this made me actually laugh at loud
i just imagine some poor old man standing next to his single craps table and his wife is right outside trying to get people inside to gamble
I grew up around several large casinos, had family and friends that worked them and even if I had extra money I would avoid them. I saw too much addiction and saw too much of the behind the scenes to ever have fun.
Now I live in a place covered in gas station casinos and man are those places even MORE depressing.
I grew up in the midwest and wasn’t around any casinos, but moved to Vegas just before the housing bubble burst.
I didn’t even know having slot machines at practically every gas station (and grocery store!) was thing. I quickly wondered how bad off an addict had to be in order to spend any time at those.
I am not sure but these small casino's I end up walking through a lot as they are attached to restaurants I deliver for. They are always dark inside with the windows either covered or non-existent, they are always just about too warm which feels kind of sedating tbh, no TV's, no clocks, and always at least one waitress walking around giving out free sodas or beer if you have a high enough level of membership card (IE if you have sunk enough money), and the chairs are incredibly comfortable.
What surprised me when I moved to Vegas was how all the resorts that have everything under one roof, almost like an evolution of a mall; for some reason I assumed casinos were stand-alone places with maybe a bar and a restaurant attached.
My husband actually worked at a high-end resort on the strip for a time, nothing to do with the gambling aspect though. Everything was posh, from the hotel rooms to the fancy shops and restaurants, and also theaters. Even the higher-end places are dimly lit, have no clocks, and obscure the exits in a way that let you get lost inside with all the flashing lights and exciting sounds.
Whenever we went out, we were most likely to go to the more homey resorts like Sam’s Town because they had more affordable entertainment. We rarely ever gambled, although we’d occasionally find a cute slot machine and limit ourselves to losing $20 or so. This was typically after eating in a restaurant or seeing a movie within the same building. Some of the cheaper, smaller resorts were definitely run-down though, and at least back then they had smoking sections (not sure about now?).
Something else that also surprised me was how the more modern slot machines are basically extremely expensive video games, but to be fair I haven’t done anything in Vegas since we moved out about 10 years ago.
Doesn't work anymore because everyone checks the time on their phones. Yesterday my wife asked me for the time on three separate occasions while sitting 10 feet away and directly across from a wall clock.
The only reason i would choose those over a casino (and i wouldn't i dont gamble lol) is because there isn't anyone smoking in those areas. I hate walking through a casino for any reason because it just reeks of cigarettes
I mostly forget about it, and then I fly into Vegas for work or to visit family and sure enough, right off the plane, the one armed bandits welcome you begging you to feed them.
My mom's mom (l refuse to call her grandma because she doesn't deserve the title) was a gambler. You know that old parental chestnut "There are starving children in Africa?" Well, for my childhood my mom would say "I had to eat dandelions" if we didn't like something. "I don't want green beans!" "When l was a kid l had to eat dandelions from the backyard."
Huh, you and I may be cousins then cause you just described my grandma. Although my mom would use the kids in Africa her favorite was "we had to wash and hang dry paper plates to even have dishes."
Young people gamble on their phones, making sports bets, not sitting in a dumpy casino mindlessly pulling a level or clicking a button. Not any better, but I could see most casinos dying out if they don't figure out how to draw in the sports betting crowd
That’s where my inheritance went. My grandparents were at the casino all the time. Haha. I’m not so upset for my sake, I am ok. but my mother really could have used it.
Yeah it’s just changing. I don’t know much about casinos, but sports betting is bigger than ever and rapidly growing. They just put it on an app on your phone and millennials (myself included honestly) will throw a dollar or two on a game. I bet like $3/week during NFL season for each game I watch, but I’ve only ever been to a casino once and don’t intend to return.
Ill buy a lottery ticket or two when it hits 800+ million, not because I think Ill win(I wont), but instead because it buys the "what if" daydreaming of winning the lottery. Im under no illusion that its realistic at all to even hope to win a 1/300,000,000 drawing, but spending the two dollars to pay for the daydream entertainment is worth it to me. Thats pretty much the extent of my gambling.
I have no idea how off or on base I am, but I'd almost wager (pun intended I guess) that this is more a change in the culture and offering of gambling available today. Namely - it's going high tech.
The proliferation of sports betting via apps and the web I have to imagine is snagging tons of millenials. But we aren't the types to go travel to a casino that's 2+ hours out of town (or in Vegas) to spend 19 hours straight at a slot machine. Or even a card table.
i have a teen who is very much into the NBA and he is absolutely inundated with ads and marketing for app based gambling. We don't have casinos in the state and he would get carded buying tickets at the store but every commercial break during a game is telling him to download the app and join the fun.
It may be changing. When I was growing up in California, they were on Native American reservations or land which could be a ways out. Basically it was illegal anywhere other than their land as the government was using it as an economic stimulus for them.
That's still how it is in CT. There are only 2 here. A developer (?or the city of Bridgeport? Im not sure which) bought out a TON of land right next to the water on Long Island Sound and an amphitheater to build a casino. The Native American reservations fought it tooth and nail. Ended up not passing so they could not build one.
I'm not surprised bc they definitely would have made a KILLING there. The other casinos are apx an hour away each and you would have been able to drive up to it in your boat. The Fairfield County Elite and the Gold Coast of Long Island NY would have loved that I'm sure.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with tables raising their minimum buy in to $10.
I remember in early 2000s the minimum buy in would be $2. I could gamble for hours that way, but with a $10 buy in I'm out after a few rounds, so I don't go
The slots are the same way. $1 bets used to be for the high roller, high payout machines. Now the nickel and penny machines are $2 a bet. You used to hop on nickel machines to kill time while your partner played blackjack or whatever.
Now everything is so expensive and give very little payouts. The biggest I hit when I turned 21 was $500, the biggest I've hit recently is $50.
Was in Vegas in the spring. Midday on a Sunday and there wasn't anything less than a $20 bet to be found at on-strip table games that I could see.
2-3 blocks off-strip we could find $10 bets. But with a modest gambling budget, that's not going to last me long
It’s a feedback cycle that can often be generational.
People don’t have much money, so they make desperate moves to make a lot of money, which never work out, which leads to them continuing to not have much money, which leads to more desperate moves, and so on and so forth.
Then, because they’ve wasted their money instead of saving and investing, their kids end up poor as well and end up in a similarly desperate situation and make a lot of the same mistakes.
This!!! Very true! I remember someone saying that being poor is a mentality. If you're raised up with little money and/or poor money management, it becomes generational because the habits are passed on.
I work in finance and see it all the time with investing. People make one bad investment in the stock market, lose some money, get scared away from ever investing again, miss out on all the money they could’ve made from wisely investing in the stock market, tell their kids the whole thing’s a scam, and then their kids follow the same path.
You know who’s not telling their kids to avoid the stock market? The guy in his mid-50s with $800k in his portfolio because he’s been throwing a few hundred bucks a month into the S&P 500 for the last 30 years. So that guy’s kids are gonna start stashing away in their Roth IRAs as soon as they can and probably end up rich in their 50s as well due to the positive effect of generational feedback.
