How to blow 5K in one evening...

[steinhaug]

Very sensible. You should ask the casinos to exclude you.

There, 12 MG-casinoes have now recieved an email. I feel like a huge weight have been lifted from my shoulder!

Now I should get naked and run around shouting : IM FREE IM FREE!

...and that's the bit we don't see - when you give it all back.

Ain't the truth just depressing... But hey, there are people who are able to stop - by all means - but I'm usually not one of them. I'f I had been posting more on screens that suck, you would probably have noticed the clock being typically 30 minutes past a winner screenshot, However I stopped posting the wininng screenshots - I have tons - since I know they arn't worth anything. Stuffing Loaded with $1000 for a nice $240 win on $5 is worthless, unless I want people to believe I won $240 that is... We all know those tragic wannabee-gamblers that cant admit a loss for a loss.

Another thing is that playing with digits on the screen isn't by far the same as playing with reel cash... I mean, I know I'm not alone, who would in their right state of mind be spinning $40 spins on a landbased Cashville slot? It's insane! However its the max in Spin Palace, so if you want the best payout you better keep those $40 spins comming... Naturally I've done a few.

Inside the MG-environment it's just numbers, you totally loose the feel of cash - and maby, just maby, that is that extra edge which makes online gambling very dangerous. I know you get that feeling very wuickly back when looking at the bank statement...

 

[caruso]

There, 12 MG-casinoes have now recieved an email. I feel like a huge weight have been lifted from my shoulder!

Now I should get naked and run around shouting : IM FREE IM FREE!

Excellent; may others follow your lead.

If I had been posting more on screens that suck, you would probably have noticed the clock being typically 30 minutes past a winner screenshot,

The problem is there IS NO WAY to post meaningfully about losses in the same way - all there is the drip-drip-drip effect on your bank balance. At most you could post a screenshot of deposits against cashouts, or starting then finishing balance...but none of that has any graphic effect that the pointless picture of a slot hit has.

However I stopped posting the wininng screenshots - I have tons - since I know they arn't worth anything. Stuffing Loaded with $1000 for a nice $240 win on $5 is worthless, unless I want people to believe I won $240 that is... We all know those tragic wannabee-gamblers that cant admit a loss for a loss.

Your words are invaluable, Kimss. I have little empathy with our resident slot junkies myself, as I have no understanding of what motivates them to this extraordinarily destructive habit, and frankly, little sympathy for them. As such, any comment I make has little meaning to them and comes across as sour grapes and negativity. You, on the other hand, are (were?) ONE of them - and you react in exactly the same way as I do, and call it for exactly what it is, as I do.

People can piss and bitch to me about "negativity"; let them try that on you, who have been there and know it first hand. You give the lie to the whole sorry BS hype - much kudos to you.

 

[Slotster!]

Excellent; may others follow your lead.

Yeah! Especially the running around naked bit!!! Only the Ladeez mind... Not the blokes or anything... Cast that image from my mind!!! Ugh, I feel dirty.

Your words are invaluable, Kimss. I have little empathy with our resident slot junkies myself, as I have no understanding of what motivates them to this extraordinarily destructive habit, and frankly, little sympathy for them. As such, any comment I make has little meaning to them and comes across as sour grapes and negativity. You, on the other hand, are (were?) ONE of them - and you react in exactly the same way as I do, and call it for exactly what it is, as I do.

Whoah! Easy tiger! There's absolutely nothing wrong with people playing slots for fun! Seriously, a lot of people do. Of course there's some people who take it way too far, but that goes for Blackjack, Poker and god knows what else form of gambling. All of them in fact.

There's nothing wrong with people enjoying slots, and posting up the lovely winning screenshots.

If someone wants to take that as an indication that you always win on slots, and they should pour the housekeeping into them - then they're stupid, and shouldn't be allowed an internet connection.

 

[steinhaug]

In remarks to theese :

Your words are invaluable, Kimss. I have little empathy with our resident slot junkies myself, as I have no understanding of what motivates them to this extraordinarily destructive habit, and frankly, little sympathy for them. As such, any comment I make has little meaning to them and comes across as sour grapes and negativity. You, on the other hand, are (were?) ONE of them - and you react in exactly the same way as I do, and call it for exactly what it is, as I do.

Whoah! Easy tiger! There's absolutely nothing wrong with people playing slots for fun! Seriously, a lot of people do. Of course there's some people who take it way too far, but that goes for Blackjack, Poker and god knows what else form of gambling. All of them in fact.

There's nothing wrong with people enjoying slots, and posting up the lovely winning screenshots.

I would have to agree with both of you. First of I must say that it is important to point out that I belong to the people playing far to hard, and I play to win - its fun to, sure. I do not belong to the group of people who can sit a whole nite on a slot for $0.09 and $0.27 and feel the excitement... So those people that don't have problems with gambling are not a part of my argument - so to speak, and they should not be affended. I am only speaking to the people wagering more than you agreed with yourself when you started, the people ending up with an evening runining a whole forthcomming week since you infact wasted money that were ment for other purposes. I am in other words talking to gambling addicts, like myself, people who know that If they never played a cent they could purchase a house and car cash.

