Are you a gambler? If you are how does it effect you?

[NNN0LHI]

I am not a gambler because of the effect. Doesn't make any difference if I win or lose, the next day I feel like someone has been beating up on me with a baseball bat. I think its from my body tensing up when gambling? I go to one of the casinos around here regularly to eat, but I never gamble. Now that I like. Damn good food.

Does this happen to anyone else?

Don

[jobycom]

1. I play video poker a lot.

I don't tense up. It relaxes me, even when I lose. I only get to gamble a dozen times a year, or less, while visiting family in Mississippi or Louisiana.

One problem I've had lately, though, is being too relaxed. I don't seem to care when I'm losing, so my walk-away gene never kicks in. I play until I hit the mother lode (which is obviously rare) or until I'm broke. Not only have I left reasonable winnings in the slot, but I've refused to quit until the last cent is gone.

Normally when I walk in I say "I can lose X amount and not be hurt by it," and I wind up losing X amount. So I'm not hurt, but when I do that six or eight times in a year, it starts to look like real money, especially when I add in all the stuff I could have walked away with if I'd quit while I was ahead. It's not a life-altering amount we're talking about--basically I'm blowing money I'd otherwise spend on movies or bars or eating out more--but when I total the money in my head, it's clear I need to pay more attention to my exit strategy.

[TZ]

2. I do slots occasionally

But I never bet enough to hurt if I lose it all..and I generally stop when I am ahead..Last time I went, a couple years ago, I turned $50 into $500. I think the secret is go in expecting to lose everything you bet (and have a budget that you stick to). I've gone and lost everything too, but since I went in expecting it, it didn't really bother me.

[applegrove]

3. I worked in a Casino gift shop in Halifax. I took twenty dollars and got some

tokens. I put one token in and pressed the button. I put another token in and pressed the button. I was bored. I didn't feel a thing. So I took all my tokens back to the bank and got my money back.

[Moondog]

4. I've been to 8 or 9 casinos

in my life - 3 in Europe, 2 in the Caribbean, one that was on a ship, the rest in Vegas. Every time I went it was because I was with a person or a group who really wanted to go, and so I did in order to be sociable.

I've played Blackjack, Baccarat, Roulette, dice and the slots. On the whole, I think I ended up a couple of bucks ahead over the long haul, thanks solely to a single really big win at a casino in London playing Roulette and making a flyer type bet on a final spin just before leaving for the evening.

And all of it left me cold. I just don't get it. I don't get any kind of rush, or thrill, or anything else from it. The last few times I have been in Vegas I had dinner, a couple of drinks, caught a nice show - and on that topic, if you ever get a chance to see Cirque du Soleil live, do yourself a favor and do so - and called it a night.

I live about an hour from a major Indian owned casino in Florida, and I have never even bothered to go check it out.

So I guess the honest answer is that I tried to be a gambler, thought it was boring and didn't really "get it", and gave it up.

[struggle4progress]

5. Played friendly low-wager poker briefly as a young adult. Haven't played in decades.

Never gambled otherwise: no slots, no roulette wheels, no craps, no lottery tickets, nada

[pitohui]

6. i gamble to make money so maybe it's different for me

when the casinos first came to mississippi they were giving away the house to create goodwill and i learned to chase the promotions to make a side income, later i played blackjack and these days poker, i go where they're giving the money away

so it's a contest, and i guess it's "tense" because it's a contest, but it's about action, excitement, the treasure hunt...

they say most people gamble to "relax," i figure if you find it "relaxing," you're doing it wrong -- same thing as a guy who finds sex "relaxing" is prob. not much of a lover -- but i guess that's what makes horse racing, we all have different opinions

if i wanna eat, i have plenty of better places to go than a casino, but then i live in new orleans

keep in mind that if you're sitting a long time and not used to sitting, you might get stiff...some people bring cushions or whatever to sit on, to make the chairs right for them...or you could just play craps and stand up and jump up and down, hard to get stiff playing craps