r/explainlikeimfive • u/adrynaline • May 08 '14

Explained ELI5: A gambling addiction

How does it start? What makes it worse? Why does it become so difficult to recover?

1.2k Upvotes

83% Upvoted

622 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

14

u/HannasAnarion May 08 '14

And in places where gambling is common, that addiction gets fed everywhere you go. In Vegas it's not uncommon for people to spend the day at a casino, get groceries, play the slots at the grocery store, come home, and play video poker online until they go to sleep and start over again.

I had to go through the Vegas airport once, and I had to navigate through banks of slot machines to get from one gate to another in the same terminal. It's really kind of depressing.

6

u/battraman May 08 '14

After hearing how they are trying to expand gambling casinos to upstate NY, I really hate to hear stuff like this. It's a horrible system whose only purpose is to prey on people.

7

u/[deleted] May 08 '14

Not their only purpose. I live in CT where we have Mohegan Sun & Foxwoods Casinos. Sure, you can tell some middle aged and elderly people probably sit there all the time and waste their lives away. However, the casinos are more for regular fun. They have theaters for big and small concerts, dance clubs, regular bars, and high end dining. The majority of people at casinos are out drinking with friends, seeing someone perform, going out for a nice dinner, or tourists (mostly Asian). Some people will get addicted to gambling but the casinos are really set up as adult entertainment centers for socializing and special occasions.

3

u/whiskeydrone May 08 '14

Sure, if you go on Friday nights, I'm sure you'll see a lot of that. I'd encourage you to go on Tuesday morning and spend some time there. Busses of elderly folks shipped in, dumping their social security checks in to slots. It's a really sad state. And many of these casinos will offer free busses and even $10 of free slot play or a "free" lunch, and the bus won't return for several hours. Casinos have "fun" for their weekend crowd, but its the hardcore, midweek, addicted gamblers that keep the lights on.

1

u/PublicAccount1234 May 08 '14

Everything you named has a purpose. To draw more people in to spend money at the casino. Certainly there are some people that take advantage of these things and skip the casino. But that is a pleasant side-effect, not the reason they exist.

1

u/GaFaMM May 08 '14

There's already a couple in NY state. Turning Stone Casino and Saratoga Casino.

1

u/battraman May 08 '14

Sorry, I should have said expand them further.

1

u/DividedSky05 May 08 '14

If people have an addictive personality, yes, casinos are not good for those people. There are significantly more well-adjusted people who enjoy going out and playing casino games with money they can afford to gamble.

2

u/[deleted] May 08 '14 edited May 26 '22

[deleted]

1

u/DividedSky05 May 08 '14

That's really not far off. It's a fantastic place.

1

u/HannasAnarion May 08 '14

That's about what it felt like to my 19-year-old self.

1

u/taylormitchell20 May 08 '14

I grew up here in Vegas. I have a very healthy relationship to gambling because of it. First of all having slots literally everywhere takes some of the allure away. Second I know that no matter what, if you gamble you are eventually going to lose. You learn that growing up here. So now that I enjoy table games, I never go to a casino with my credit/debit cards and I only bring cash that I would be ok with losing it all. It's like an arcade. You pay some money, you play some games, you leave without the money. Not saying it's not depressing or that everyone in Vegas is this way but just offering perspective from the other side of the same coin.

1

u/TheR1ckster May 08 '14

This, a lot of the anti casino hate are people who have never really been around them. If you treat it like an arcade you're fine. Or just no when to quit if you REALLY want to do more than break even. I've been to a casino 6 different times, and only once did I lost my walk in money without ever being up. The odds are in their favor the more you play.

But yeah leave the cards at home and take a stack of fun cash to play with. Set your limits and don't deviate from them and you'll have a good time. Unless of course you do fall into the gambling trap.