There, there should be no reason for argument on that one,

Then to clarify the winner screenshots. My point is excactly as noted above.

This is a winnerscreenshot :
Start playing harveys, $500 in you hit $1000.

This, a true story, is not :
Ladies nite : $2000 in I hit all ladies, $1500 win - No win!

The last one is a very nice screenshot, but for me to say it is a winner screenshot is just wrong, if I were to post it I would atleast watermark the image with a little followupstory abou this win costed me $500. But again - me being the honest gambling guy.

I also think this part of the thread, regarding screenshots becomes a little off-topic since it makes some of us look like real bad loosers when we start complaining about the winner screenshots - which is wrong. Theese screenshots are infact what we are playing for, if it hadn't been for theese opertunities we wouldnt have played in the first place. Knowing that some schmuck got the win, means this schmuck can get it to, Hey, I even startet playing $22.5 on Thunderstruck thanks to the winner screenshots,

But as noted, I stopped posting those nice screens since I wasn't comfortable with the results in total - the thrill of having a nice $800 when I blew $1000 on the next slot just give me anything. I can be spending an hour or so in the forum posting a series of very nice winner screenshots - when infact Im loosing in the thousands. Atleast not in my right state of mind.

So I hope I managed to clarify this, I'm on both sides. I love the winner screenshots, especially the huge ones - and I hope that there are some lucky stories behind some of them.

 

[Agamemnon]

The "I'm just getting started" factor.

This has been one of the best threads I've ever read here.

I'd just like to add one final thing that was not pursued as a player factor in and of itself:

The "I'm just getting started" factor.

Basically: Any given win is simply a starting baseline for getting more money.
If my 100$ becomes 300$ then hurrah, I'm on my way for the 2-3 grand kind of winnings.
If somehow I make it to 2-3 grand then I'm clearly on my way to the 10K kind of winnings.
Ad infinitum untill we have achieved either lottery type winnings or are broke (guess which one comes first).

Please don't confuse this with Greed. Greed is a conscious sentiment, it is when I don't accept the perfectly good offer for my house that I would have accepted normally because I think the buyer might go higher. While this is also a form of gambling I submit it is different from the "Just getting started" Gambler.

These gamblers really are not into gambling for the money per se.
If someone would prod a guy who's "just getting started" with an electric prod and told them to leave while the are ahead, they really would have been met with puzzlement and a "what are you talking about?" look. It really isn't about the money. It's about hacking the system in their mind. They don't get it.
15 hours in a session they have the "I just got here" mentality.

Beware of the "I'm just getting started" mentality.

 

[steinhaug]

This has been one of the best threads I've ever read here.

It's fantastic that so many people in here have contributed with real an honest answers, this thread is as you mentioned become a real good thread which sheds light on the dark side of gambling so to speak.

Basically: Any given win is simply a starting baseline for getting more money.
If my 100$ becomes 300$ then hurrah, I'm on my way for the 2-3 grand kind of winnings.
If somehow I make it to 2-3 grand then I'm clearly on my way to the 10K kind of winnings.
Ad infinitum untill we have achieved either lottery type winnings or are broke (guess which one comes first).

yeah, obvious answer. To respond to this one I would say the following. If I were to continue online gambling - note I've stopped it but I like this forum since I still will be entertaining the landbased casinoes - my "getting started" goal would be the 5K which started this thread.

But as you painstakenly point out, as soon as I hit this goal (if I ever) - I would just have moved back in time, and I could start be winning back the 2K loss the week before that one, and if that is completed we could continue with all the K's lost since christmas - then I would probably need a real vacation to celebrate.

Back in the game, the first mini-goal would be to win back that vacation, with interest might I add - and I could then start on the greatest goal of them all - win back all the money I've lost since I was 16 years of age!

Sure, If I got the Major Millions jacpot I would probably be pretty break even! But I do not think that qualifies for dunking a fresh K and set Major Millions on autoplay for 1000 spins... I would probably create a new K goal.

I think the biggest problem gambling addicts (myself) have is that as soon as we get a good win, it really doesnt matter since we probably have lost twice the amount in the last month or two anyways - and the happiness from a great win leads to higher wagering.

The wasy our brains work is infact kinda depressing at times, I have a story I have told many of my none gambling friends - as an example on why you need to be a gambler to understand how a gambler thinks.

Example, when I visit the store to buy food, I would go look at the different kinds of beef I could purchase. Bare in mind that in Norway slot machines are everywhere, even in the shopping malls. There are some good quality types of beef, but there are some not that good aswell of less familiar brands - at a cheaper price ofcourse. To be economical, we choose the cheaper one so we can save 50 cents, and we feel nice since it's good to be economical. Then as we leave the store, we pump $500 into the slot...