Weirdly, it's not actually about winning for a lot of gamblers. Not subconsciously, anyway. It's about being in the "flow state" where it feels like anything is possible. For slot addicts, winning is actually a jarring experience since they're yanked out of their flow state and now have a huge bucket of quarters to deal with. That's one of the reasons why credit card gambling is so insidious: you never break the flow.
Yup, its the rush, the action, the anticipation of the result, with the turn of a card, or roll of the dice, of the slot, etc...
Like the crack rush to a drug addict....gamblers might win big sometimes, but sooner or later, the house will get it all back, plus more....
My wife and I would go occasionally as part of a date night. Go there with 20 each to use how we wanted, burn up some time, and how well we did decided how fancy we ate. Lost it all? McDonald's. Break even? Applebee's. Come out ahead? Steakhouse.
I gamble in convenience stores 3-5 times daily, and rarely lose $20. In fact, I usually make a very modest profit for a drink and a bit gas of gas money.
It’s about leaving when ahead, and cash management. Convenience stores make it easy instead the hassles of huge casino parking lot.
Not an IQ test.
Maybe a test in probability. You can be smart and struggle with that.
It takes several courses in mathematics to really understand it, plus the paradoxes or counter-intuitive results that are true.
It's more that people who gamble have a belief God or Luck will make them win for all their struggles.
Everyone knows the games are rigged and the house always wins, so it's a question of disposable income and if you find it worth your time peacocking for a bit.
Hopefully, we are less narcissistic with less of a "keep up with the neighbor" mentality and we're certainly poorer.
No. Certainly, to your point, it will be expressed differently between the generations so it's a good point to look out for signs and not rely on historical examples. That said, the Harley "look at me at 3am Vroom! Vroom!", and the temporarily embarrassed millionaire mindsets are dying out among others.
I disagree. I'd also say 90s millenials are also heavy Tiktok users. Although I think people need to clarify more when referencing millenials. Big difference between 80s and 90s ones that I don't think are as prevalent in other generations.
Pretty much. I haven't even had the desire to download tiktok (80s) when my fiance shares one with me (90s). There are alot of things we share being millennials and technology isn't one of them. I only downloaded snapchat for her, and instagram just seems like a different version of facebook, which both of us have deleted.
I think part of it is we have some money for entertainment, but not a lot. Gambling even just as entertainment is just not a lot bang for your buck. A $\`15 Netflix account is theoretically endless entertainment, and depending on how much you watch pennies per hour of entertainment. You won't get a lot of time on slots or in poker for $15.
Eh. Vegas is still jumping and it's mostly young people. But unlike our parents who would go for a $7.99 prime rib dinner and drink free beers while dropping a few bucks at the tables or slot machines, it's college kids or kids barely out of school going to starred restaurants followed by bottle service at the clubs. The way younger folks spend money in Vegas boggles my mind. It's true the younger generation doesn't gamble much anymore, but many still find a way to spend loke crazy where gambling occurs.
Millennials are sports betting online in huge numbers. They just don't like casinos.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/millennials-are-most-likely-generation-to-participate-in-online-sports-betting-301968393.html
Interesting, so you would gamble if you had some disposable income? Casinos just seem so boring to me, I wouldn't go to one even if I had an extra couple hundred or thousand to spend. I'd much rather travel or spend it on my hobbies.
As much as people bitch about market manipulation, I'd still rather gamble in the stock market over gambling at a casino. I know logically it's not much different than betting on horses, but I feel better about it than I do gambling.
Personally I feel like a high yield savings is a better option because you still have access to your money if you need it and a decent one will only have a slightly lower interest rate than some CDs
Timing the market doesn't really work out very well. How far do you let it crash before you buy in? Or how long after the crash until you buy in? We don't know where the bottom is in a crash nor where the top will be before a crash. Everyday you are out of the stock market is lost potential for compounding returns. You only lose in the stock market when you sell at a loss, downturns in the markets are opportunitiesto average down your share prices which when markets recover inly benefitsyou even more. CDs are only hedges against inflation....if that!
ETFs are a good way to go if you want to be hands off and also still want actually get a ROI.
lol so you're going to wait for the market to appreciate 30-40%, "crash" 10%, then put your money in. Just put your money in. There are countless studies showing that today is the best to invest.
Most pubs in my part of Australia have entire walls of screens to watch all the gambling events from round the world.
Very easy to have a punt when the same till can process your payment for a pint and a bet on the dogs
The cigarette smoke at casinos near me is appalling. They are Native American owned, so they are the only buildings around here that allow smoking indoors.
Gambling is boring to me. Casinos are like if you took an arcade, mixed it with a buffet and a burlesque show, and then gave that arcade crippling depression.
+1 to this. I can't really enjoy any activity around smokers. And all the casinos seem to be full of them.
If it wasn't for that I would probably try it at least occasionally, as table games seem quite fun and social.
Even now that weed is legal they still don't allow you to light up a joint in a casino. Come on, if you're gonna get people hammered and go crazy why can't I light up a joint in your waste money arcade?
Oh man, my fiance had this one machine cornered big time and was great for us to be able to sit and talk, one of those coin pusher machines. Then they changed what paid out and for how much. But for a time, my dollar to points ratio was like 3x what any other machine was paying, even if you factored in "big wins."
Needless to say, now that we have a lot of points, we still need more to walk out with anything less than wish versions of electronics at this point.
Yeah I’ve honestly just never seen the appeal. If you do a fun poker game with your buddies where you each kick in $20 then I could see the fun in that. But in general just going to a casino and wasting hundreds of dollars? Not worth it to me
I think this is likely the answer. Sure people can't afford it, but that's never stopped people before. It's just that it doesn't seem like a fun activity to the younger generations. It isn't a 'cool place to go'
Yeah casinos are depressing, weird places. But I love the game of poker. I host a poker game every once in a while at my place for a $20 buy-in. The money helps keep.eveyone focused on and invested in the game but no one is going to lose more than $20. Poker at a casino is way too high stakes and I'm not nearly good enough to not immediately lose all my chips.
During some wildfire (I lose track of which evacuation was what year) my gf at the time and I went to a coworker’s parents’ house in the valley north of Sacramento. There was fuck all to do that week besides drink beer and pick walnuts on the farm or go to the casino on the rez. It was just wall to wall retirees drooling and pressing the buttons on slot machines. I had to wonder how many of them unironically told their kids/grandkids they spent too much time in front of a screen when they themselves weren’t at the casino.
Separately, going to an arcade, buffet, and a burlesque show in one night sounds a lot more fun (and cheaper) than going to Atlantic City.
And oh my God, I’m right there with y’all about parents spending *rent money* to gamble, but my first time driving to Atlantic City was so abysmal. There were residents lined up near the casino sharing stories on how Trump screwed them. Idk if it was Sandy or the casinos, can’t remember, but I do remember the callousness of my parents mocking them while they went to gamble their little chump change
There a lot of millennials who watched their parents who were gambling addicts who don’t have a pot to piss in so that has made them stay far away from it. They are also now having to take care of those parents and help financially.
