printdude / January 9, 2007 10:57 AM

Ooooooh Boy, am I a gambler.

I prefer Roulette as a my table game.

My father is a bookie (They call it 'SportsWriter') as was my grandpa, and the father has hosted his own little TV show in Nevada. Kind of a hoot.

I love Horseracing the most, though.

Betty / January 9, 2007 11:01 AM

Sports betting is my weakness. I also love Black Jack and Texas Hold Em at the tables.

Tobermory / January 9, 2007 11:17 AM

I'll bet on the occasional sporting event through my dad's bookie - back when the Cubs were in the playoffs I once got to exit a (boring) meeting for the animal shelter where I volunteer by saying, "sorry, gotta go - I've got money on the game."

In Vegas I'm a lame-o - I'll play some slots and the video Blackjack.

Erica / January 9, 2007 11:19 AM

I just learned how to play poker and I love it. We play with chips. I kicked butt on New Year's against three other people.

I would love to start having poker nights w/friends, especially since the bars are beginning to bore me lately. I'm sure it's fun to play with real money, but chips are safer!

Also, now I have to go back again and watch the 007 poker scene since now I'll be able to understand what's going on.

Shasta MacNasty / January 9, 2007 11:31 AM

I don't gamble. I can't afford to lose.

p / January 9, 2007 11:39 AM

been playing poker for menthol cigarettes since about '88. i like black jack, but the boat reminds me of depressed death. i lost enough last night to keep a bookie's kid in the latest footwear for 8 years and now i feel shame. i was suspended in 7th grade for running pools. also suspended that year for wearing a Phillie's Blunts t-shirt and participating in a stolen lunch ticket distribution ring. i know more messed up gambling-related stories than is healthy. desperation can be a bad look. robert downey jr. is too too good in less than zero and it breaks my heart every time i see it. just like requiem for a dream and closer. and the scene in basketball diaries when leo is begging his mom for money at the door. i am dealing blackjack at a charity function on wednesday. the way i roll craps might be too southside for some folks, what with the snapping and hollering. i went to las vegas once, and all i wanted to do was lay by the pool sipping massive fruity drinks with watermelon slices hanging off of them. i know a guy.

paul / January 9, 2007 11:45 AM

I don't gamble, I just don't have the math skills.

Y A J / January 9, 2007 11:47 AM

I don't really gamble. I went to Nevada last month and gambled a total of $10 over 4 days.

carrie / January 9, 2007 12:04 PM

slot machines are my pals. That's all I want to do and pretty much all I know how to do. Plus this way it's easy for me to see my winnings, cash out and play only what I came with.
My ma, sister, grandpa's wife and I went to the casino one Christmas. We called to see what time they opened up. It was fun.

4point44 / January 9, 2007 12:14 PM

texas hold 'em. probably the most popular answer in america right now, maybe just behind slots. i'm waiting for roulette to hit big. "the world series of roulette." all of the players would be required to wear jump suits. i can feel an elevator pitch coming on...

leah / January 9, 2007 12:22 PM

There's this sweet dice game called LCR (left, center, right) that I play for dollars or quarters occasionally.

I've played Hold 'em in the past, but it kind of gives me anxiety so I drink to quell it & then I lose.

Lucky / January 9, 2007 12:29 PM

When I think of gambling, or state-sponsored racketeering as I very puritanly like to call it, I think of the line from "Casino Queen":

The room fills with smoke and I'm already broke and the dealer keeps on joking as he takes my last token.

I worked a lottery machine at a liquor store in college. So I don't gamble. Old people cash their social security checks and blow it all on pick three and scratch-offs. Then you see them waiting for the bus when you get off work. It destroys lives. People say it's a free country, but I think some people are just too unbelievably stupid to even have the choice to gamble. In Maryland when they introduced Keno, the gamblers anonymous hotline was instantly overwhelmed. Many of the Indiana casinos bus in elderly people. It's disgusting. Gambling to me is cheap bourbon-drinking and Pall Mall-smoking rubes squandering their retirement on nickel slots at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City. Gambling is evil. I hate the fact that, in my lifetime, it has become a wholesome recreational activity in our society. I hate that narrow minded and lazy politicians fall on it for easy revenue. I dread the day a casino opens in Chicago. The policy number days were more honest. At least back then everybody called it a vice.

