Anything where you’re putting money in and hoping to get more money out, where it’s a zero sum game and any winnings will come from other people doing the same, is gambling imo. A gamble can be a good financial investment if you only do it in situations where you know you have some kind of edge, but doing it for fun is stupid because it fucks with your emotions and you’re just going to get screwed out of your money that way. If you are playing against people gambling for fun, rather than playing against “the house”, that might be one you can win.

Morally I think the ideal situation for gambling is one where people in bad financial situations get together so at least some of them can escape those situations. The worst is when people who don’t need more money ensure all of the profits will go exclusively to them, and no one else will really win.

My friends and I occasionally have poker nights, and its a lot of fun. Its funny how stakes of $5 or $20 - just a few dollars or cents at most for most hands - make a game much more exciting.

The problem is the casinos and sports betting apps…

I’ve tried to like it but I just can’t. How is it entertaining to just give your money away, literally without anything of value?

I’ll do Super Bowl squares and March madness, because it’s a social activity. Once every year or so I’ll buy a lottery ticket for one night of amazing dreams.

But organized gambling, like casino, inline, track, sports bets always just feels like they are robbing me. I did bet at a horse track and a dog track a couple of times but it’s just so sad watching these old people piss away their social security checks. Now we have polymarket which seems like mostly a way for immoral politicians, celebrities, business people to enrich themselves with insider knowledge

Yeah, we need to ban for-profit gambling

Last time I gambled I won $90. Figured that was the best it was ever going to get, and gave it after that. Go out on a high note, right?

I have no interest in gambling. I like watching sports, but I think gambling on it would ruin it for me since the outcome of the game would have a material effect on me.

Like all things, fine in moderation. Nothing wrong with friendly wagers among friends or spending some money playing casino games. The gambling industry doesn’t exist off the back of these players though and that’s the problem with it

I worked in a casino in the late 90’s. I dealt with supplying the coins and payouts for all the slot machines. When a machine would have a jackpot I could have the payout and paperwork printed and waiting before the techs could get to the machine. Everything would show up on my computer screen, including when there was a machine fill done.

Now ask yourself what prevents the machines from being “tighter” or “looser” at the push of a button or click of a mouse.

Every single game is designed to make the house a profit. The only way to truly win at gambling is to own the casino or not play.

I can’t necessarily find justification to ban it but it should come with warning labels and not be glamorized and advertised everywhere like it is. Casinos hurt communities. Gambling in general does. It just sucks money out of the lower classes. Lots of inheritances have been pissed away, lots of college funds too. It’s not a net positive, and that gives society a voice in regulating the shit out of it. Now that the internet is here IDK what they can really do anyway though, at least before there was a trip to the casino required to lose a bunch of money.

I don’t enjoy it. I think it’s sad when people get addicted to it.

I don’t even like big random factors in games. One of the things I like about the dark souls franchise is there’s very little randomness. You never win or lose because “lol critical hit”, like you might in something closer to D&D

Gambling as an industry should not exist. It’s just predatory.

Gambling with your friends is ok, BUT it can create resentment if the stakes are more than a nominal amount. Even as little as $100 can mean a lot to some people and can create problems when someone thinks they can afford it, but they actually can’t.

Gambling using a third party is throwing your money away UNLESS you have insider knowledge. It’s a fact that the majority of people lose money on these, and a very small percentage of people make A LOT of money by “gambling” on events they can influence the outcome of, or have prior actual insider information on.

Essentially unless you’re defrauding people, you are very likely getting defrauded yourself.

Gambling just isn’t worth it in any context.

I hate it.

I think gambling has tainted sports and is the epitome of corruption to the core. It’s very ironic that a baseball player by the name of Pete Rose, got a lifetime MLB ban for gambling, yet give it 20 some odd years later and Draft Kings is promoted which is gambling.

It fuels addiction, it makes people throw away anything they could that they could bet with, on the off chance, which is narrow, of winning it big.

It’s why I hate Las Vegas entirely, I hated it when poker games were nationally broadcast for a while at one point and so on.

I don’t really understand it. What’s the appeal? Personally, at least, the moment I realise that there’s nothing I can do in a game that affects whether I win or lose, I lose interest in it completely. Well, it’s not like I’m completely oblivious to the mechanisms here, I also get a little dopamine boost when, for example, I get a critical hit in a video game and disappointed when an attack misses, even though I can only vaguely influence the probabilities of those things happening, but that only works as a little constant pleasure differential as seasoning to keep you on your toes, it would be completely pointless as something that cumulates into a single climax.

The closest I’ve come to understanding the appeal is that the thrill of not just possibly winning money but also the risk of losing the fruits of your labour (i.e. “real stakes”, even if small), is pleasurable to some people…? But if that’s what it is, quite frankly, that’s seems less like seeking simple pleasure and more in the realm of depravity.

Anyway, I do think gambling is one of the dumbest dumbass dumb-dumb thing a person can do that doesn’t involve scooping out your eyeballs with a dirty plastic spork. Even putting aside that the odds are never in your favour and so, it isn’t rational thing to do, someone who starts gambling may not know they have the kind of addictive personality that gets them sinking into a bog, because that part of their character may have never surfaced, or only in low-stakes situations. So they’re not just gambling with money, they’re gambling with the very quality of their life.

Also, betting is just an inherently corrupting force. Even if you’re only making small bets, even if you’re not pressuring competitors to throw the match (if you even have the means to do so) or throwing banana peels into the ring to get the person you bet against to slip and fall or something, you’re contributing to the payout to the people who are, incentivising that behaviour. There’s no high payout for betting against the odds (and then working to make the unlikely the inevitable) if there’s not enough livestock contributing to the pot.

I don’t do it because it feels like I’m throwing my money away.

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