Winning Cash: Worth the gamble?
 

Tonight, on my home, I felt a little lucky. I stopped at the local gas station where I always buy cigarettes and gas, and ask for three $2 scratch tickets. Low and behold, I won $400.

This is the first time I've won anything remotely substantial with the exception of a royal flush in a hand of poker at the casino.

I've spent enough money to actually EARN this money, to be honest. (Thats sad.)

So - do you gamble? If you do, whats your limit? Do you consider it a form of entertainment? Or are you afraid to become hopelessly addicted to the notion of winning money?

I do not gamble. I will not gamble.

I work hard for my money, and do not see any use in throwing it away in the offhanded chance I will win a large sum of money.

Scratches are fun but I almost never do them. In virtually all forms of gambling, in the long run, you either break even or "the house wins." You broke even, but if you didn't buy this winning lotto, "house" would've won probably, since you wouldn't have gotten the $400 ;(

I started playing poker (usually Hold'em) with friends on occasions over a year ago (~$5-10 buy-in). About one year ago, I started gambling online, with stakes going as high as the $200+20 buy-in no-limit tournies. I finally stopped (online gambling) last September, cashing in on a few thousands of dollars of winnings. I still play with my friends sometimes, but not nearly as often as before. It's been more about the board games recently.

I don't gamble either and yes I am afraid of becoming addicted to it. I hear stories all the time of how people spend money on those lottery tickets and scratch-off cards and win nothing. I think that's more motivation for me not to play.

It would be nice to win money like that, though. :)

I also gon't gamble for fear of addiction. I know I would become addicted in real life just because of all the time I used to spend on fake gambling (not to mention all the fake money I lost). Whenever I even think about trying to gamble, I just instead think about what I could spend the money I have now on rather than thinking about spending the money I could have on.

In the long run, it doesn't pay off - you always lose. That's why they can afford to sell such tickets. I have a couple of relatives who will go to Vegas once or twice a year. Whenever they win, they'll tell you, but they never seem to mention how much they lose every other time.

I can tell you that I spent more over the past 6 months just playing. The $400 is a long time coming. There's no telling you how often I just broke even or walked away out of $20.

I think its a lot better to play games where you actually have mathematical control over the odds. Not that you're going to win, but at least you have a choice on how to proceed. =/

I gamble, but only if, at the very least, the odds are on my side. That doesn't exactly happen often, although I did quite enjoy scratch tickets when I was younger, mostly because I didn't pay for them, and because I once won $500 which was essentially a fortune for me back then.

These days, the closest thing to gambling I do is investing. And since I make a difference between "investing" and "speculation", I guess you can't really call that anything close to gambling.

I do play poker at the casino, and am very good at it. I have won quite a substantial amount of money, in which I have spent all of it (on cars mostly, which keep crashing/breaking). I haven't been in the last month or so though.

I don't think I could get addicted to pokies/slots or other types of gambling, as I find the games so boring. I don't play poker for the money, it's all about winning the mind game for me, out-witting, out-bluffing and out-playing your opponents.

My friends and I have a poker game every couple weekends. Over the summer we were kind of addicted, and we played a lot more. We played pretty high stakes for our budgets (We make no money) and $10-$25 entry fees were the norm. While this could have been bad, I usually played a sound and patient game, and ended up making over $300 that summer. Add this to my winnings from hustling pool, and I made around $500 that summer without working a minute.

Back to the present and our biweekly game. We play for a little lower stakes now, but we still have fun. It's really just turned into an excuse to get together and drink, though. :)

Hey Sass what do you know! I bought my 649 ticket today, but I haven't checked the numbers yet for the Saturday draw. Whenever I come across a lotto center I just put in my $2 or more if I feel lucky. So far nothing has been yielded yet, but I like putting $2 towards a lotto ticket instead of the pop and candy bar deal at the local college. I have not gone to casinos to play there since somehow I really don't know how to play any of the card games, plus I'm not interested in the VLT machines.

I find putting the $2 in for a ticket doesn't give you that addrenaline rush which leads to addiction. Plus pyschologically, $2 a week seems a bit less harsh on your wallet than $20 gone in like 5 minutes.

I love those scratch tickets but paying upwards of $5 for one is silly.

Me and my girlfriend went a little crazy on buying the scratch and win cards a little while back, the most we won was $50, but m ost of the time we just kept winning $3 (the same cost at the card), so we woudl always be getting others for "free" Haven't done that in awhile though. I'm not much of a gambler, and don't plan on being one, I always lose lol

Playing dice and poker with friends to pass the time and push some spare change has always been fun, but major gambling for high stakes has never really seemed all that interesting to me.

Legally Im not old enough to gamble. But at all the local parties we all always play poker. With 10 dollar buy in's and such. The most I ever won was around 160 dollars (probably 120 in profits for the night). Good night but those dont come often. But Im thinking this summer cause Im going to have a much harder job, I'll want to keep my money and not spend it foolishy.

I think so. I sign up for a lot of the contests I see. Yeah I have a lot of time on my hands but recently I won a $300 braclet and month before I one a $150 certificate for this local Italian restaurant.
I haven't gone to the casino very many times though or played the lottery. I'm talking things like local radio station contests and stuff. Maybe this stuff wouldn't be considered gambling cause in many cases no purchase is nessecary.

Why not? If you don't win any, another you in an alternate universe will!

Isn't your money at least worth an alternate you's happiness?

I gamble once in a while, but I dont let it become a habit. When I was a freshman in highschool, me and some friends started playing poker in a class where goofed off anyway. At first it was for fun, then we started making bets, we would start off with a small amount, and everyone pitching in a dollar, then we'd up the wager for no reason other than the joy of risktaking. Once, I lost about 40 bucks at a time when I had little cash flow. Amazingly I scrapped some cash to pay the guy. Afterwards, I promptly quit playing for a while.
Thats probably the most Ive ever lost, cause nowadays Im more careful on how much of an amount I throw in while gambling.