There. I'll now step off my high horse. Thank you.

printdude / January 9, 2007 12:35 PM

Hey there Lucky, as a gambler,
and a Lucky one, too, I think that you're looking for someone to argue with.
But i won't argue with you.
Not - at - all.
It really, really, freaks me out when I see the inside of today's arcades (Dave+Busters, Haunted Trails, Gameworks) beacuse I see them grooming the kids for a lifetime of slot-slavery. It's freakin' scary.
Sell your soul, kid, for a bucket of tickets.

Mikey / January 9, 2007 12:36 PM

I can rarely afford to gamble as well...

In Vegas, I'll play blackjack; though I prefer craps, I don't often allot myself the kind of gambling funds needed to weather a cold table. Vegas isn't really my scene anyway, though in my twenties, I more than likely would have self-destructed there...

As far as sports betting goes, I've been running my own $$$ fantasy football league for the last several years now, and that's done more than enough to suck the purity and enjoyment out of my favorite sport...

jen / January 9, 2007 12:46 PM

nope. i would prefer not to throw money away.

jj / January 9, 2007 12:49 PM

I come from a long line people who enjoy betting on the horses as well as playing the lottery. My grandpa was buried with lotto tickets in his suit pocket.

I have never been to Vegas but I have played the slots on cruise ships. Once I won almost $100 on the nickel slots but didn't realize it until I cashed out, because I can't do math.

karen / January 9, 2007 1:06 PM

my grandma has played the same lotto numbers since i can remember... at least as long as i've been around (26 years). she's never won more than $50 in a drawing. you'd think in that amount of time she'd have won a bit more than that.

personally, i'm far too cheap to gamble. but, i've always wondered if i should keep up her numbers. they are bound to hit one of these days...

David / January 9, 2007 1:29 PM

I gamble every day.

Only I call it "riding to work on the CTA."

The house always wins in the end.

p / January 9, 2007 1:34 PM

3 women in the elevator just convinced me to buy a lottery ticket. apparently the mega something is @ 120 smackers. Tickets cost a dollar and i bought one. Neat! I want to name a band "grandpa's wife." Getting dropped off for an afternoon of Haunted Trails and Harlem Corners was one of the whtetrashiest good times a kid could have. It was more indiana than being in indiana. i absolutely don't want a casino in chicago- keep that shit in indiana. indiana is f'ing gross and that's for serious but i love a good dune and King Ribs in Indianapolis is ideed the king of ribs. and lucky- along with the elderly, the poor are bussed in en masse. Yeh! Slots are for marge simpson and the sound of them makes me want to rip my shirt off and shout at the players to Start Living Life until they are thouroughlyterrified and shook fromtheir stupor
and i am out of breath.
Some folks find it relaxing though and i'm all for relaxation so there ya go.
my grandma enjoyed bus trips to vegas and the slots but i think it was more the adventure, comaraderie, and fun of it that she enjoyed. Gambling addiction mixed with a dependance on an intoxicant can really f up a family so watch that.

miss casual / January 9, 2007 1:50 PM

werd david. i was just gonna say that i gamble every morning riding my bike through river north on my way to work .

chances are my luck will run out evetually with some starbucks weilding suburbanite dooring me.

Dutch101 / January 9, 2007 1:58 PM

Horseracing. It is a fun excuse to get out of the house in the summer, and as long as you just chalk up the $20 or so you might lose as entertainment, it is all good. Besides, last time I went, I won enough to cover my beers and a burrito.

I won quite a bit playing craps in Montreal too.

Gambling too much is definitely problematic, but really, I just don't get people who don't like to gamble at all.

