Do you gamble?

[Rev. Powell]

Of casino games blackjack has the best odds for the player, if you use optimum strategy.

Keno (if you don't know it, it's a pick a number game, like a lottery) has the worst.

Surprisingly, the player can make money at video poker, using the optimum strategy (which few people use) and the right machine (since some have more favorable payout schedules than others).

[sprite75]

Only every once in a while.  And I usually quit after losing a couple dollars.  I went to the new Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque when they moved into a new facility just to see what it was like - but I'm more interested in their bowling alley than their slot machines.  I put five bucks in and managed to lose that in about half an hour.

I never really caught the gambling bug.  I have other hobbies to throw money at that I actually get something in return.

When my grandma was alive she loved to go to the dog track and play the slots there.  If you put the words dog and track together in her house she'd be halfway out the front door by the time you finished saying those two words, all ready to go.

[The Burgomaster]

Of casino games blackjack has the best odds for the player, if you use optimum strategy.

Keno (if you don't know it, it's a pick a number game, like a lottery) has the worst.

Surprisingly, the player can make money at video poker, using the optimum strategy (which few people use) and the right machine (since some have more favorable payout schedules than others).

This is true, but you probably need to play for a long time to make any money (I think the player's advantage is 1% or less with perfect play) and you will surely hit some peaks and valleys along the way.  I tried this last summer in Las Vegas.  I sat at a video poker machine with the "perfect play" chart in my hand.  After about an hour, it started to become a real pain in the ass to keep looking up everything on the chart to see which cards I should keep and which I should throw away.  So, I abandoned the video poker machine and went back to playing Blackjack.

[AndyC]

Never gamble, just don't get any enjoyment out of it.  You see those big multi-million dollar casinos, I think I know in which direction the money is flowing. 

Exactly. Gambling is big business because most people are losing. I'll p**s away money on a lot of things, but not on a razor-thin chance of a big enough return to make it worth the cost and the stress. I don't even do lotteries or raffles.

I have, on two occasions, gone into a casino and played the slots. Both times, I left twenty minutes later and twenty dollars poorer, wondering what the hell the attraction is. I can't see why solitary people sit around like lab rats pushing a button on a machine that just spins its wheels for a second and asks for more money. At least lose your money playing cards or dice or roulette, or put it on a horse. All these at least offer some entertainment value I can understand, even if I wouldn't do it myself.

[Psycho Circus]

I don't do the lottery either, I never have. They keep sending emails round at work about it and I'm getting sick of them. It's like everyday trying to get me in on it. The delete button is my only friend at the office. 

[BoyScoutKevin]

My sister and brother-in-law do. They drive up from their home in southern California to Las Vegas and stay in one of the hotels on the Strip. Then they stick to the nickel slots.
They look at it as an inexpensive vacation.

Myself . . . ? Nope! If I gamble I lose  money, and I hate to lose money. The last time I gambled it was at a charity affair, when I was in college. And I lost big and quickly, but, at least I didn't mine, as the money was going to charity.

[MilkManPictures]

...only with my life.