

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                                      #68
                                      This guy has a whole series on it.

                                       

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                                        #69
                                        Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                                        I'm with NS here. I learned early on, in things as simple as that machine where you dropped pennies in the hope that they would knock off other pennies that gambling is just a quick and not enjoyable (to me) way to lose my money.

                                        I stayed in Reno once which is Las Vegas without the fun. It seemed utterly miserable. Never played in a casino just stood there and watched it on that occasion. Ironically I might be reasonably good at it (well in the sense that I might take longer to go broke), because I can - and do - count cards whenever I play normal card games with people. In fact I assumed everyone did and it was only watching Rain Man that I discovered that it's somehow illegal in casinos (though it still confuses me how you can ban people from playing cards because they're playing cards). Surely not counting cards is the weird option?
                                        Atlantic City in November was awful too. Vegas without the fun, with a beach, which the weather renders useless. I was very happy when the conference was over and I could get out of that place.

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                                          #70
                                          Originally posted by Nocturnal Submission View Post
                                          When I was a kid I used to spend all my meagre holiday money in amusement arcades, usually on "gambling machines," within about the first 30 minutes of my arrival. Maybe that bitter memory is why I have absolutely zero interest in any form of gambling now, to the extent that when I've been to office parties at which you're given fake money to use in the casino set-up that they've established, I just give it to a friend and go off to have drink, chat or bop. Occasionally all three at the same time.
                                          You're me, and I claim my five pounds.

                                          Learned at a young age the hard way (plus had a fascination for how the machines worked, which led to me working out that beating them was incredibly hard)*. More than happy to spend an evening playing poker (badly) or roulette as long as it is fake money. But even poker has its own bullshit mystique around tells and bluffing. No, it's just knowing the odds and hoping that the literal luck of the draw is with you.

                                          *Although the cricket club had a 2p bandit with a £2 jackpot which I worked out the release pattern on and if the previous person left the machine in the right state, I could usually turn 20p into a couple of drinks.

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                                            #71
                                            Originally posted by Sporting View Post
                                            How can they tell that you're counting cards?
                                            It leads to particular patterns of bets (obviously, or it wouldn't work).

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                                              #72
                                              Originally posted by Felicity, I guess so View Post
                                              The revolt of the wee jockey cunts- wasn't that a Goodies/Two Ronnies sketch?
                                              It was an episode of The Goodies. Apart-height. Get it?

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                                                #73
                                                There are very good reasons why hotel rooms in Atlantic City in November are dead cheap. It is a resolutely awful place.

                                                I had to make multiple visits to Reno back in the early 80s for a weird case focused on counterfeit video poker machines. Everything that ad hoc says about it true (though there is rather beautiful country within a 30 minute drive).

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                                                  #74
                                                  The weirdest thing about Vegas casinos, for me, isn't the douchy ones on the strip. Or the slightly less 'glammy' ones off the strip. It's the really oddball ones way to hell-and-gone in other parts of the city. The Fiesta Henderson comes to mind. Its own city-state, miles from anything.

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                                                    #75
                                                    The missus was in Atlantic City over the winter for a conference and agrees with everything written.

                                                    A lot of people are moving to Reno right now, for the reasons Ursus states - it's got great access to some very pretty parts of the Sierra Nevada, and in particular Lake Tahoe which itself is utterly unaffordable thanks to the massive influx of obscenely wealthy tech douches from the Bay Area. Reno has loads of sunshine, isn't bitterly cold in winter, is slightly more temperate than Vegas in summer. It's one of those hot property places in the west where people who can't afford California are moving to, like Boise or Bend or Missoula or even Salt Lake. I've only ever seen the Reno casinos from the outside, but they do look pretty depressing.

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