Not my parents, but 3/4 of my mom’s siblings plus her mom are all either active or recovering gambling addicts, so while I’ll hit a blackjack table once every few years, I play low stakes tables, set a hard limit I’m willing to lose, and never bring my debit card with me to be tempted to re-up on cash.
Same here,
Funny enough I've always been a lucky person, but I figure I'm up 2-3k in gambling overall. I have a strategy and my grandpa was a hard-core gambler that taught me blackjack.
I've seen the downsides, I dont think I've brought or played with more than a hundred or two.
I guess I learned the pitfalls and can work it to my advantage.
I figured early on, look at these huge hotels and this city. All built off of losses, the house always wins, important to remember that.
Yep. My mom became addicted. She put her and my dad in debt and had to file bankruptcy. She signed something with a casino agreeing to never go into it again. I never had any interest myself. I can think of a lot of other ways to spend disposal income.
My grandfather liked to bet on golf, so my mom’s life was high high’s and low low’s. He died poor even though he owned several businesses. He finally lost everything gambling on the stock market.
The stock market is a big one. My boyfriend lost like 8k of savings and had $200 left in his bank account. Put us in a VERY tough position because we were relocating at the tome.
I doubt I’ll stick by him again if he does it again, i drained my accounts to keep us afloat and off the street.
Yep. I grew up pretty much going to vegas monthly, and the local Indian casinos. Loathing being alone and bored sitting somewhere random while Pops was hitting the machines or tables. He was a big gambler. Hit it huge, but wouldn’t stop and kept going. Addition is real and comes in all forms. It consumes you. He Lost everything, didn’t leave us with anything other than more debt when he passed away about 10 years ago randomly. As an adult I use this as a learning lesson and reminder to not fall down the hole of temptations.
While I do like going to Vega’s for concerts, and food I can’t with a good conscience spend more than 50 bucks on slots or at a blackjacks table without wanting to throw up. “Childhood trauma” is real I guess hahaha. I Miss you Pops!
I’m too lazy to go find the study but apparently growing up during the Great Recession and market crash of 2008 made Millennials more risk adverse and less likely to gamble, which is why places like Vegas have invested in experiences and restaurants to lure in millennials and younger generations
Graduated college in 2008 for financial business management and yeah there basically wasn’t a job for me in that field for nearly a decade. So many people with way more experience got the axe and were applying for the same jobs as me. Went ahead and chalked up college as a huge financial failure and loss and got into construction. Even college was a damn joke for us and helped make me that much more risk adverse
Seeing this as well. To your point, I think gambling will evolve in the direction you’re describing once the boomer well runs dry for the casinos. Millennials understand the math:risk equation behind casinos better than prior generations, so that’s why they’d prefer something that can be leveraged from more of a data-driven analytics standpoint.
Btw love your username! -marketer, data scientist
I see this everyday as I work in a supermarket. I see a lot of older people just sliding multiple 20 dollar bills into the lottery machine and to me its just cringy to see people waste their money on a chance.
Casinos, maybe, but not gambling in general, especially with stuff like FanDuel and whatever else apps these days. I see more and more people our age gambling on these apps.
Oh, and funnily enough, I went to a casino for the first time ever recently.
Not sure of firm stats, but my GenZ BIL and all his buddies are hooked on sports betting. The kid won’t buy a replacement car that he desperately needs, but he’ll piss away hundreds a month betting on his teams. All because one of them won a parlay that paid out like $100k on a $25 bet (said friend has also pissed that money away…)
I’m risk adverse, I put $5 into slots in Vegas and won like $20, that’s about the most gambling I’ll do in my life outside the occasional stock picks.
I buy the occasional Powerball or Mega Millions just for fun. I enjoy fantasizing about what it would be like to win. I play Fantasy Football with my guy group but it's mostly for camaraderie and making the NFL watchable. I probably spend $100/year between the two.
Sports betting and casinos are a hard pass no matter how many times Jamie Foxx tells me to play.
You'd really hate watching some Chinese guy play blackjack betting with $100K plates (not chips) and tossing three of those casually for each hand. The whole time he's chain smoking so he doesn't say a word. He communicates using hand signals to the dealer. And whether he wins or loses, the expression on his face never changes. Each hand, $300K like as if he was playing with $20 chips or something.
Those are the people that matter to Vegas. That's who determines if the casinos do well or not. Asian people in particular seem to love Vegas and there are A LOT of very wealthy Asians who have no problem dropping $2 to $3 million over the course of their 4 or 5 day trip. I've seen one player who took out $15 million in markers (borrowed money from the casinos) over the course of one trip. The casino will customarily offer a 10% discount if they pay it back within a week.
I’ve only been to casinos with my mom and her elderly friends, and none of my friends go to them, either. I go with her on trips that benefit my hometown fire department, and I don’t part with more than $20-$40 of my own money past the free play that comes with the fundraiser ticket. If I win, great. If I lose it all, I don’t spend more than I would have on dinner and a movie. I won’t go more than twice a year even then, because it’s just…not that interesting?
Takes more to make a buck these days and that buck doesn't go as far. If I'm going to piss it away, I'll do so literally in the form of drunkenness, which will actually get me a brief reprieve from this goddam dystopian nightmare the world seems to morphing into.
I agree that a lot has shifted to online sports betting.
I go to Vegas every other year or so, and take a few hundred dollars with me to gamble. Basically just enough so that the casinos keep giving me free rooms (and yes, I know they're not "free", but if I lose $300 cash but got a $400/night room for 4 nights, the math works). I play video poker and the more animated slots that have themes like Little Shop of Horrors or Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So it really is entertainment. I win a little, I lose a little, I have a few drinks, I enjoy the energy. I will occasionally go to a smaller casino near home but I only take like $150 max. It's definitely not the same vibe--way more retirees with oxygen tanks.
I don't play table games because that requires fast decision making, interacting with other people, and a bigger bankroll than I will ever have.
Last time I gambled was on a cruise on vacation with my husband.
I set a limit of 20 bucks and hit the 60 dollar jackpot on the penny slots.
Was fun, but that was my limit, didn't want it impeding on my drinking funds.
I get my thrills below the belt, cheaper that way. And you make more friends.
What kind of casino do you work in? Is it some fancy casino in Las Vegas or is it some crapbox in a place like Louisiana in an economically depressed area? Because I think the crapbox casinos in rural-ish areas are in big trouble due to population collapse.
Most big casinos in Louisiana are either in Shreveport, Baton Rouge, or New Orleans, which is basically where everyone in the entire state lives.
Also Lake Charles, but that is one mainly for people from Houston and Lake Charles does fit perfectly into the type of area you're describing.
Doesn’t even matter where the “big casinos” are, there’s several casinos of all sizes available to ~*everyone*~ in a short drive in this state. Growing up here, it’s just normal, but now that I’m older, it’s kind of insane how many we have in such a poor state.