There really is no logic to explain this!

If your wife is no gambler this can also lead to very bad arguments, and lot's of problems. Example, how do you explain that a pair of shoes for $150 are to expencive and that she has to purhcase those to $100 - when you get the :
"You cant spend $150 on me, but you could loose $1500 on the casino yesterday!".

Very bad indeed, however here comes the gambling logic again. What if I had desided that I only could afford $500 on the casino, but the winds of cosmos played a prank on me and I went in with a $1500 instead - doing a big mistake i will have to pay bigtime for?

There are alot of problems related with gamblings, but I have come to realise that the biggest problem with the online gambling casinoes is this :
You do not have any real sense of the value of the money! In a landbased casino you insert the money by hand - you have a very good feeling, and you play in your currence. In the online ones, it always comes down to numbers on the screen - and in the long run you loose track of them. At this point it all goes bad!

Sorry for emtying my skull here, but for some reason I guess some of you people reading this have great inspiration hearing that you are not alone! You are not the only "idiot" in the eyes of th public.

I do not know how many times I wished I was a alcoholic instead, on the mere fact that you cant drink 5K in a nite,

(However you can gamble and work as hell - you can't drink and work as hell, so it doesnt reallt work does it). But you see my point.

As mentioned earlier, gambling will give me a 10 for the rest of my life, and I do not know if I can manage never experiencing more than a 6 again. I will just have to learn enjoying the lower wagerings on landbased casinoes, atleast I will have an 8 this way,

 

[Pinababy69]

I do not know how many times I wished I was a alcoholic instead, on the mere fact that you cant drink 5K in a nite,

I sure do understand the point you're trying to make Kimss, but don't ever wish that. Alcoholism is every bit as damaging as any gambling addiction, albeit in a different way. Take it from someone who lived with a mean, nasty alcoholic for years. And maybe you can't drink 5K in one night, but you also don't blow 5K EVERY night on gambling, do you? (or did you?) I think you get my point.

My thought is that anything in moderation is okay (alcohol, gambling, food, sex, even the occasional joint or whatever). As soon as any of these things controls you as opposed to you controlling it, you are in deep trouble. And they all have the power to ruin a life/lives. And not just the life of the addict themselves. Sorry, touchy subject for me. Anyway, kudos to you for realizing that you have a problem and taking the necessary steps to take back control of your life.

 

[managra]

Kimss, thank you for all your great posts. I read the last one twice. I have a question for you, pertaining to online gambling:

DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU GAMBLE????

A recovering big gambler once told me that a TRUE gambler gambles to lose! I disputed this, found this totally ridiculous. I think what he meant to say was that a true gambler always wants more, he's never happy with the last win, he needs the thrill of a bigger win. The end result of this strategy is that you invariably end up losing.

I sense that going on in you as well. You save 50 cents on meat, considers $150 for a pair of shoes for the wife too expensive, yet blow away $5K on some online slots. I don't sense that you are motivated by greed; you just seem to need the thrill of a bigGER win. If you're going to play online again, you will probably justify this by saying that you need to recoup your losses, from this year, from last year, from age 16 onwards.

Can't you just say something like this to yourself: I'm going to play no more than x amount of time. I just want to have fun. If i go bust, so be it BUT I WON'T MAKE ANOTHER DEPOSIT TONIGHT. If i win a couple of hundreds, that's fine. If i win x dollars or more, i will STOP for the evening. I'll consider that all the luck i'm entitled to tonight and won't push it to see whether i can multiply that a few more times, and likely go bust in the process. I'm not going to play to recover all my old losses. They have all been written off; water under the bridge. I don't need to stress myself therefore to win so many thousands tonight; i am starting off with a clean slate and just play for the fun of it.

 

[gfkostas]

Be aware ~LONG POST~ continue at your own risk

This thread is very interesting and I would encourage CM to make it sticky.It should be easily visible.

For what its worth I'll add my 2 cents and try to shed some light on certain things. If you get any help out of this i'll be very happy.I'll try to explain my level of awareness and attitude which helped me to get out of the messes that i had myself in including gambling. Everything I say is absolutely true for me.No fairy tailes here.

