When Texas Hold 'Em was big, I liked getting together to play with my friends for low stakes, and that was fun, because it was sociable. I knew them; we had a relationship with each other away from the gaming table; it was fun. I found that I was a very cautious player, so I knew I’d be terrible if I tried playing at casino tables-- but it was cool being a cautious player with my friends, because they knew I was cautious-- and so I was able to take a little advantage of their expectations of me. But the numbers, of course, never work out so that you had a strong hand so regularly, that you can win on the basis of strength vs bluff. My friends, though, were all about percentages and stuff, and really had it down to a science, and they did much better with Internet poker (back before it was banned) or casino poker.
Even though I knew casinos weren’t my speed, I went, just to get a feel for what it was like. It was very dreary, very depressing. The actual poker tables themselves weren’t any fun at all. I was out in about two hands, because I was being shoved around by a guy who had nothing, and we both knew he had nothing, but I had nothing, too, and I couldn’t shove back. I’d much rather take my $100 and go spend it on eBay or Amazon, and know that I’ve got what I want in my hands at the end of the day.
When we went to Vegas, I didn’t play a single game. I was all about the shows and the sights and the food— but I never even played a slot machine. Gambling is for people who are either very, very good at math, or very, very bad at math.
As to when it becomes sinful— it becomes sinful when it gets in the way of what you’re supposed to be doing. If you’re supposed to be paying the rent, and you ran off to Foxwoods hoping to quadruple your money— bzzzt, bad idea. If you’re supposed to be buying groceries, but you swing by Harrahs on the way home and everyone has to eat ramen for the rest of the week— bzzzt, bad idea. If you’re supposed to be being a parent, and instead, you’re playing online internet poker five nights a week— bzzzt, bad idea.
I used to have some online friends who were professional gamblers. They played high-stakes games as their primary income. And they were good. But for every person who can make a living at it— it’s chewed up and destroyed thousands and thousands more. And because of that, I think there’s a bit of a miasma? perhaps? that taints the whole thing, to the point that pursuing gambling seriously just isn’t an attractive pasttime, because even if you can afford it, and you’re not an addict, if you’re successful, you’re still going to chew up people who are. And preying on addicts isn’t really my idea of entertainment, or a successful business, or anything that I really want much of a part of— even if I’m not going into it saying, “Ha ha, eat ramen for a week! Your grocery money is MINE!”
“Once upon a time, Tis_Bearself bought a Powerball ticket, and the next morning, they woke to find they had won $700 million dollars. They then started figuring out whether it was better to take the lump sum or the 30-year-annuities, and how much to save, and how much to invest, and what kind of philanthropy to indulge in…”