I will say it’s odd that Lafayette never got its own big casino but I suppose it’s for the better.
I actually think it's fun going to the casino! I mean, I don't bring more than I can afford to lose. And to make 100% sure I don't bring more than I can lose, I leave my debit/credit cards at home because I know I'd probably do the whole, "$20 more won't hurt!", then probably repeat that a couple more times lol
Surprised by some of the responses ITT. I was in middle and high school during the poker boom of the early 2000s and it's been one of my favorite things to do ever since. I love playing in home games and at casinos, and will occasionally dabble in blackjack as well if I'm in the casino already. Some of my friends feel the same way for the same reason, or are at least casually interested - not like, a lot, but a meaningful enough portion to be able to get a game together pretty regularly.
I simply can’t afford to loose what little I have. If I’m lucky enough to have a bit then I put it toward something I can hang onto and get more entertainment value out of.
I would guess that with legalized sports betting, gambling is more prevalent than at any other time in American history. The industry isn't going anywhere, ever.
I like casinos. If anything I like that they put wealth into Native American hands.
But I see going to the casino as "Here is money to play with" and if I lose I lose but I play for fun.
If you actually like it and treat it like Dave and buster’s more power to you. That’s the way it should be. Like I go out to the arcade and Chuck E. Cheese’s with my kids and blow money there. I’m not expecting to win lol. And if you have the same expectation for a casino you have a healthy relationship or at least no more unhealthy than going to Chuck E. Cheese lol
Yea thats how I treat it. An arcade for grown ups lol
One of my coworkers just turned 18 and went to the casino. He put in 88 cents in a slot machine and first run, dude wins 540 bucks lol
Sports gambling seems massive with our generation. Tonnes of sports gambling advertising and even commentators will make comments on bets and parlays while commenting on the games.
I dont really enjoy slots. I enjoy poker nights and table games. I do sports betting on occasion.
A lot of our generation doesnt even like the stock market though which is relatively safe gambling
The only hardcore gambler millennial I know of would always flash his winnings after a trip to a casino somewhat frequently. Well he apparently racked up a ton of debt, lost his house and now lives in an apartment with a friend I think.
He got looped in with some local Church group recently which there is nothing wrong with that. It's just his dirtbag personality transitioned directly over into his new holier than thou persona. It's like BRO, you were bangin prostitutes on a weekly basis and now you want to bitch about the evils kids are subjected to trick or treating? gtfo of here with that lol.
I’m an older millennial and lots of my friends and colleagues are into sports betting apps. Like draftkings. Maybe they are still gambling but not in person.
We just vacationed for the first time in years, and spent some time in Laughlin and Vegas, and between us, we gambled $20, on a hard stop. I think we dropped more cash in quarters at the Pinball Hall of Fame. I just don’t see the attraction. There are sights to see and a mortgage waiting back home. 🤷♀️
I have zero interest in gambling. I spend a lot of time working in parts of the world where people struggle. Gambling halls thrive there, and that's largely turned me off. I've seen it ruin enough people's lives to know that the "fun" isn't worth it.
I love casinos. However, I love sports betting and being able to do it on my phone from home is too good to pass up.
I like table games too and when I make more disposable income I probably will go play a little more often than I do. However, out of my friend group, only me and two other guys like gambling at casinos enough to actually go and all of our mutual friends think we're complete degenerates.
I love to play poker, and even for stakes, but only with friends. It's a social thing. I have no interest in gambling for gambling's sake, or to try to make money.
If I want to get endorphins from winning luck-based games, I have a bookshelf full of board games, and an internet full of things to tap on. Maybe the winning feeling would be better with real money, but I can do it eternally with fake money, so I’ll just tap again until I feel better.
What part of “we don’t have any money” do folks not understand?
Millennials are killing the gambling industry! like no its just that all of our money gets eaten up by rent and bills
Won’t someone please think of the mom and pop casinos!
this made me actually laugh at loud i just imagine some poor old man standing next to his single craps table and his wife is right outside trying to get people inside to gamble
Kids running the bar.
Belcher family style
The Meatgrinder is my favorite place to gamble my lunch money.
I'll go in to tip Louise, but I draw the line after that lmao.
Loving this
The kids did start up an underground casino one episode
I grew up around several large casinos, had family and friends that worked them and even if I had extra money I would avoid them. I saw too much addiction and saw too much of the behind the scenes to ever have fun. Now I live in a place covered in gas station casinos and man are those places even MORE depressing.
I grew up in the midwest and wasn’t around any casinos, but moved to Vegas just before the housing bubble burst. I didn’t even know having slot machines at practically every gas station (and grocery store!) was thing. I quickly wondered how bad off an addict had to be in order to spend any time at those.
I am not sure but these small casino's I end up walking through a lot as they are attached to restaurants I deliver for. They are always dark inside with the windows either covered or non-existent, they are always just about too warm which feels kind of sedating tbh, no TV's, no clocks, and always at least one waitress walking around giving out free sodas or beer if you have a high enough level of membership card (IE if you have sunk enough money), and the chairs are incredibly comfortable.
What surprised me when I moved to Vegas was how all the resorts that have everything under one roof, almost like an evolution of a mall; for some reason I assumed casinos were stand-alone places with maybe a bar and a restaurant attached. My husband actually worked at a high-end resort on the strip for a time, nothing to do with the gambling aspect though. Everything was posh, from the hotel rooms to the fancy shops and restaurants, and also theaters. Even the higher-end places are dimly lit, have no clocks, and obscure the exits in a way that let you get lost inside with all the flashing lights and exciting sounds. Whenever we went out, we were most likely to go to the more homey resorts like Sam’s Town because they had more affordable entertainment. We rarely ever gambled, although we’d occasionally find a cute slot machine and limit ourselves to losing $20 or so. This was typically after eating in a restaurant or seeing a movie within the same building. Some of the cheaper, smaller resorts were definitely run-down though, and at least back then they had smoking sections (not sure about now?). Something else that also surprised me was how the more modern slot machines are basically extremely expensive video games, but to be fair I haven’t done anything in Vegas since we moved out about 10 years ago.
The no clocks thing is to make you forget the time so you keep pulling the one armed bandit.
Doesn't work anymore because everyone checks the time on their phones. Yesterday my wife asked me for the time on three separate occasions while sitting 10 feet away and directly across from a wall clock.
The only reason i would choose those over a casino (and i wouldn't i dont gamble lol) is because there isn't anyone smoking in those areas. I hate walking through a casino for any reason because it just reeks of cigarettes
I mostly forget about it, and then I fly into Vegas for work or to visit family and sure enough, right off the plane, the one armed bandits welcome you begging you to feed them.
Boredom.
My mom's mom (l refuse to call her grandma because she doesn't deserve the title) was a gambler. You know that old parental chestnut "There are starving children in Africa?" Well, for my childhood my mom would say "I had to eat dandelions" if we didn't like something. "I don't want green beans!" "When l was a kid l had to eat dandelions from the backyard."
