So much for watching the Stupid Bowl

[smhardesty]

.
Bert, I never realized gambling was such a big issue down under. It looks like you guys actually have a bigger problem than here. It's a shame that gambling has become such an issue anywhere. One of the things that really sets me off is that elected officials in damned near every state in the US of A rattle on and on about how gambling proceeds from state run gambling "gimmicks" are being used to improve schools and the country's crumbling infrastructure. Every time I hear or see some idiotic politician saying anything similar to that, the only thing that goes through my mind is that it is painfully obvious that our elected officials think that forcing tens of thousand of citizens into bankruptcy and causing marriages to crumble is OK as long as they raise money to build a new bridge. That's exactly what the are doing and I defy anyone of them to prove me wrong.

I think I have a gambling phobia. I can’t stand the thought of putting my hard-earned money in a machine or on a table and put it at the mercy of chance. The couple of times I have stepped into a local casino was for a concert or to eat at one of the restaurants. Never been to Vegas.

I guess I have a little of that phobia myself. I have watched people on these machines and it just boggles my pea brain. There is absolutely NO skill involved with these things. You just shove a few ten or twenty dollar bills in the thing and push a button. Lights go off, music plays, the little wheels spin, and nothing happens, it was a loser. Then, they press that button again and the process repeats. They sit there and do it over, and over, and over.

My wife and I went to a riverboat for one of our anniversaries. I have no idea which anniversary. We stayed for three days and two nights in that city. We got all fired up and hit the boat the first night there. We walked around and watched other people for quite a while. I'm not sure exactly how many trips around the place we made, but after about an hour to an hour and a half, we decided we needed to leave. I had gotten $50 in chips when we went in. I still had all $50 in chips when we decided to leave. As we were headed out, we went right by a row of slot machines. I put $10 in one of the machines and played 50 cents at a time. Sure, I won a couple of times, but only got $2 or $3 back. It took a grand total of about 5 minutes to watch ten bucks disappear. We both would rather walk around and enjoy the sites instead of sitting in a noisy casino throwing away good money.

About the only "gambling" I ever liked to do was nickel/dime poker with friends. We placed a few different "rules" on the game to ensure nobody ever got hurt financially. Our games were about being with friends, enjoying a little friendly competition, and having a couple of beers. To me, that is a heck of a lot more fun that throwing a few hundred dollars into a machine that is programmed to make the owners profit. LOL!

And I've never been to Vegas and will never go to Vegas. That's not for me.
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[bertsmobile1]

When i was a youngster my uncle had access to a company box at the major race course
He was an A-hole but he taught me something that day
From the box we could see the main enterance, the members car park & the bookies car park
His line was "look at what the bookies arrive in ( expensive imported cars ) and look at what the punters arrive in ( on foot & busses ) , now guess which one makes the most money "
Then in school we learned probability and back then schools were allowed to do things like calculate the chances of winning at any type of gambeling.
So 2 up was 50:50 , Black jack was 30:1 and anything else was in the 1000's to millions .
We also played pretend pools ( football betting ) & Lottto which was just being introduced .
Over the year not a single person in the class of 40 came out ahead.
We also did pretend share trading and around 20% of the class came out ahead at the end of the year.

Enough to convince this little black duck that the "dream" we got sold would end up a nightmare for most .
We also did pretend investing in government bonds and Fx trading and all of them were comparred to simple bank saving .

The bank book won hands down for most of us .
Those of us who did the final 2 years of high school & did commerce / economics continued with the pretend investing / gambling / saving .
The ones that came out best was shares but only if they were in a reinvestment scheme , second was the government bonds & third was the plain bank book savings.
All of the gambling showed massive losses over the 3 years including the Fx trading & the futures trading .
A lesson well learned .
I lived in a social security neighbourhood for 12 years and it would kill me to see the pensioners coming into the newsagent with their pension cheques and spending 1/2 ( or more ) of it on various forms of gambling, all daydreaming about what they would do with their winnings .

 

[smhardesty]

Yep, you got it. Many years ago a man much older and wiser than I told me the same thing you are talking about. He told me to just look at the casinos, the various acts that are free, the free meals and free drinks, and what the owners and managers of such places drove and what they wore. Then he told me they didn't get all of that by letting the average Joe win on a regular basis. Sure, every once in a while some joker hits it big, but what you never see or hear is just how many people lost their butts before that joker hit it big. Gambling is not a way to get rich, for sure. I still hate seeing people in my little town shoving 20 dollar bills into these video games. One woman always comes to mind when I think about the rip off machines. She's a bit older than I am and she has a very pronounced learning disability of some sorts. On the 3rd of every month (when Social Security checks hit the bank) you'll see her riding her bicycle from location to location where the games are. She stops at every one of them and shoves money into them. She almost always goes broke before she manages to make it to all the places in town. Then she is broke for another month and has to depend on her sister and other handouts. It's damned sad.

 

[7394]

No interest in it anymore.

 

[shadetree#1]

Seen on news this AM that lowest priced Stupid Bowls ticket is around $3200.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Seen on news this AM that lowest priced Stupid Bowls ticket is around $3200.

Gee. I will have a perfect seat to watch and it will cost me nothing and the beer will be cheap and my favorite brand. I will get close in VIP parking too.

 

[smhardesty]

Yep. You guys have it just the way I do. I wouldn't pay $320 for a ticket to ANY pro sporting event. My living room is always at my preferred temperature and I can hit pause, rewind, and fast forward to suit myself.

 

[7394]

I just plain quit watching the games.. @ $3,200 for 1 ticket is insane.

 

[X580]

… gambling phobia. …

aka - “common sense”; and, I like the way you think!

 

[shadetree#1]

Watching from my living room I can change the channel fast when the STUPIC BOWL half time show starts. I would rather be watching oil base paint dry on a cold day than watch them half time clowns try to perform. What a joke.