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Re: undefined

#91

Post by badminton1 »

Casinos profit in many ways, but some of them include:

- Even if a game is played sticking to optimal strategy, odds are in favor of the house. Through game rules, and/or house rules.

- Many players are tourists that do not know how to play optimally. Those subdize players that win, and leave a margin overall.

- They encourage drinking by offering alcohol for free to make people less inhibited, less risk averse and diminish their ability to play to the best of their ability.

- There are cognitive biases that create the perception of a higher probability of winning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy

- Players do not use currency directly, but chips. Chips have a more playful connotation than currency, and create a level of indirection that subconsciously distracts people from the fact they are dealing with money.

Then, some personality traits and mental health conditions can contribute to less risk aversion and other aspects that lead to unreasonable gambling.

Re: undefined

#92

Post by digler999 »

ianferrel wrote: post #87
digler999 wrote: post #23

I've worked at 3 gaming manufacturers including implementing the payout table. Near misses were never coded into the design. If they did occur, they were consequences of the way the reels were physically laid out. That choice was made from an excel sheet that outlines how many types of each award were expected. The primary statistics the mathematicians cared about were volatility (std deviation) and hold percentage.…

> Third, I think that if you embezzle or otherwise use stolen funds to gamble that should absolutely be recoverable by the victim. If I buy stolen property, the court has no problem seizing that from me and returning it to its rightful owner. This is a nice idea, but it's not a workable system for money. For one, because money is fungible, you can't actually track who has it. If someone steals $1 million from an empl…

I think it's safe to make the casino pay 100% of the amount embezzled if it can be shown that the embezzlement was done to enable a gaming addiction. The amounts can usually be tracked, because any serious gambler is going to use a club card. The amount of free play, food, hotel rooms, travel, plus tax deductions, make it a given that a problem gambler would always use a card. That covers the "five different casinos" case. As far as commingling personal assets with embezzled, that's not how it works. Addicts don't resort to serious crimes until their personal assets are wiped out. So they should leave a pretty clear paper trail of money stolen ---> money given to casino.

Re: undefined

#93

Post by mgkimsal »

billmalarky wrote: post #50

"Richardson’s employer, Colombo Candy & Tobacco Wholesale. Richardson, the company’s controller, embezzled $4.1 million over the course of two years to support her gambling addiction. (In 2014, Richardson, then 54, was sentenced to 14 to 20 years in prison for the crime.) The thefts ultimately put the company out of business." So a company based on exploiting human addiction caused another company based on exploiting…

and now the taxpayers pay for prosecuting and housing that person for the next 14 years.

(yes, those companies paid taxes too)

Re: undefined

#94

Post by Smushman »

kirykl wrote: post #5
komon wrote: post #2

A really great short documentary on this subject is Louis Theroux's "Gambling in Las Vegas". His frank manner really cuts to the core of not only the length to which addicts will justify gambling but also to the lengths to which the casino employees justify their enabling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJRYUZbxwyA

That's a great documentary. I'd like to see a followup on some of the people he interviewed. Some research online will show that the "Mattress King" had lost his young son shortly before this was filmed

Could you provide a link to this? I googled for "Mattress King" and found stories ie: Reddit; but nothing about his son... thanks.

Re: undefined

#95

Post by mojoB »

Demcox wrote: post #90
komon wrote: post #2

A really great short documentary on this subject is Louis Theroux's "Gambling in Las Vegas". His frank manner really cuts to the core of not only the length to which addicts will justify gambling but also to the lengths to which the casino employees justify their enabling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJRYUZbxwyA

It's block in my country. Does anyone have a mirror?

http://eachvideo.com/watch?v=q5EcyUaZQrU

Re: undefined

#96

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast »

mgkimsal wrote: post #93
billmalarky wrote: post #50

"Richardson’s employer, Colombo Candy & Tobacco Wholesale. Richardson, the company’s controller, embezzled $4.1 million over the course of two years to support her gambling addiction. (In 2014, Richardson, then 54, was sentenced to 14 to 20 years in prison for the crime.) The thefts ultimately put the company out of business." So a company based on exploiting human addiction caused another company based on exploiting…

and now the taxpayers pay for prosecuting and housing that person for the next 14 years. (yes, those companies paid taxes too)

> those companies paid taxes too

Citation needed.

Re: undefined

#97

Post by Smushman »

Probably because I am very fortunate; but I have never done anything but lose from Vegas games to the Lottery and poker with friends.

Based on that - I think an open informational model would go a long way.

I imagine this would be a history or graphing of win vs. loss and dollar amounts or similar statistics for the customer/gambler.

It could be provided on say a slip of paper, presented each time the customer goes to the cage or buys chips at the tables.

The customer could even refuse the paper if they 'wanted to bury their head in the sand'.

Re: undefined

#98

Post by eppeltert »

kirykl wrote: post #77
tunap wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good thing toothpaste isn't addictive... hope the Crest folk aren't reading this. Very good point, though. I was lucky, I had several positive experiences in a short time period and could rationalize my decision to desist. I have failed repeatedly to mirror that experience with my other addictions, cigs and sex. * * More so than just getting a lot, I was missing work, foregoing important events and losing sleep to en…

This does make me wonder why there's not an AM and PM toothpaste sub category. AM toothpaste with caffeine and PM with some type of mild sedative. They could double sales

I always figured toothpaste for sensitive teeth contains local sedative.

Re: undefined

#99

Post by iamatworknow »

mgkimsal wrote: post #93
billmalarky wrote: post #50

"Richardson’s employer, Colombo Candy & Tobacco Wholesale. Richardson, the company’s controller, embezzled $4.1 million over the course of two years to support her gambling addiction. (In 2014, Richardson, then 54, was sentenced to 14 to 20 years in prison for the crime.) The thefts ultimately put the company out of business." So a company based on exploiting human addiction caused another company based on exploiting…

and now the taxpayers pay for prosecuting and housing that person for the next 14 years. (yes, those companies paid taxes too)

Not to mention all of the other employees who lost their jobs.

Personal anecdote: I worked for a similar company (right down to the "[location] Candy and Tobacco" name) for a summer during college. Picking orders in a warehouse and unloading/loading trucks from 5 AM to 5 PM wasn't exactly fun, but it allowed me to buy textbooks the next semester. Worked with a lot of good people, too. Manual labor alongside people from all walks of life puts things in perspective.

I often worked in the cigarette room picking orders and applying tax stamps. When you're doing that sort of work you're not thinking "Oh man, time to ship out more of the poison to suckers today!" you're thinking, "Oh shit, I need to pick 30 cartons of X and get them stamped before the truck leaves in 20 minutes or I'll be in deep shit".

Re: undefined

#100

Post by joezydeco »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #46
imroot wrote: post #43

There's a really good book about the design of the slot machines, called Addiction by Design. It talks about the different UI and design elements that go into keeping the gambler engaged and why they keep spending more money. It's a really amazing and enlightening book to read if you're interested in learning more about the mechanics of the slot machines and the designs of the casino. https://www.amazon.com/Addiction…

I absolutely don't understand the draw of slot machines. I watched a woman playing a smartphone version on the subway; for three stops, she just kept hitting the "spin" button and watching the results. I admit to not knowing how they work, but do they typically have any more interaction than "pull lever, sporadically receive reward"?

Some do. A common example are secondary "bonus" games you can trigger by getting certain combinations on the main reel.

They give the player a semblance of control over the game, but in the end the math still works out just like a regular slot.

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