I put down a few bucks on the horses on the first Saturday in May, but it seems like online sports betting is just specifically designed to screw people out of all their money as fast as possible.

I guess…change my mind? Or don’t.

Edit: I wasn’t asking anyone to convince me to gamble, I was curious who the hell actually throws money in a black hole and wanted to hear their perspective. Thanks for the downvotes.

  • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    61·
    7 days ago

    I don’t, but I have a friend who does, or at least, he has. He said he made a couple bucks, but when I pressed, he said he’s lost more than he’s won.

    My stepmother is a gambler, and has a pretty good tip (strategy) for gambling responsibly. I would say “don’t” but some people are going to. So what she does, she sets aside a budget to gamble with, and that goes in one pocket. All winnings go to another pocket. When she runs out of the first amount, she never dips into the winnings. The initial amount is the value she placed on the fun she had, however long it lasted. She does not spend any more than that. If you have some self control, you can do it, too.

    I don’t like gambling. I’m good at math and I know the house always wins. I don’t care about casino games much (though, Blackjack is fun with friends with chips, no money involved). I do play video games though. And for the first time in over a decade, I just preordered a game. Final Fantasy 7 remake for Xbox. It’s been out for 5 years on PlayStation, so it’s not “new.” Plus, I played the original when it was brand new in 1997, and the preorder includes that. And I’ve actually been playing it. $40. Not bad. I think my stepmother takes $50 or $100 to the casino. Mostly I buy games on sale. I recently got the new Harry Potter game and the newest iteration of Persona 5 for about $10 each. Hogwarts Legacy on Xbox, Persona 5 Royal on Switch. And I got Mario Kart 8 for the Switch for my wife. $50. So, $110 on gaming in the last month… but those games will last me quite a while, and I can replay them whenever I want. I’ve probably paid $100 into Cyberpunk 2077, between the Steam version, the Xbox version, the DLC for Xbox, and then the DLC for Steam, when it came to Mac. Got a few sales in there. But I have a few hundred hours into that game. So, video gaming is the greater value, but for people not that much older than me (I’m younger Gen X), it’s not even a consideration. They would rather gamble with real money than play a $5 casino game on a Switch or iPhone (there may even be cheaper ones, just throwing out a number).