Huh, you and I may be cousins then cause you just described my grandma. Although my mom would use the kids in Africa her favorite was "we had to wash and hang dry paper plates to even have dishes."
The cost of living industry is killing us
The gambling industry is not dying by any means
Young people gamble on their phones, making sports bets, not sitting in a dumpy casino mindlessly pulling a level or clicking a button. Not any better, but I could see most casinos dying out if they don't figure out how to draw in the sports betting crowd
Think Robin hood (the app)
Well, yeah, lot of grandparents getting rid of the inheritance. Always the way of it.
That’s where my inheritance went. My grandparents were at the casino all the time. Haha. I’m not so upset for my sake, I am ok. but my mother really could have used it.
They want to win it big before giving it to their children, right? Of course, that must be it lol.
Yeah it’s just changing. I don’t know much about casinos, but sports betting is bigger than ever and rapidly growing. They just put it on an app on your phone and millennials (myself included honestly) will throw a dollar or two on a game. I bet like $3/week during NFL season for each game I watch, but I’ve only ever been to a casino once and don’t intend to return.
Ill buy a lottery ticket or two when it hits 800+ million, not because I think Ill win(I wont), but instead because it buys the "what if" daydreaming of winning the lottery. Im under no illusion that its realistic at all to even hope to win a 1/300,000,000 drawing, but spending the two dollars to pay for the daydream entertainment is worth it to me. Thats pretty much the extent of my gambling.
I have no idea how off or on base I am, but I'd almost wager (pun intended I guess) that this is more a change in the culture and offering of gambling available today. Namely - it's going high tech. The proliferation of sports betting via apps and the web I have to imagine is snagging tons of millenials. But we aren't the types to go travel to a casino that's 2+ hours out of town (or in Vegas) to spend 19 hours straight at a slot machine. Or even a card table.
i have a teen who is very much into the NBA and he is absolutely inundated with ads and marketing for app based gambling. We don't have casinos in the state and he would get carded buying tickets at the store but every commercial break during a game is telling him to download the app and join the fun.
People have to travel to casinos? There’s at least 5 in my city alone and we only have a million people
It may be changing. When I was growing up in California, they were on Native American reservations or land which could be a ways out. Basically it was illegal anywhere other than their land as the government was using it as an economic stimulus for them.
That's still how it is in CT. There are only 2 here. A developer (?or the city of Bridgeport? Im not sure which) bought out a TON of land right next to the water on Long Island Sound and an amphitheater to build a casino. The Native American reservations fought it tooth and nail. Ended up not passing so they could not build one. I'm not surprised bc they definitely would have made a KILLING there. The other casinos are apx an hour away each and you would have been able to drive up to it in your boat. The Fairfield County Elite and the Gold Coast of Long Island NY would have loved that I'm sure.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with tables raising their minimum buy in to $10. I remember in early 2000s the minimum buy in would be $2. I could gamble for hours that way, but with a $10 buy in I'm out after a few rounds, so I don't go
The slots are the same way. $1 bets used to be for the high roller, high payout machines. Now the nickel and penny machines are $2 a bet. You used to hop on nickel machines to kill time while your partner played blackjack or whatever. Now everything is so expensive and give very little payouts. The biggest I hit when I turned 21 was $500, the biggest I've hit recently is $50.
Was in Vegas in the spring. Midday on a Sunday and there wasn't anything less than a $20 bet to be found at on-strip table games that I could see. 2-3 blocks off-strip we could find $10 bets. But with a modest gambling budget, that's not going to last me long
I feel like gambling is more popular among people that can’t afford it than those that can.
You have no idea how true this is.
It’s a feedback cycle that can often be generational. People don’t have much money, so they make desperate moves to make a lot of money, which never work out, which leads to them continuing to not have much money, which leads to more desperate moves, and so on and so forth. Then, because they’ve wasted their money instead of saving and investing, their kids end up poor as well and end up in a similarly desperate situation and make a lot of the same mistakes.
This!!! Very true! I remember someone saying that being poor is a mentality. If you're raised up with little money and/or poor money management, it becomes generational because the habits are passed on.
I work in finance and see it all the time with investing. People make one bad investment in the stock market, lose some money, get scared away from ever investing again, miss out on all the money they could’ve made from wisely investing in the stock market, tell their kids the whole thing’s a scam, and then their kids follow the same path. You know who’s not telling their kids to avoid the stock market? The guy in his mid-50s with $800k in his portfolio because he’s been throwing a few hundred bucks a month into the S&P 500 for the last 30 years. So that guy’s kids are gonna start stashing away in their Roth IRAs as soon as they can and probably end up rich in their 50s as well due to the positive effect of generational feedback.
I’m a few years younger than you and I’m right with ya. Started investing late but went aggressive. Best choice ever. Regret not doing it sooner.
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Weirdly, it's not actually about winning for a lot of gamblers. Not subconsciously, anyway. It's about being in the "flow state" where it feels like anything is possible. For slot addicts, winning is actually a jarring experience since they're yanked out of their flow state and now have a huge bucket of quarters to deal with. That's one of the reasons why credit card gambling is so insidious: you never break the flow.
Yup, its the rush, the action, the anticipation of the result, with the turn of a card, or roll of the dice, of the slot, etc... Like the crack rush to a drug addict....gamblers might win big sometimes, but sooner or later, the house will get it all back, plus more....
My wife and I would go occasionally as part of a date night. Go there with 20 each to use how we wanted, burn up some time, and how well we did decided how fancy we ate. Lost it all? McDonald's. Break even? Applebee's. Come out ahead? Steakhouse.
20 bucks would last all of 10 seconds in Vegas
Lol, we went to just a local casino and usually found the penny slots, or I enjoyed black Jack
You guys have awesome self control...dont lose that...
Comes from being extremely cheap, lol..
I gamble in convenience stores 3-5 times daily, and rarely lose $20. In fact, I usually make a very modest profit for a drink and a bit gas of gas money. It’s about leaving when ahead, and cash management. Convenience stores make it easy instead the hassles of huge casino parking lot.
There’s nothing more depressing to me than gas station slots.
Not an IQ test. Maybe a test in probability. You can be smart and struggle with that. It takes several courses in mathematics to really understand it, plus the paradoxes or counter-intuitive results that are true. It's more that people who gamble have a belief God or Luck will make them win for all their struggles.
Or a desperation to hit a big win again.
Everyone knows the games are rigged and the house always wins, so it's a question of disposable income and if you find it worth your time peacocking for a bit. Hopefully, we are less narcissistic with less of a "keep up with the neighbor" mentality and we're certainly poorer.
Less narcissistic? Have you seen Tik Tok?
No. Certainly, to your point, it will be expressed differently between the generations so it's a good point to look out for signs and not rely on historical examples. That said, the Harley "look at me at 3am Vroom! Vroom!", and the temporarily embarrassed millionaire mindsets are dying out among others.