I started gambling 4 years ago and i have always found it very exciting. The emotional swings when i was down and then up and then off to the cashier to cash out my win,and all these were really giving me certain feelings of exuberance that I really needed at that time in my life(that's why i was gamble) and in my opinion many people need these feelings for they give you a sense of 'getting off' which is very important at least for those whose state of consciousness in life is mostly on striving, always trying to get somewhere else by setting goals,feelings of having no sense of mission etc. and the result of this life style is high blood pressure,heart attacks,addictions of some kind in order to 'get off' and forget and all these.
I was at the state that am describing here and I usually found myself always wanting to beat the casino. It was a psycholigical need to WIN which really comes from a damaged 'ego'. It was very important for me to win and every time i was losing i was angry and upset and the need to make a come back was intense. The attention of myself wasn't so much on the money itself but on my unwillingess to accept that i 'lost'. For some reason i never gambled money i couldnt afford to lose so i was ok in that respect. I used to up my bets over time in order to create the necessary 'rush' that i needed. Every single high bet was making all the smaller ones appear of not enough value in order to entertain me so slowly I was wagering more and more.
At any rate,I often felt that gambling is something that i need in order to 'forget' parts of myself and my life that were not as I wanted them to be.
When you enter a casino you enter a different world which is governed by other rules that suit better an unballanced personality. You won't see at the casino many 'happy' persons.To cut the story sort at one point of my gambling career i was losing and losing all the time. This was so irritating. This added to other things and I had 'hit bottom' for good and I dare not to go into details.
Anyway, the important question that I aim to answer with this post is how do i get over something that I KNOW that is damaging me in one way or another be it gambling or whatever. The answer is far simpler than what we can think at the time of any given crisis for one can't find light while searching in the dark. You see, we have got to understand what einstein said that 'you cannot resolve a problem with the same mind that created it'. Change is impossible if you do things the way you've always done things. You HAVE to change in order to improve,period!.
'Hitting bottom' is crucial and a necessary experience if you want to grow because it is only then that you can finally let go of your 'ego'(the sum total of the ideas of who you are) that holds you back and admit that you are wrong. You don't have to make a public statement just a humble statement to yourself that i have been making choices in my life that do not work and now that i realize it i'll take new choices. There is nothing more to it. We are sum total of all of the choices that we have made and everything we dont like it is to be looked at in terms of how can I grow rather than why did I do it. There are two ways to motivate yourself to change.Motivation of growth and the most common one can be called deficiency motivation where you list your deficiencies on a mental list and you constantly trying to repair them always assuming that you are deficient,that there is something wrong with you and you need to fix it and your life becomes a trying to get some place else all the time, and you never arrive because the illusion that you'll finally get 'it' once this and that is how you like it, is false. You will never get 'it' all.You are 'it' already for that is where the old adage comes:there is no way to happiness,happiness is the way.Think of this for a moment: you are already are everything.....you are everything that you need to have total bliss,perfection in your life. We came to this world with nothing and we leave with nothing so the value of our life isnt measured on what we take but on what we give since we can't take anything with us anyway so isn't it stupid to be obsessed with gambling losses? what if you win them back? The last jacket you wear doesn't need any pockets.
You cannot get enough of what you don't want.We don't leave bad habbits like gambling behind by fighting them since by doing so what you do is giving them more attention and with attention the problem grows. What you think is what expands. We embrace it, understand it, learn our lesson and just leave it behind. The fulfilment and 'nice' feelings that come to us when we get over something is a proof that we are on the right path. Personally I am on the right path whenever i feel good. All I want in my life is to ~feel good~. All the rest are details for entertainment.
In my opinion what we really struggle all the time in our life is to feel good 'again' but it won't come by believing that it's found outside you. I say 'again' because as a baby we knew instictively how to love before we knew WHY to love. Happiness was a natural state for us till we went to schools,get to know our parents and our society better where we learned that wanting to feel good is 'bad' and selfish and that we aren't supposed to feel good when we don't get high grades or when we don't have a good job or when we don't have enough value judgements by others(diplomas) and the list goes on with these ludcirous belief systems imposed by man for the sake of being just like everyone else and never challenge anything. To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing it's best, night and day, to make you just everyone else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.
Circumstances do not make us,they reveal us. We have got to reveal ourselves as something higher than just a victim of circumstances who goes through life, following the herd. Your truest life is when you are in your dreams awake and by advancing confidently to the direction of YOUR own dreams scarcity moves away,fulfilment becomes a way of life.
Gambling was only an obstacle which helped me see what am stating here and if you get the 'wavelength' that am trying to describe here bad habbits will be a thing for the past. If you get the following you will have it all: When you learning to believe in YOU and you inner signals that come from the space between your thoughts which make you very life, you learn to believe in the very 'secret' to fulfilment and happiness. It is within you but you can't 'get it' as long as you don't sing whatever music you have to sing in your life. Don't make the mistake to die with the music still in you.I hear a different drummer thus i write what i write here. You are not the thoughts(ego).You are the thinker.Stay connected to your music.


and No! i ain't lecturing anyone.Just playing my music and saying what makes sense to me.I hope this helps a little bit those who might be addicted to gambling.

 

[Pinababy69]

When you learning to believe in YOU and you inner signals that come from the space between your thoughts which make you very life, you learn to believe in the very 'secret' to fulfilment and happiness. It is within you but you can't 'get it' as long as you don't sing whatever music you have to sing in your life. Don't make the mistake to die with the music still in you.

