The flight from Denver to Las Vegas is just over an hour. I was meeting some friends in Vegas for a bachelor party and texted them saying I was taking off. The conversation went like this:
Me: Flight is taking off now, will text you when I get in.
Friend: Just sat down at the blackjack table at Treasure Island. See you in a bit.
I’ve been to a casino exactly one time in my life, and it was earlier this year. Went for the cheap hotel.
I did not spend any money at the casino, but I did get $15 free for being a certain demographic of new customer. I played that, won $158, cashed out and won’t ever do it again (unless I get more free money, anyway).
I’m sure what they wanted by giving me a win on the last $2 (it’s all controlled by cards, they know what my demographic is, and that people in it are likely to be depressed and on the poor side, and thus potential gambling addicts) was for me to keep playing to try to score more, but what it really did was point out dark patterns and make me wildly uncomfortable with the whole situation..
lol no, silly, they don’t give you free money for that. That’s just the demographic they compare everything to as a baseline :)
It obviously depends on the establishment in question, but you get free shit for being a veteran, teacher, healthcare worker, firefighter or other emergency worker, stuff like that. Or a senior probably, they get tons of free shit, too.
They usually have super predatory lines of credit you can sign up for, you know, in case you're out of money and would still like to enjoy losing that much.
I've lived near casinos my entire life, and I can't understand the appeal of the gambling part. Unless it's the shiny lights. I like those. Those are nice.
People have an inherent inability to assess probability. Even with "safer" games like black jack when your odds are a little closer to 50:50, people will keep pushing until they have no money left. Bet it all 4 times and there's about a 94% chance you lose it all.
When I turned 21 my dad (very rational guy) was helping me learn video blackjack, it was stuff like determining probability, risk reward, strategy (getting dealer to guarantee bust allowing us to play safely), just blackjack stuff
Some advice that will now stick with me if I ever go gambling again is, due to probability, losing any money you won and then some, is a matter of when. House will always win if you’re in it for the long game, so either quit while you ahead, quit once you’ve won $X, or quit once you’ve lost $Y. Always assume the third option will happen even if you’re playing smart
I just go to the strip clubs. At least I get some proper entertainment for the lost money then. Actually I do hang out at the quarter slots. You get free beer.
Went last night to stay at a hotel with a casino to celebrate my wife's birthday. I play poker a lot with friends but only a few times at casinos, and my wife only does slot machines. We never go to casinos and this is the first time in like a decade. Got away from the kids for the first time in 7 years so after she quickly lost $80 like it was nothing to slots we were already good.
After talking, she finally agreed to a long-time promise about going to the strip club together since she's never been to anything like that. I have to agree with you, I may have lost the rest of my money, but it was a dam great time and an amazing first-time experience and something I hope I never forget (for both of us since it was way different than just going solo)!
That's something that never would have happened staying at the depressing slots, which may have been 30 more minutes tops to lose what I spent there. 1 bucket list item checked, lol.