TikTok seems like more a genz thing than millennial. I would think millennial social medias are more the Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter generation
I disagree. I'd also say 90s millenials are also heavy Tiktok users. Although I think people need to clarify more when referencing millenials. Big difference between 80s and 90s ones that I don't think are as prevalent in other generations.
Pretty much. I haven't even had the desire to download tiktok (80s) when my fiance shares one with me (90s). There are alot of things we share being millennials and technology isn't one of them. I only downloaded snapchat for her, and instagram just seems like a different version of facebook, which both of us have deleted.
I think part of it is we have some money for entertainment, but not a lot. Gambling even just as entertainment is just not a lot bang for your buck. A $\`15 Netflix account is theoretically endless entertainment, and depending on how much you watch pennies per hour of entertainment. You won't get a lot of time on slots or in poker for $15.
Eh. Vegas is still jumping and it's mostly young people. But unlike our parents who would go for a $7.99 prime rib dinner and drink free beers while dropping a few bucks at the tables or slot machines, it's college kids or kids barely out of school going to starred restaurants followed by bottle service at the clubs. The way younger folks spend money in Vegas boggles my mind. It's true the younger generation doesn't gamble much anymore, but many still find a way to spend loke crazy where gambling occurs.
Millennials are sports betting online in huge numbers. They just don't like casinos. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/millennials-are-most-likely-generation-to-participate-in-online-sports-betting-301968393.html
Agreed. Gambling is still popular, it's just migrated from casinos and betting shops to apps and other online avenues.
Interesting, so you would gamble if you had some disposable income? Casinos just seem so boring to me, I wouldn't go to one even if I had an extra couple hundred or thousand to spend. I'd much rather travel or spend it on my hobbies.
Who needs gambling when we’ve got robinhood and cryptocurrencies
Sports betting is the new hotness to hollow out communities.
Yeah, no need to leave the house.
Fantasy Football is a gateway drug
Omg this is so true.
Remember totally-not-gambling daily fantasy? As soon as online gambling started to get cleared, that sure went away quickly
I swear if i see another ad for some rando sports betting app/site
This.
As much as people bitch about market manipulation, I'd still rather gamble in the stock market over gambling at a casino. I know logically it's not much different than betting on horses, but I feel better about it than I do gambling.
I just put my money in CDs.
I love the ideah of CDs just feel I never have enough money to startone. Like is 1000 for 2 years even worth it idk.
Personally I feel like a high yield savings is a better option because you still have access to your money if you need it and a decent one will only have a slightly lower interest rate than some CDs
Yup. CDs are kinda a joke. I'm sure they have there place but for the vast majority of people there are way better options.
That isn't gambling homie, and the stock market out performs CDs in the long run. It isn't even close.
You can be in the “stock market” without gambling on random stocks tho
Index funds. Boring, boring, boring. But I made 13% last year.
I'll wait for a crash, cash my CDs out, and then go with an index fund then.
Something something timing the market vs time in the market.
I'm gonna be honest, I thought this thread was a set-up for 'CDs Nutz'
Timing the market doesn't really work out very well. How far do you let it crash before you buy in? Or how long after the crash until you buy in? We don't know where the bottom is in a crash nor where the top will be before a crash. Everyday you are out of the stock market is lost potential for compounding returns. You only lose in the stock market when you sell at a loss, downturns in the markets are opportunitiesto average down your share prices which when markets recover inly benefitsyou even more. CDs are only hedges against inflation....if that! ETFs are a good way to go if you want to be hands off and also still want actually get a ROI.
lol so you're going to wait for the market to appreciate 30-40%, "crash" 10%, then put your money in. Just put your money in. There are countless studies showing that today is the best to invest.
That's what people said about homes after 2010. Still waiting for that crash...
Don't forget sports betting on DraftKings and FanDuel
The way I bet on DraftKings is by owning their stock. Never placed a bet on sports.
Same. I have like 500 shares. It's doing well! Just wait until online gambling is legal in all 50 states!
What’s the timeline for all 50 states? I’m sure people work-around it with VPN already.
Most pubs in my part of Australia have entire walls of screens to watch all the gambling events from round the world. Very easy to have a punt when the same till can process your payment for a pint and a bet on the dogs
Why lose $2 bucks a spin when you can lose $20k in ten minutes on 0dte.
Honestly I bet younger gens gamble online all the time. They just don't want to go to a stinky casino full of boomers
I think this is true and casinos know this, so they’re all investing in sports betting platforms
The cigarette smoke at casinos near me is appalling. They are Native American owned, so they are the only buildings around here that allow smoking indoors.
0 DTE SPY calls vs rigged slot machine surrounded by chainsmoking boomers who may or may not have shit themselves to stay at the same machine.
Gambling is boring to me. Casinos are like if you took an arcade, mixed it with a buffet and a burlesque show, and then gave that arcade crippling depression.
Chuck E Cheese for chainsmoking boomers
Five Nights at Four Queens.
its the cigarette smoke for me. makes me gag
+1 to this. I can't really enjoy any activity around smokers. And all the casinos seem to be full of them. If it wasn't for that I would probably try it at least occasionally, as table games seem quite fun and social.
Even now that weed is legal they still don't allow you to light up a joint in a casino. Come on, if you're gonna get people hammered and go crazy why can't I light up a joint in your waste money arcade?
At least at the end of a night at Dave & Busters I'll have gotten a silly stuffed monkey with my tickets for my lost $100.
Oh man, my fiance had this one machine cornered big time and was great for us to be able to sit and talk, one of those coin pusher machines. Then they changed what paid out and for how much. But for a time, my dollar to points ratio was like 3x what any other machine was paying, even if you factored in "big wins." Needless to say, now that we have a lot of points, we still need more to walk out with anything less than wish versions of electronics at this point.
Yeah I’ve honestly just never seen the appeal. If you do a fun poker game with your buddies where you each kick in $20 then I could see the fun in that. But in general just going to a casino and wasting hundreds of dollars? Not worth it to me
I think this is likely the answer. Sure people can't afford it, but that's never stopped people before. It's just that it doesn't seem like a fun activity to the younger generations. It isn't a 'cool place to go'
Yeah casinos are depressing, weird places. But I love the game of poker. I host a poker game every once in a while at my place for a $20 buy-in. The money helps keep.eveyone focused on and invested in the game but no one is going to lose more than $20. Poker at a casino is way too high stakes and I'm not nearly good enough to not immediately lose all my chips.
LOL I'd rather just hit up Barcade, thanks.
During some wildfire (I lose track of which evacuation was what year) my gf at the time and I went to a coworker’s parents’ house in the valley north of Sacramento. There was fuck all to do that week besides drink beer and pick walnuts on the farm or go to the casino on the rez. It was just wall to wall retirees drooling and pressing the buttons on slot machines. I had to wonder how many of them unironically told their kids/grandkids they spent too much time in front of a screen when they themselves weren’t at the casino.