Gfkostas, you have hit the nail on the head. Personal fulfillment, satisfaction and happiness all come from within ourselves. Gambling and any other addiction is usually nothing more than a "substitute" for a quick high/rush. It will never bring you any long term happiness or even contentment. It's meant to "get you by". That's the way I look at it anyway. To me, gambling is nothing more than a time-passer. Sure, I enjoy it but I have found that I don't NEED to gamble on a daily basis. I find that I turn to it more when I get stressed out, or am upset about something. When I can spin a few slots, then I don't have to think about anything else. But does it make me happy in the long term? No. Does it help at the moment? Sure does. I have always looked at gambling as nothing more than entertainment anyway, so maybe I'm one of the lucky ones. I NEVER play to win, I play for fun, for entertainment. I absolutely never make a deposit and say okay I have to win, or I'm playing to win. I consider my money gone, and all I ask is to play for awhile, get some bang for my buck. But I don't think I'm the norm....I think alot of people make a deposit and are totally convinced they're gonna win their fortunes. Sure I've gotten carried away while on a hot streak, and thought wow, maybe tonight I'll win big. But if I lose, oh well, c'est la vie. And I don't go chasing losses (or wins).

My best advice to anyone would be to look at gambling as pure entertainment. Never expect to win, and consider your money gone the second you put it into the casino. Never chase a loss/win. Ask yourself why you gamble and what you get out of it? Set a budget for yourself and stick to it (limit yourself if you have to do it that way). And the most important part is to remember that gambling should be a part time hobby, not a way of life. Do some soul searching, find out what makes you really happy, and do some of those things. And above all remember that the most important things in our lives are the people. Our kids, spouses, lovers, friends, family. Never neglect your personal relationships....and if you find yourself ever putting the pull of a slot ahead of your child and/or spouse, stop and think about what you are doing!!

And as gfkostas said, find your inner music and sing it loud and clear. Personally, I've always marched to own drummer and sang my own song...even when others haven't wanted to hear it, lol.

 

[steinhaug]

A recovering big gambler once told me that a TRUE gambler gambles to lose!

Well, in a crazed way I could agree to this without any problems. A good example of this was at the local Casino, there was a guy who had emence luck and got the $20.000 jackpot on one of the lots. But what did he do? He ran to the roulette table and started bigtime as if the $20.000 was his ticked to major league.

This point would pretty much work for me aswell, but probably not that dramatic (I'd like to atleast hope so). Say you enter a casino with $1000, and after 5 minutes you hit a good pot and you have $2000.

If you think of it one of the reasons going there was to double the money, but after 5 minutes... Come on, you were supposed to have some fun also... So what happends, you have twice the amount of money you planned for - so you probably will chance with higher wagering and/or the more expencive slots with higher payouts.

This also raises another problem, hightening the excitement - making the chance of you hitting the ATM an extra time since the money went abit to fast... After all you were going to have some excitement, and you have $2000 to win back....

The above I would say is the typical scenario a gambler has in his head every time he enters a casino. It might not "kick in" everytime, but when those lucky good wins come, or worse - every slot you wager on eats your money - those are the times the real gamblers crawls out of the walls.

So in retrospect, your old time gambler friend have a very correct historical observation - a gambler doesnt play to win but to loose! And we are talking the bottom line. If you win $20.000 on the 1st, I bet you that they are all gone my teh 1st next month. You probably blew them on dinners and expencive wine - after all youre the man, new iPOD's and stuff!

I'm sitting here with a cup of coffe smiling when writing this, since it's infact is no more than comical what I have become - and the irony - the irony of knowing theese "historical facts" and yet doing them over and over again. Some self irony is needed, and if we can laugh a little of it maby we can be more aware of it, and eventually do a little better if notthing else,

Can't you just say something like this to yourself: I'm going to play no more than x amount of time. I just want to have fun. If i go bust, so be it BUT I WON'T MAKE ANOTHER DEPOSIT TONIGHT. If i win a couple of hundreds, that's fine. If i win x dollars or more, i will STOP for the evening. I'll consider that all the luck i'm entitled to tonight and won't push it to see whether i can multiply that a few more times, and likely go bust in the process. I'm not going to play to recover all my old losses. They have all been written off; water under the bridge. I don't need to stress myself therefore to win so many thousands tonight; i am starting off with a clean slate and just play for the fun of it.

This is what I have been "working" on the past months so to speak, but I lost my head on the online casinoes. As mentioned earlier it is two reasons why I lost my head online :

1. My $4500+ win on Spring Break on $9
2. $ are just digits on the screen...

Point 1 has never been replicated. I've had a lot of wins in the $1000-$2000 range, however been wagering upto $50 pr spin, which brings me to point 2. In a landbased casino you would never wager such an amount on a slot.