Emerson Dameron / January 9, 2007 2:06 PM

I've never been to Vegas. I won 20-some pounds from a slot machine in London, then kept playing until I'd lost it all, but fuggit, I was on vacation. Since then, several years of tight funds have made me a bit of a cheapskate, and I rarely play for anything but bragging rights. And I've never understood the lottery as anything but a tax on naivete.

Steve / January 9, 2007 2:16 PM

Not so much. I love poker, but I don't consider that gambling so much as a game of skill with an element of chance.

I did buy some Super Bowl squares, though.

skafiend / January 9, 2007 2:17 PM

Horseracing. At least when you lose, most of the time you've had something fun to look at: majestic animals pounding around the track. And I can win occasionally.

I don't get betting on video slots or poker or anything involving a machine that can be easily manipulated. It's a machine. Built by men. And it can be programmed to do whatever they want. Hell, I'll pick dice (which I know can be loaded) over a slot machine or poker machine. That's like betting on what TV commercial will come on next and the networks are holding the money.

(And I know horse racing can and is sometimes fixed, but there are enough human variables to make it more worthwhile.)

ab / January 9, 2007 3:20 PM

If you don't count office-pools, I gamble only when I go to Vegas. My games are black-jack and craps.

a / January 9, 2007 3:44 PM

I lurve to gamble. Boyfriend and I try to make it to Vegas every other year. We both like the slots (especially STAMPEDE! best, loosest slot ever!), and we've recently upgraded to roulette. I've had my number hit exactly two times, but I do pretty well with 4 corners bets.
I'd like to add craps to the list, because everyone looks like they're having the best damn time at the craps table.
I also love NCAA brackets, even though I don't really like sports, have bought a few lottery tickets and many scratch offs, and have toyed with my blood pressure on an especially grueling cruise ship bingo game when i was broke in college and could have REALLY used that $1000 kitty.

spook / January 9, 2007 3:54 PM

I use to pitch pennys as a kid
but that's about it

Bill B / January 9, 2007 4:15 PM

i betcha aliens exist.

sorry. couldnt resist.

tony / January 9, 2007 4:24 PM

Craps,craps and more craps. NBA underdogs every day....I have the disease......let's go Atlanta Hawks!

Mr. Casual / January 9, 2007 4:38 PM

I gamble anytime I cross the street downtown in the loop on whether or not some jack-ass hipster doofus is going to clock me while riding their bike.

People on bikes amaze me. Look at me! I'm a car! I'm on the sidewalk! I'm back on the street! I don't stop at red lights! I blame the suburbs on everything! Look at me!!

Ms. Sunshine / January 9, 2007 4:51 PM

Those who don't like to gamble -

I take it you have never ever put your $1 into the office pool for the 100 gazillion dollars the lottery is currently at?

karl / January 9, 2007 5:08 PM

I only gamble with peoples lives.

Michael / January 9, 2007 6:54 PM

Nope; too unlucky & poor.

Aaaah, here's to poor decisions.

skafiend / January 9, 2007 8:53 PM

Wow, Mr. Casual... how long have you been holding that in?

But don't get me wrong, I agree. ... Pedestrian, vehicle, make a decision! Can't have it both ways.

But this IS about gambling, so...

Dollar Bill / January 9, 2007 9:01 PM

Won $175 K in an office Lottery Pool a number of years ago...all the numbers except the mega ball...of course everyone afterwards wished we had less members!!!!....take after taxes came away with 12,500.00

Gave 10% to charity and then some to relatives and friends, and put the balance in the bank. Had a small party for fellow workers.
Our group had been putting in $1 a person each wk for roughly 15 years....the 0nly other gambling I do is office football, little side bets with friends on baseball and I've been to Arlington a couple of times which I find very enjoyable. The boats have no draw for me. Yes, the group still plays.

jen / January 9, 2007 9:53 PM

ms. sunshine - actually, nope, not really. i played march madness last year ($5 office pool), $20 in slots in joliet once three years ago, and i put in $5 for the powerball (multi-state lotto out east) but even that was 5 years ago now. didn't even buy a lotto ticket the day i turned 18.

printdude / January 10, 2007 8:31 AM

sakfiend and I should hit the Hawthorne and listen to Derrick Morgan + the Skatellites while we argue over who to bet on next.