Man, I never win. But I love to gamble.

As soon as I hit eighteen, I hit up the local Native American casinos around here, and I have gambled whenever I had a little extra cash (usually twenty-five or so) to blow. Usually, I merely break even, but once I did win around thirty bucks extra, which I promptly spent on my three friends for dinner.

For me, the gambling itself is fun; I never go seriously expecting to win.

Meh, I'm not into the whole throw my money away scams that we call the lotto. I'd rather invest my money and get a high rate of return than use it on a little peice of paper that will most likely be worth nothing.

Sometimes when I'm ordering out of a resturant and waiting for my order, I'll stop by a liquor store and buy a lotto ticket. And I never win, which actually makes me mad. Gambling doesn't bode well with my rationale

Is it just me or are slots the most annoying gambling mechanism ever. You put money, press a button until you run out. I feel my brain turning into goo at the sight of my $20 disappearing for a throughly unfun time.

Yet those are considered some of the most addictive form of gambling.

I gamble on occasion. I'll buy a scratch ticket if I happen to have some cash on hand and I pass by one of the automated machines, but I've never done the LOTTO proper and probably never will.

I can see myself getting heavily addicted to Vegas gamlbing, though. That's the kind of stuff that my mind would revel in, so I'm not sure if I'll ever allow myself into Vegas.

To be honest the idea of gambling really doesn't appeal to me all that much. With fake/monoply money, sure, but when it comes to my own hard-earned cash, not likely. Mainly because I'm far too aware of the odds and how little they're in your favour (I used to work in shop where we sold scratch cards and people would always scratch there and then so I saw first hand how many people 'won').

Occassionally I'll buy a powerball ticket...2 if the pot is high. I've won $7 on it once, but that's been about it. If I'm lucky, I'll get...a number. Maybe 2.

I might try some blackjack sometime in a casino, if I ever actually have money that consists of more than $5 in my pocket.

I'm not much a fan of gambling, mostly because I think I have bad luck (with lottery stuff) or bad skill (games like poker and the like). I rather like having more money than less, so I usually avoid it.

I bought a scratch ticket when I was 18 just cuz I could, and that's been about the extent of what I do. I think I've bought maybe 5 tickets in total (mostly when my friends and I were feeling dumb) and I never play games for money, so overall I suppose I'm fairly safe about it.

I refuse to gamble. My father became and still is hopelessly addicted to it, and it's ruined enough for me to see that it's not for me. Both of us have addictive personalities, so I know that if I started I'd be just as bad as he's become. Since I live in the south in Louisiana, gambing and casinos are all over the place on the Gulf and near the Mississippi. I'm surrounded by it, but I've never felt the urge to want to go there.

I gamble once in a blue moon because quite frankly I cant afford to lose what I got. :P

The most I've spent is money on powerball tickets or the Georgia Lottery when the pot gets really high.

The couple people who know me here in real life know of the streak I had at a casino for over $10,000 over many nights, all of which was spent pretty quick on stuff I needed (piano, payments, etc). I gamble only with what I can afford to lose, and I didn't have a problem with the risk. It's a game, and as long as you're having fun, win or lose be safe with your money and there's no problem.

I like to gamble on video games and such, but I don't really feel an urge to in real life. I might just once go to the casino with like 20-30 bucks, but that's just because I'm 18 now and I can. I think the biggest reason I haven't yet is that I don't have a job and no steady income. So, maybe once I get a job.

Sass, MA state scratch tickets really do pay out decently well though. I had a stretch for a while where I was really bad playing those, spending maybe $10 at lunch. I stopped that when money became a bigger issue than it was.

Besides, I play poker now. Things aren't as random in poker and there's the issue of what you can and can't control. I've made money on online poker, not a lot, but some. It's more than I can say for the scratch tickets.

I don't play the lottery that often. You always hear of the hard times people have win they win the Powerball; especially the old man in WV.

I think if you're responsible, get a lawyer and a financial adviser, you have a better chance of haveing the money stay w/you longer and not going bankrupt.

Yea, it comes and goes I notice. Depending on how fat the bank account is, I'll spend up to $50 a whack.

Its just really sucky winnings. I never really want to do the $10 or $5 tickets - I almost ALWAYS bite at the $2 ones.

For once, I won something reasonably substantial. And no one will cash my ticket. ;_;

Yea, see, I would play poker, but I have a feeling I would become a lot more ADDICTED to that because I know in the back of my head its not all a matter of chance. It gets a lot harder to walk away from.

How does that online poker shit work? How do they make money? Do they take a portion of your winnings or somethign? Is there a lot of money to be made? I'd consider checking it out if I knew more about it. Maybe you can help me out, Nova. ^_^

I love gambling, although I can still limit myself. I usually have 2 20-euro bets a month that are sure to genereate me some profit, and a 30-euro bet that's a bit risky, but so far it has earned me quite a lot of money (500 euros when the new pope was elected, others are usually around 100 euros).

I am not the type to go to a casino though, since I wouldn't be able to stop there. Whenever we play poker with a bunch of friends, I really can't stop, so I don't want to think what would happen in an actual casino.

gamble or not?
 

Normaly I dont gramble, I dont like the idea to loose my money for nothing.
I prefer to save this money for later.
But it hapens I play lotto with friends just for the fun, but it is very rare.

I'll gamble, sure, but I don't think wasting your time on hoping to win big is worth the risk. Winning is so low a chance, I think it's a waste of time to spend so much money when your odds of winning is lower than getting struck by lightning.