When I think of it, it is infact quite nasty of some casinoes allowing theese crazy wagerings! Good to Go on $90 pr spin is kinda crazy really. Have you ever seen landbased slots who eats $90 pr spin?

My online experience has been terminated. I will be visiting the local casino 1-2 times a month, but I do tend te keep my logic while I'm there. (Though my losses the last 3 years are far more than expected).

I hope I atleast touched on some kind of answer for your question,

 

[Simmo!]

Good posts ppl. very interesting thread. The one point that stands out on this page to me is:

My best advice to anyone would be to look at gambling as pure entertainment. Never expect to win, and consider your money gone the second you put it into the casino.

If you can always remember this, i think it will help immensely.

 

[tim5ny]

Have you ever seen landbased slots who eats $90 pr spin?

My online experience has been terminated. I will be visiting the local casino

Every land casino that I've ever been to has slots that take $100.00 tokens...and max bet is usually 2 or 3 of these tokens, so we're talking $300.00/spin. All land-based casinos in the U.S. have at least $25.00 per coin video poker, and to play video poker you should be putting in 5 coins. Now we're at $125.00/spin there. I think you're fooling yourself by thinking that you'll all the sudden become a responsible player just because you've eliminated the online play. The monster inside you that likes to bet big will still rear its ugly head, and land casinos accomodate the whales just as well as online. Your only plus that I see for land based is that IF you don't use credit cards, then you'll only be able to deposit what you bring. They don't accept Neteller! If you do lose control and end up gambling on credit then you're no better off than you were when you were spinning Thunderstruck @ $45.00/spin.

 

[steinhaug]

Every land casino that I've ever been to has slots that take $100.00 tokens...and max bet is usually 2 or 3 of these tokens, so we're talking $300.00/spin. All land-based casinos in the U.S. have at least $25.00 per coin video poker, and to play video poker you should be putting in 5 coins. Now we're at $125.00/spin there.

You should move to Sweden at once! Obviously some of the treats of being in Gothenburg Sweden is that the max bet on video-slots are 125SEK, equaling some $16 pr spin. I wasn't aware, but now that you say it I'm not surprised, that the Las Vegas style casinoes have upped the ante a long time ago! After all, a rich dude needs a bit more wager than $1 pr spin, Might I also add that a year ago 45SEK mas max bet, (Equaling some $3-4), and now we have the $16 spinners.

However video-poker have always had higher wagers, also here, I don't count theese as theese are a bit different playing on I think than regular slots as Thunderstruch and such.

Your only plus that I see for land based is that IF you don't use credit cards, then you'll only be able to deposit what you bring.

This tim5ny should not be underestemated! For me atleast, this is a major factor. I have caught myself many times during my "online gaming excercise" quickly adding more deposits than planned, it's so easy playing on your bank account - not needing to accually going to the ATM and seeing the real money in your hand - aknowledging the value of them,

 

[tim5ny]

Okay! You are on much safer ground there in Sweden as far as high-rolling goes. I really do wish you the best........... but don't forget about us! We really do like reading your 2 cents worth............. or is it $45.00 ?

 

[managra]

I haven't played all that long and never for big bets but i became painfully aware of some of the psychology factors at work (at least for me) when i gambled:

- "Easy Money". The first time i made a very decent win i was just totally amazed how easy it was compared to playing poker. In poker, i might be playing for a couple of hours in a tourney but then get eliminated just before reaching the final table because my all-in with KK just lost against someone with AA. With slots, i made all this great money with low bets and no decision making. All i had to do with hit that stupid spin button. Lots of Wow moments. Subsequently, by busting out on kazillion deposits, i realized that the supposedly "easy money" was just a very unusual good rush and that it is offset by lots of "easy losses". Attesting by the popularity of lotteries all over the world, there is a global love affair with the Easy Money trap.

- Escape from problems. I spent a lot more time gambling than i should because it just was an escape from problems/frustrations i didn't want to deal with. I justified this escape by saying that there was a good, serious reason behind my gambling, i.e. i did it to make money. Yeah

-"Victimization syndrome" Slots give you ample opportunity to feel sorry for yourself. How many times on an evening would you get 5 great symbols lined up except the one on the first reel is one line off and you have nothing? It clearly shows what an unlucky son of a b.... you are. No wonder you have these problems in real life: you're just a very unlucky person. In other words, more reinforcement of your problems rather than addressing them.

-Opportunity to beat yourself up. I did this a lot because underneath it all i did feel guilty for spending too much time gambling. I could beat myself up for keep on depositing on the same evening, for not cashing out soon enough, for being too greedy, for progressive betting that would wipe out a nice win, etc, etc, etc. This self-loathing is saying that you really deserve the problems you have in real life.

Anyway, when i became aware that gambling gave me more misery than fun i uninstalled all casinos. Last Sunday, however, i made one small deposit and am still playing with it. No progressive betting, no big expectations, just for entertainment. I feel rather pleased that i have exercised a nice bit of control this week.