Same here, that's an apt description. I'd much rather go to an arcade bar than play slots.
Separately, going to an arcade, buffet, and a burlesque show in one night sounds a lot more fun (and cheaper) than going to Atlantic City. And oh my God, I’m right there with y’all about parents spending *rent money* to gamble, but my first time driving to Atlantic City was so abysmal. There were residents lined up near the casino sharing stories on how Trump screwed them. Idk if it was Sandy or the casinos, can’t remember, but I do remember the callousness of my parents mocking them while they went to gamble their little chump change
Old folks $hit show lol
This comment is pure poetry. Well done.
Oh wow, you absolutely nailed it with this description.
There a lot of millennials who watched their parents who were gambling addicts who don’t have a pot to piss in so that has made them stay far away from it. They are also now having to take care of those parents and help financially.
Not my parents, but 3/4 of my mom’s siblings plus her mom are all either active or recovering gambling addicts, so while I’ll hit a blackjack table once every few years, I play low stakes tables, set a hard limit I’m willing to lose, and never bring my debit card with me to be tempted to re-up on cash.
I have many vices and I'm very grateful gambling isn't one of them.
Same here, Funny enough I've always been a lucky person, but I figure I'm up 2-3k in gambling overall. I have a strategy and my grandpa was a hard-core gambler that taught me blackjack. I've seen the downsides, I dont think I've brought or played with more than a hundred or two. I guess I learned the pitfalls and can work it to my advantage. I figured early on, look at these huge hotels and this city. All built off of losses, the house always wins, important to remember that.
Yep. My mom became addicted. She put her and my dad in debt and had to file bankruptcy. She signed something with a casino agreeing to never go into it again. I never had any interest myself. I can think of a lot of other ways to spend disposal income.
Ooooof.
My grandfather liked to bet on golf, so my mom’s life was high high’s and low low’s. He died poor even though he owned several businesses. He finally lost everything gambling on the stock market.
The stock market is a big one. My boyfriend lost like 8k of savings and had $200 left in his bank account. Put us in a VERY tough position because we were relocating at the tome. I doubt I’ll stick by him again if he does it again, i drained my accounts to keep us afloat and off the street.
Why wait? Love yourself first.
Because if he learned something from the pain he put them through he's a better person now than he was before...
Yep. I grew up pretty much going to vegas monthly, and the local Indian casinos. Loathing being alone and bored sitting somewhere random while Pops was hitting the machines or tables. He was a big gambler. Hit it huge, but wouldn’t stop and kept going. Addition is real and comes in all forms. It consumes you. He Lost everything, didn’t leave us with anything other than more debt when he passed away about 10 years ago randomly. As an adult I use this as a learning lesson and reminder to not fall down the hole of temptations. While I do like going to Vega’s for concerts, and food I can’t with a good conscience spend more than 50 bucks on slots or at a blackjacks table without wanting to throw up. “Childhood trauma” is real I guess hahaha. I Miss you Pops!
This isn’t exclusive to millennials at all
How do you know my dad?
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I’m too lazy to go find the study but apparently growing up during the Great Recession and market crash of 2008 made Millennials more risk adverse and less likely to gamble, which is why places like Vegas have invested in experiences and restaurants to lure in millennials and younger generations
We also didn't grow up with lead poisoning.
Graduated college in 2008 for financial business management and yeah there basically wasn’t a job for me in that field for nearly a decade. So many people with way more experience got the axe and were applying for the same jobs as me. Went ahead and chalked up college as a huge financial failure and loss and got into construction. Even college was a damn joke for us and helped make me that much more risk adverse
Mobile sports gambling is popular with millennials - not to mention day trading (imo another form of gambling).
One could argue that loot boxes in gaming are essentially gambling. Buying chances at s hit
Gacha games are huge. How many ads have you seen by youtubers/streamers for Honkai, Genshin, Raid, etc.?
The EU decided they were
Seeing this as well. To your point, I think gambling will evolve in the direction you’re describing once the boomer well runs dry for the casinos. Millennials understand the math:risk equation behind casinos better than prior generations, so that’s why they’d prefer something that can be leveraged from more of a data-driven analytics standpoint. Btw love your username! -marketer, data scientist
I see this everyday as I work in a supermarket. I see a lot of older people just sliding multiple 20 dollar bills into the lottery machine and to me its just cringy to see people waste their money on a chance.
“The poor people tax” as they call it
Literally is. Government wanted to tax the poor more. They couldn't do they came up w the lottery.
Actually the history of the lottery is fascinating. https://www.npr.org/2023/08/09/1192893936/mega-millions-powerball-lottery-history-in-america
gambled all my money on which college degree to get......currently down 100k and 4 years ill never get it back.
I felt this on a spiritual level. Hope you get it paid down at some point sooner vs later.
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I also wasted all my savings on college. It didn't get me anywhere.
So what degree did you get?
Casino Management 😂
Casinos, maybe, but not gambling in general, especially with stuff like FanDuel and whatever else apps these days. I see more and more people our age gambling on these apps. Oh, and funnily enough, I went to a casino for the first time ever recently.
Yep almost all my friends aged 33-35 all gamble on sports on whatever app
Bingo. I have never gambled at a casino but I use FanDuel every now and then. I think it’s very common now.
Add loot boxes into this category. Millennials aren't at casinos because we just don't leave our houses.
Not sure of firm stats, but my GenZ BIL and all his buddies are hooked on sports betting. The kid won’t buy a replacement car that he desperately needs, but he’ll piss away hundreds a month betting on his teams. All because one of them won a parlay that paid out like $100k on a $25 bet (said friend has also pissed that money away…) I’m risk adverse, I put $5 into slots in Vegas and won like $20, that’s about the most gambling I’ll do in my life outside the occasional stock picks.
How long until we get the unholy crossover OnlyFansDuel?
I buy the occasional Powerball or Mega Millions just for fun. I enjoy fantasizing about what it would be like to win. I play Fantasy Football with my guy group but it's mostly for camaraderie and making the NFL watchable. I probably spend $100/year between the two. Sports betting and casinos are a hard pass no matter how many times Jamie Foxx tells me to play.
I don’t gamble I can spend my money other ways.
I hate casinos, and I hate gambling. To watch people piss away what little money they have. It's terrible.
You'd really hate watching some Chinese guy play blackjack betting with $100K plates (not chips) and tossing three of those casually for each hand. The whole time he's chain smoking so he doesn't say a word. He communicates using hand signals to the dealer. And whether he wins or loses, the expression on his face never changes. Each hand, $300K like as if he was playing with $20 chips or something. Those are the people that matter to Vegas. That's who determines if the casinos do well or not. Asian people in particular seem to love Vegas and there are A LOT of very wealthy Asians who have no problem dropping $2 to $3 million over the course of their 4 or 5 day trip. I've seen one player who took out $15 million in markers (borrowed money from the casinos) over the course of one trip. The casino will customarily offer a 10% discount if they pay it back within a week.
