A Sad Cautionary Tale

Con I up you 5 and see you for 10.

LE totally agree.   

Before I came to China, I was a casino dealer in the United States. Mainly blackjack, craps and other card games. I worked in several casinos in the state of Mississippi, mostly in Tunica, and a place in Vicksburg. Before my training as a dealer, I lived and worked in Las Vegas, Nevada (the cultural black hole of North America). So I have seen the high lites and the low lites of gambling.

What I saw were a lot of people who played in the casino everyday. I remember one guy and his wife one weekend, who started playing on Friday night and still was wearing the same clothes on Sunday. There was this other real annoying couple who used to play every single day on the craps table, betting at least $500 USD (about 4000 RMB) a night. I once asked someone what that man does, and was told that he was a farmer. "What does he grow, cocaine?" I remember these two guys that were best friends but who gambled (illegally) on any basketball game constantly.

I was working in a casino one night when some employees were snickering about the bathroom and a patron inside. In this casino, it was allowed for employees to use the patron's bathrooms, and I usually took a wee in there before I went back on the floor and went inside. In the stall, I saw a pair of legs with a huge turdon the floor with a lot of the fecal matter on the guys legs. Poor bastard was probably playing the machines and refused to get up until his colon blew. It is common for people to urinate on the seats from getting up on a "hot" slot machine that is due for a jackpot.

We had a lot of Asians come in on Sunday nights, because this was their day off from their small businesses and whatnot. Usually pretty good gamblers and never bitched or complained much. We did have one woman (We think she was Korean) that we nicknamed "The Dragon Lady" who would start playing 21 with $25 dollar chips, then playing $5, then to the $2 table trying to make a comeback. She did a lot of smoking, complaining and was a general pain in the ass.

I once worked in another casino where Michael Jordan played. This was abot 1995 or so, and Jordan had his first retirement from the NBA and was playing minor league baseball (he turned out to be a mediocre player). He had several teammates playing and while they played $5, Mr. Airness played $500. I never talked to him or approached him, but I saw the dude close up. Another pro athlete we had was John Daly, a pro golfer, alcoholic and degenerate gambler from Arkansas. This guy would play $500 to a $1000 in three spots on the 21 table. For hours. Then there was the casino employees, many of them would go to a neighboring casino and blow their paychecks. I personally dont think gambling is wrong. I have gambled in the casinos, but I dont spend more than I can afford to lose. Problem and addictive gamblers are attracted to the action, and the thrill of a big win.

My 42 year old Chinese wife is a gambler, mostly mah jongg. One place she plays in Hangzhou has a room with computers in it with guys playing baccarat with a live dealer via satellite. These guys played 10,000 RMB a play. They let me play a bet for a 1000 RMB and won, the guy whose game it was gave me the 1,000. If I lost, we would of had to pay him. I told my wife to stay the hell away from that, and she has. But she will play mah jongg everyday and has played all night before. Sometimes she does well and she gives me money. But as I said, she's 42, a grown woman and has done this for a long time and it doesnt seem that she is heading for the poor house.

Today in Hangzhou, I went into a bathroom at school and the smell of the stale cigarette smoke, the urine and the muskiness reminded me of my old casino days. Sounds like a great place for a vacation, doesnt it?

Senor

Gambling shouldn't be illegal.

Teaching people from a young age statistics, logic and science would probably make this unnecessary.

Gambling shouldn't be illegal.

Teaching people from a young age statistics, logic and science would probably make this unnecessary.

Teaching people from an early age hasn't stopped any other addiction - why this one?

Sorry, I was unclear.

I meant to say, teaching people to think about this intelligently and educating them in the directions mentioned will reduce numbers sufficiently so that any laws against gambling would be unnecessary because anyone abusing it would at least be informed and consenting, not suckers.

I didn't mean it would eliminate the problem, just that it would make it so that people would know what they were doing, so consent is therefore achieved.

The same would apply to drugs, yes.

Teaching is different from running a bunch of ads for propaganda. I don't mean convincing. I mean giving them the details and the tools to understand, let them make their own decision, and if they choose, then, that's their right.

Further to Senor BW's account of disgusting things he saw while working as a dealer, I am proud (as a Canuck)to say that the punters at our casinos usually wear adult diapers so they can relieve themselves without having to give up their place at a table or a hot slot. The staff know this because they have to clean up the dirty diapers strewn around the parking lots! 

JWhomer that is really something to be proud of, you have a better class of customer in Canada.
When I first heard about the punters not leaving their chairs to go to the toilet and pissing on the carpet.  I thought these must be isolated incidents.  The diaper thing takes it to the next level.
But what I don't understand is that if you need to go to the bathroom you lean your chair against the table and reserve it until you come back

I believe the key point here was players at the slot machines.