 

[Pinababy69]

Managra......WOW!!! Your insight into what makes you (and probably alot of others) tick truly astounds me. I gotta say you are one of my favourite posters here at CM, and I always take the time to read every single word you write.

 

[vickie40]

I second everything Pina just said. I think I've experienced all of the things you listed so eloquently. Thanks!!

 

[steinhaug]

First :

Last Sunday, however, i made one small deposit and am still playing with it. No progressive betting, no big expectations, just for entertainment. I feel rather pleased that i have exercised a nice bit of control this week.

From what I read you havn't been gamblig for so many years, however by the sound of things I reccon you are open and admit that your gambling experience is more than a habbit than for fun. Im really camouflaging the words here, just to be nice, you know what I mean. I would also guess that you reainstalled the casino and did that small deposit bacause you do want to be able to have the share fun of wagering inside the casino, you want to have the opportunity to atleast be able to hit a lucky win. After all, by your won words - low wagers can indeed give huge payouts on slots.

I do not want to comment on the fact reinstalling the casino, since I totally understand you and where you are comming from (Mind I say and where we are going, hehe). Be strong - use the force - try having a leach on your gambling habbits online for atleast a month, if you can manage to stay alive inside online casinoes for a month on low wagerings just maby you have a working model. If you on the other hand bust out and go all-in in say a week, I would recommend that you use some time to your fourth argument, and beat yourself up and infact stay away from online gambling and rather visit landbased casinoes.

I wish all good luck on your "experiment", been there done that, and probably will do it again some day.

Easy Money
I have another big problem here, and that is "Easy come easy go". When you don't work you ass off for the money, you will most likely blow them away like they were air. I'm speaking a little sarkastic now, for the record, . Another problem with easy money, is that inserting that extra $100 has a legit reason, it could mean you win it all back...

Escape from problems
What you mean here is your second love? Isn't it almost like you have love affair with that slot? I have been much worse a few years ago, but I have had times where I caress the slot, talk softly to it and even slap it when not going my way. What's up with caressing and talking dirty to a slot? I know I'm not the only one...

But absolutely, you escape your problems. Whatever is happening on the outside, for me entering the Casino is going into a Vacuum. All my problems, all my concerns - everything - is left outside. Inside it's all about me, and the sexy slot which will open up for me so to speak... Many of the Online Casinoes are referring to "Lady Luck" in the emails sendt to me, I wonder why luck has to be a she? A very powerful analogy since we know that gambling addicts have a very tight relationship with their thrusted slots...

Beat myself up
Well, I totally agree. The times I have used a "gambling gone bad" incident to make life misserable for myself, countless. The later years however I have become imune and will just shrug my shulders, I have come to the point where I really don't care anymore. By this I mean that I do not care to beat myself up anymore, since I have realized it doesnt help, and that if I just had used my brain (Which by the way always is left behind outside the casino) I would have no reason to beat myself up in the first place. I therefore deside not to cry over spilt milk, and rather try not to do the same mistake next time. And I do try to alter habbits, meaning if there was one particular slot that killed me - i'll stay away from that slot!

I have a theory that you to managra, if not already, will come to the same stage I'm at - where beating up becomes no more than a shrug on you shoulders and you telling yourself a simple "Damn, I did it again.. Oh well, Ill get a bear and a cigarette instead...".

Winning = Loosing
This cannot be stressed enough. Ask any gambling addicts how their "gambling career" started... I would guess they all would tell you the same story... I was sitting there playing for fun for some pennies I had after buing a beer, and WOW I won like a 1000 bucks! Incredible! I didnt feel the urge to play more and celebrated, next week I was there again and since I won 1000 bucks, I desided to play for 100 bucks - after all I still had a great win. And what do you know! I won again, I won 1000 more bucks!

Now we are at the breaking point, the point where the gambling addicts eggs are hatched...

A potential gambling addict would after that second win be convinced that this infact is a very easy way to gain money, and at the moment this was the easiest 2000 bucks ever! For the next machine it would be OK to wager atleast 1000 bucks, after all it was so easy winning that first 1000. And then it happends, you loose a 1000. Damn, how annoying... How stupid of me, habba habba chu chu. Since it was so easy winning a 1000, and the machine just ate 1000, this means that there has to be just a few spins for the 1000 to appear - or even better since it ate so much mabe 2000 win come instead. You argue with your brain that it could possible be a smart idea to insert the other 1000 bucks aswell in hope of getting back the first 1000, after all this was a dumb idea.

In a little while you will probably have lost all the 2000 bucks, and by this you have learned a valuable lesson - or you new career has just been started!

Ain't this fun people,

 

[steinhaug]

Hehe, just felt I had to add something to my last post, for some of us this thread is turning out to be a kinda "GA" thread instead... (GA as in Gamblers Anonymous) Kinda funny, since we are inside a casino-related forum.