How 'bout some Easter Wagering?

Lucky / January 10, 2007 9:44 AM

I take it you have never ever put your $1 into the office pool for the 100 gazillion dollars the lottery is currently at?

Never have and never will. Those emails are not much different than sending one asking everyone if they want to go to a bar after work and drink.

JB / January 10, 2007 9:52 AM

Ponies--especially the fattest, saddest, lamest horses on the track. Always bet the longshot to show. Does anyone remember a few years back when there were TWO one-eyed horses in the Derby?? Good times.

Brandy / January 10, 2007 10:07 AM

I don't gamble. Hate to say goodbye to my money that way. I'd rather just earn and spend, earn and spend.

Been There / January 10, 2007 12:12 PM

Pitchin' pennies or quarters or "rollin dem bones" as a kid; moved on to spades or dominoes for eats and squares as a late teen/early adult, then on to breathing the foul air and sometimes putrid water our current administration thinks needs more arsenic and heavy metal

Spook / January 10, 2007 12:27 PM

Word on the streets is that Blagg the AxMan cut off a Troll's arm over a game of knuckle bones last night?

amd does any one else find is sad and more than a bit disconcerting when they see poor people especially elderly poor people lined up to play the lottery?

skafiend / January 10, 2007 2:31 PM

Printdude (and JB)... yeah, Hawthorne, the Skatellites... good times.

And ditto on betting on the longshots. I do it almost exclusively. To me, why bother doing it any other way. I usually bet $5 per horse at the most, so why spend that on a hours that only pays about $7 to win? Might as well pick five good-looking longshots in a meet and bet $5 on each to win. If one of them comes in, hey, $25 to win (or more) makes it worthwhile. And if nothing comes up, you're only out about $25. That's bar money...

Go Easter Wagering!

Dutch101 / January 10, 2007 3:42 PM

Printdude, Skafiend, it ain't about longshots, per se, it's about finding the horse whose natural odds are better than the odds on the tote.
Hmmm, maybe we need a Gaper's Block day at the track.

Bill V / January 10, 2007 3:43 PM

Give me Arlington Park a couple of times a year, a few football bets here and there. Best of all are stupid bets I make with my friends. How many mini hot dogs can you eat? Can you jump over that car? etc, etc, etc.

Mo / January 10, 2007 4:58 PM

Not really. I had a taste of a casino on a cruise ship when I was 18, and it felt so good I know I would have a problem instantly. But I do on occasion play scratch offs, not because I think I have a real shot at winning, but because it combines a miniscule chance of winning money with my love of stickers. You remember the giant rolls of stickers when you were a kid that you tore of a sheet? And the scratching is pretty fun, too. Now if only you could eat them if they were losers, that would make them just about perfect. Oh, but once I bought a scratch off and would only buy the next scratchers with money I won from the previous one, and I kept that going for at least 3 weeks.

Ron / January 11, 2007 2:14 AM

I used to gamble. Where I played it wasn't as much gambling as it was "feeding the sharks". The big boys controlled the action. The suits. At first I was greeted like a king and treated like royalty. Things were good as long as I could pay... And pay I did.

They always make you pay.

Me, I paid with my soul.

Once my wallet was empty, I resorted to other means to find a way to the tables. There are things I did that I'm not proud of. It hurt, but I knew it would hurt more to be away from the action.

Today, I find myself a better person. I've learned some things and have taken lessons from my years of gambling.

I'd love to start gambling again but it's hard to hold the cards without thumbs...

printdude / January 11, 2007 6:38 AM

A day for the horsefans to remember:

April 7, 2007

This is the date of the Illinois Derby, run at Hawthorne.

Vanessa / January 11, 2007 9:00 AM

I gamble, but I do it responsibly. When I go to Vegas and bring money to gamble, I only use that money and don't dip into my savings or anything like that.

My games: Blackjack, Texas Hold 'em, Let It Ride. And sometimes Craps. More often than not, I come back with at least the money I started with, sometimes a little more or less.