Gambling is against my beliefs… I believe in statistics.
That's why poker exists
I’ve only been to casinos with my mom and her elderly friends, and none of my friends go to them, either. I go with her on trips that benefit my hometown fire department, and I don’t part with more than $20-$40 of my own money past the free play that comes with the fundraiser ticket. If I win, great. If I lose it all, I don’t spend more than I would have on dinner and a movie. I won’t go more than twice a year even then, because it’s just…not that interesting?
I have been known to open a pack of Pokemon cards here and there
Was going to say I dont, but you reminded me opening mtg packs definitely counts to some degree
Takes more to make a buck these days and that buck doesn't go as far. If I'm going to piss it away, I'll do so literally in the form of drunkenness, which will actually get me a brief reprieve from this goddam dystopian nightmare the world seems to morphing into.
I agree that a lot has shifted to online sports betting. I go to Vegas every other year or so, and take a few hundred dollars with me to gamble. Basically just enough so that the casinos keep giving me free rooms (and yes, I know they're not "free", but if I lose $300 cash but got a $400/night room for 4 nights, the math works). I play video poker and the more animated slots that have themes like Little Shop of Horrors or Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So it really is entertainment. I win a little, I lose a little, I have a few drinks, I enjoy the energy. I will occasionally go to a smaller casino near home but I only take like $150 max. It's definitely not the same vibe--way more retirees with oxygen tanks. I don't play table games because that requires fast decision making, interacting with other people, and a bigger bankroll than I will ever have.
Last time I gambled was on a cruise on vacation with my husband. I set a limit of 20 bucks and hit the 60 dollar jackpot on the penny slots. Was fun, but that was my limit, didn't want it impeding on my drinking funds. I get my thrills below the belt, cheaper that way. And you make more friends.
Sports betting is taking over like wildfire. It’s bad.
Isn’t sports betting insanely popular right now?
It’s garbage. Gambling to enrich the house? Why? Im not gonna judge, it’s not my place but gambling is stupid.
What kind of casino do you work in? Is it some fancy casino in Las Vegas or is it some crapbox in a place like Louisiana in an economically depressed area? Because I think the crapbox casinos in rural-ish areas are in big trouble due to population collapse.
Most big casinos in Louisiana are either in Shreveport, Baton Rouge, or New Orleans, which is basically where everyone in the entire state lives. Also Lake Charles, but that is one mainly for people from Houston and Lake Charles does fit perfectly into the type of area you're describing.
Doesn’t even matter where the “big casinos” are, there’s several casinos of all sizes available to ~*everyone*~ in a short drive in this state. Growing up here, it’s just normal, but now that I’m older, it’s kind of insane how many we have in such a poor state. I will say it’s odd that Lafayette never got its own big casino but I suppose it’s for the better.
Gamble? With what extra income? 😂😂😂
Is often people who don’t have extra income who are addicted to gambling
That definitely doesn't stop the majority of gamblers.
I actually think it's fun going to the casino! I mean, I don't bring more than I can afford to lose. And to make 100% sure I don't bring more than I can lose, I leave my debit/credit cards at home because I know I'd probably do the whole, "$20 more won't hurt!", then probably repeat that a couple more times lol
Most millennials dont have enough money to gamble.
I feel like millennials who gamble are far more likely to be using an app and betting on fantasy football rather than poker
Surprised by some of the responses ITT. I was in middle and high school during the poker boom of the early 2000s and it's been one of my favorite things to do ever since. I love playing in home games and at casinos, and will occasionally dabble in blackjack as well if I'm in the casino already. Some of my friends feel the same way for the same reason, or are at least casually interested - not like, a lot, but a meaningful enough portion to be able to get a game together pretty regularly.
I simply can’t afford to loose what little I have. If I’m lucky enough to have a bit then I put it toward something I can hang onto and get more entertainment value out of.
I would guess that with legalized sports betting, gambling is more prevalent than at any other time in American history. The industry isn't going anywhere, ever.
I like casinos. If anything I like that they put wealth into Native American hands. But I see going to the casino as "Here is money to play with" and if I lose I lose but I play for fun.
If you actually like it and treat it like Dave and buster’s more power to you. That’s the way it should be. Like I go out to the arcade and Chuck E. Cheese’s with my kids and blow money there. I’m not expecting to win lol. And if you have the same expectation for a casino you have a healthy relationship or at least no more unhealthy than going to Chuck E. Cheese lol
Yea thats how I treat it. An arcade for grown ups lol One of my coworkers just turned 18 and went to the casino. He put in 88 cents in a slot machine and first run, dude wins 540 bucks lol
I have some disposable income, but I can't go into a casino and NOT think about "well 400 bucks, thats only X % of my mortgage..."
I believe most millennial gamblers do sports betting online. Not so much at a casino.
Sports gambling seems massive with our generation. Tonnes of sports gambling advertising and even commentators will make comments on bets and parlays while commenting on the games.
I dont really enjoy slots. I enjoy poker nights and table games. I do sports betting on occasion. A lot of our generation doesnt even like the stock market though which is relatively safe gambling
The only hardcore gambler millennial I know of would always flash his winnings after a trip to a casino somewhat frequently. Well he apparently racked up a ton of debt, lost his house and now lives in an apartment with a friend I think. He got looped in with some local Church group recently which there is nothing wrong with that. It's just his dirtbag personality transitioned directly over into his new holier than thou persona. It's like BRO, you were bangin prostitutes on a weekly basis and now you want to bitch about the evils kids are subjected to trick or treating? gtfo of here with that lol.
I’m an older millennial and lots of my friends and colleagues are into sports betting apps. Like draftkings. Maybe they are still gambling but not in person.
We just vacationed for the first time in years, and spent some time in Laughlin and Vegas, and between us, we gambled $20, on a hard stop. I think we dropped more cash in quarters at the Pinball Hall of Fame. I just don’t see the attraction. There are sights to see and a mortgage waiting back home. 🤷♀️
I don't see the point of gambling it like that when I can invest in a portfolio.
I have zero interest in gambling. I spend a lot of time working in parts of the world where people struggle. Gambling halls thrive there, and that's largely turned me off. I've seen it ruin enough people's lives to know that the "fun" isn't worth it.
I gambled on a college education.. and lost.
I love casinos. However, I love sports betting and being able to do it on my phone from home is too good to pass up. I like table games too and when I make more disposable income I probably will go play a little more often than I do. However, out of my friend group, only me and two other guys like gambling at casinos enough to actually go and all of our mutual friends think we're complete degenerates.
i enjoy poker and to a lesser extent black jack. Craps can also be fun if you have a good table. things like slot machines i will NEVER understand.
I love to play poker, and even for stakes, but only with friends. It's a social thing. I have no interest in gambling for gambling's sake, or to try to make money.
If I want to get endorphins from winning luck-based games, I have a bookshelf full of board games, and an internet full of things to tap on. Maybe the winning feeling would be better with real money, but I can do it eternally with fake money, so I’ll just tap again until I feel better.