Kudos to all taking part on this great thread!

 

[gfkostas]

....and all I ask is to play for awhile, get some bang for my buck.
My best advice to anyone would be to look at gambling as pure entertainment. Never expect to win, and consider your money gone the second you put it into the casino. Never chase a loss/win. Ask yourself why you gamble and what you get out of it? Set a budget for yourself and stick

I personally didn't care THAT much if I were to lose after 2-3 hours but i hated it when i was out of money within 30min. That's when i was going crazy. Since those years I have been through dramatic changes and i've seen unbeleivable things happen which one would attribute to pure 'luck' or chaos but I know better. Scientists discover in quantum physics that there is order in 'chaos'. I begin to believe that luck is an easy excuse and luck and other nice things always seems to follow those who care the least about them. They don't spend time analyzing life but they instead live it. If you go on about doing what makes sense to you, following your inner signals by establishing a congruency on what you 'feel', what you think and how you act ,luck will chase after you as a tail will always follow a cat IF the cat goes after her own job and stop being concerned about it. The americans here will know the famous quote from Henry David Thoreau: If you advance confidently in the direction of your dreams and endeavor to live the life which you have imagined, you will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Some people seem to always have luck and we attribute it to 'god' being bad to us and good to them but for me its all about trusting in 'you'. Seven little words that rule the universe as far our life is concerned and have far more impact in our life that we can imagine: As you think so shall you be. Mind you, not as you be so shall you think which many lead their life this way.
I would say to all go the casino with the expectation to win but be detached from the outcome. Be open to the experience but detached from it. Have a mind open to everything but attached nowhere. Attachment really means that am delluding myself into the belief that if this night doesnt work out with win i will somehow become imobillized. The problem with gambling resides in my brain and so does the solution. By brain created it and so it will create the solution for thoughts makes it so and since our feelings come from our thoughts and we control out thoughts how can something hurt us without our consent?. I have the choice to be host of my 'highest self' which many refer as 'soul' or whatever (consider this: It is the space between the notes that makes the music~,I am the thinker,the commander in the command center,am the space between my thoughts that create my life,Not! the thoughts themselves.There is MUCH knowledge and inspiration that is gained from this 'part' within us and it is much more powerful and effective than our 'everyday thinking'.The famous master J.Krishnamurti said:''To be empty ,completely empty,is not a fearsome thing,it is absolutely essential for the mind to be unoccupied to be empty unenforced,for then only can it move into unknown depths.). or to be host of my 'ego' (sum total of opinions about who I am). It's up to us I guarantee you. It is within this context that i have gotten myself out of gambling and all these so called 'problems'.I haven't got any problems,only the person I imagine myself to be has problems. I hope i make sense

 

[managra]

Kimss, i was very nervous when i made that little deposit last Sunday. This is my experiment: i want to see whether i can have that occasional glass of wine and enjoy it or whether i need to lay off the booze altogether. This week showed me i can enjoy the occasional glass of wine. So far, so good. It's a bit of a funny analogy for me because in real life i barely drink - maybe 6 drinks a YEAR. It's not that i ever made a big effort not to drink; it turns out it just doesn't do much for me and i only did so to be socially agreeable for everybody else.

Actually, i think i can pull this off and here's why: my big love really is playing poker which is much more a skill than a luck game. I quit poker in Nov (long story and don't want to go into right now) and this left a huge vacuum. So, i started playing a bit of casinos. Initially i found casinos quite boring but then in early Jan i had a lucky week (for me that is; you would have pissed away those wins in the blink of an eye . After that the psychology i mentioned above became quite obvious.

In a few months i do want to go back full time to poker and just play the occasional slot. I am not a bad poker player but still have a lot to learn. So, that prospect is more exciting and more of a challenge than seeing whether i am lucky at slots a certain evening. I've made nice money in poker and it gave me overall a lot of satisfaction. Yes, slots are sexy and i want to play them as long as i maintain control over the situation.

Kimss, your posts clearly show that you are an intelligent guy. Since your online gambling career has been interrupted/aborted, perhaps you should consider giving poker a try. I suspect you would be good at it. By giving it a try, i mean starting off with reading a couple of good books and if interested, keep on re-reading them.

One day i might follow your advice: get a bear and a cigarette. What exactly do you suggest i do with the bear? What's better: being a degenerate gambler or a pervert? Sorry, Kimss, just poking fun at you here.

 

[Simmo!]

One day i might follow your advice: get a bear and a cigarette. What exactly do you suggest i do with the bear?

Teach it the difference between Salmon & Autoplay, give it $100, ensure the catflap is in & go down the pub

 

[Pinababy69]

God Simmo, we gotta sit down and drink sometime.....I'm sure you'd have me in stitches. Love that sense of humour.

 

[chucho]

I don't understand the poll, everyone loses in the long run with gambling.

Bonus pimps don't lose because THEY have the advantage, not the casino.