When I lived in the USA we used to go to Vegas every year for the big computer show. The funny thing about it was that most of us geeks had no interest in gambling. So, Vegas hated us. They'd put all their promo dollars into colorful hand-outs of girlfriends-for-hire. Something nerds have a reputation for needing. As they handed them out, they'd say 'Microsoft' hoping we'd take a copy. I got suckered just once. And I had a girlfriend anywho... no need for a rental.
But I don't know a single programmer friend that gambles. For myself, I consider it socialization and education. No one in my family gambles so I have no emotional attachment to the possibility that I could 'win big'. I also never enjoyed the 'process'.  ('Hello 7!' just sounds silly to me.) And if you do the math, it's a losing proposition in the long run no matter what anybody says. Watch the movie 'casino'. It's a great flick.
And, finally, I had a great lesson at the age of 18. I was in Vegas for my first time on a fake ID and playing the nickel slots. I thought maybe I could win with some system. I asked the waitress that was bringing free drinks if the slots were better payers than the big stakes stuff. She said "the slots pay the light bills around here". And she looked up. I followed her eyes to a ceiling covered with flashing lights as far as I could see. It hit me right then that the casino would always be the winner.

Further to Senor BW's account of disgusting things he saw while working as a dealer, I am proud (as a Canuck)to say that the punters at our casinos usually wear adult diapers so they can relieve themselves without having to give up their place at a table or a hot slot. The staff know this because they have to clean up the dirty diapers strewn around the parking lots! 

EWWWW! Imagine people for hours or days sitting on their own defication.

There was a black guy who hit a slot for 10 million dollars. Happily I wasnt there. To see someone win 10 million dollars would make me physically ill . The funny thing was that the guy was on parole and was not allowed to be out of state (he was from Tennessee, in Mississippi) or an establishment that served alcohol. I heard a lot of stories about what happened, but what is usually accepted was that he was paid the first installment and was'nt paid after that.

There was another woman I read about who asked some slot person to watch her machine while she went to the bathroom. The underpaid casino employeee just said "yea, whatever....." and walked off. Someone else played her machine and hit a large jackpot. She tried to sue, but lost. It's all luck. The idiot above was just sticking dollar slugs at random. He thought at first that he won only 10,000.

I remember once in Las Vegas where I went into a bar with friends to watch Monday Night Football. In most all bars in Vegas had bartop Video Poker machines. I liked them and dropped some quarters in a machine. The problem was that some idiot already had credit on that machine. He sat and played three machines at the same time, the one in front of him, the one to his left and the one to his right. We had words about it, with me arguing that he should not tie up three machines. To me, the odds are the same regardless. I was young and stupid, I did not anything. The idiot was not a tourist, he was some local guy who probably played those machines everyday.

I gamble. I like baccarat, 21 and craps. Craps is the only fun game. Bring your buddies and your beers, put your money down and let it roll. If you know how to play, (placing 6 and 8, play the COME bet with maximum odds) you might win. I downloaded a casino game from one of those online casinos. It's tough. I hold my own with 21, but sometimes I go up and down quite quickly. I thought it would be a softshoe to sucker me into real money, bt it hasn't been. There are also somegames that people should just avoid because the house vig is just too damned high. A roulette wheel has 38 numbers but if someone hits a number, it only pays 35 to 1.

I remember one night sitting outside having a smoke with some other dealers, some black, some white. Someone stated that a game was a "suckers game", and we all paused and said together that it is all a suckers game. I do howvever had a lot of fun in the casinos, and it you play your money right, you can still lose some but get some nice perks. For example, playing $200 in a casin gets you free drinks, a fun atmosphere, and a nice meal free when you want a break from the action. Sometimes a free room. It works out in their favor in the end, but not by much if you are smart ( a good trick is buying a roll of quarters from the bar and getting a free drink. An alcoholics paradise if the drunk does not stick his quarters in a machine, but a drunk with a real heavy pocket at the end of the night. )

Senor

JWhomer that is really something to be proud of, you have a better class of customer in Canada.
When I first heard about the punters not leaving their chairs to go to the toilet and pissing on the carpet.  I thought these must be isolated incidents.  The diaper thing takes it to the next level.
But what I don't understand is that if you need to go to the bathroom you lean your chair against the table and reserve it until you come back

A large proportion of the casino customers in Ontario come from our great neighbour to the south.  There's no casino gambling in New York state, so they come here with their adult diapers. "Keep Canada green! Bring American money!" 

OK... I have to admit that many of the diapered addicts are locals too.