Chicago: More Bars in More Places

I work with a guy at Catch who played backgammon for a living for 5 years. He has semi-quit the restaurant to go back to it. As an alcoholic (self-proclaimed) he finds the backgammon lifestyle more accomadating as the restaurant schedule is too taxing.

Bwahahaha.

I've always thought that the way to go if you win the lottery would be to basically continue your lifestyle, except without worrying about money. You know, maybe pay off your car or buy a house, but just keep rolling with that cushion of lottery money, instead of thinking "omg I can indulge my craziest dreams, wtf do I do with my life?"

maybe gambling freaks me out so bad because I can so easily see becoming someone who turns it into a lifestyle. gambling=graduate school.

understand how someone would find vegas appealing, i guess, it's just that it sounds like an awful, depressing nightmarish waste of time for me.

i feel the same way about skiing.

I can see playing pool or poker for a living, but this guy was a backgammon champ! He made a lot of money.

I don't even know what backgammon is!

I remember in the TAL episode, they talked about how a bunch of lottery winners decided to use their winnings as capital to start a bar or restaurant, which then invariably failed because they had no idea how to actually manage a bar or restaurant.

As far as Vegas, I have always thought that I would like to go there in order to be better at hating it.

There's definitely a gambling tradition on my mom's side of the family. My grandmother played bingo a few times a week into her eighties, my aunt and uncle paid for their daughter's wedding by winning the Pick Six at the track. I don't think anyone has either gone broke and gotten rich from it.

Jordan, that lifestyle sounds like a good one. A few years ago, Leonard Cohen found out that he had been bilked by his manager and accountant -- he didn't realize how much money they had stolen because all he wanted basically was $150,000 in the bank at a time, and the rest he assumed was invested elsewhere. Having a set amount in a bank account, and replenishing it when it goes down, would be tha life.

Howard Lederer (poker champ, interesting guy) was a pro backgammon player before he switched games.

TAL also taught us that it makes better financial sense to take the one-time (smaller net) payment, esp. if you are a typical gambler.

i feel the same way about skiing.

-- chicago kevin, Monday, October 8, 2007 9:47 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

oh yr just pushing my buttons

horseshoe, i went to vegas with my roommate while in grad school (he, too, was a grad student). He lost $1,200 in under 90 minutes. I love him to death, but it confirmed that he's a jackass. I sipped free drinks and may have won $11 on blackjack.

Yeah, man! I'd be like hey, my retirement, right there. I could just continue with my 401k 6% matching or whatever, and not have to scrimp to pay the rent or like buy a computer, that's pretty much ideal for me.

free/cheap shit is also pretty dope about Vegas.

$1200 jesus christ. they shouldn't let graduate students inside the Vegas city limits.

big xpost

they talked about how a bunch of lottery winners decided to use their winnings as capital to start a bar or restaurant, which then invariably failed because they had no idea how to actually manage a bar or restaurant.

Right, or they went right out and bought things like cars or houses that they could never afford before, only to discover that they STILL couldn't afford them. $30 thousand a year, trickled down from the state, is not quit-yr-day-job type money.

I think if I had a huge influx into my checking account, though, I would be tempted to buy a bunch of Louboutins. I feel for the lottery winners.

Jenny has a friend whose motto is "you're not really gambling till you're playing with the rent." The thing is, that does not even begin to accurately express how much he gambles.

And we were playing the slots at Delaware Downs.

Turns out that our taking him gambling was strictly against the rules in his domestic partnership....

playing the slots=stonefacedly, endlessly refreshing the ILX new answers page=the most depressing shit ever

I think it would be safe to estimate that he lost a good $500 in slots in less than 2 hours.

He did one-shots with $20s, non-stop.

you can do that?

My mom won $800 out of slots in Reno. That was fun.

Meanwhile I walked out $50 lighter, and had I not had a gallon of beer in me, I would have had a record breaking guilt-anxiety attack.

oh yr just pushing my buttons

-- river wolf, Monday, October 8, 2007 4:50 PM (Monday, October 8, 2007 4:50 PM) Bookmark Link

no, i just hate the cold so paying to be outside in it would make me miserable beyond belief. i didn't always hate it so i can kind of see the attraction but i can't think of many things that would i would like less.

You can do what? 1-shots? Yes. Lose $500 in 2 hours? Yes.

I know he lost several hundred, and I want to say that at last check it was $400 and he was going to the ATM for more, but I don't know.

you can spend $20 on one...shot at the slots? I did not realize that.

You can blow your cash playing War if you want to.

I'm no good at poker online because it overlaps with whatever Internet compulsions I've got; it's different than live poker.

It's a hit-or-miss movie, but Lucky You, the Curtis Hanson movie from earlier this year, is a pretty good look into the Vegas gambling world. Not glamorous.

If Jesse's guy was playing $5 slots that pay a bonus if you bet 3x ($15) per pull, it wouldn't take long as all to lose $500, alas.

i love the cold.

hence, me hating my 89 degree room right now. also: myself, for NOT applying to med school for the last four hours

i just ate the last of my cheese and tortillas, now i'm ;_;

cigarettes, i miss them so so much.

my mom will occasionally go to vegas with some of the ladies in the "hood" (the Homemaker's Club....srsly). so it's a bunch of middle-aged, Midwestern women who, like, only drink three glasses of wine on New Year's, going to Vegas to drink margies and play the nickel slots.

she once sat next to a lady that came down every year with $10k in CASH, and who only played $1 slots (at $5 a pull). she said she always, ALWAYS came back at least $2k up. This year she was up $5k, and opened her purse to show my mom stacks of bills.

FACT.

The fact that I have spent hours at a time, with no regard for day or night, in chat rooms makes me think that I would be a problem gambler, but at the same time, I desire money far less than sexual thrills.

okay that lady is my hero I take it all back

xpost

That just sounds like work.
xpost to river wolf

xp o_O

she had a theory about machines getting "warm" and would move along until she found one that was ready to pay out. slot whisperer.

Jaymc, strip poker addict

Slot Whisperer = Good name for buxom lady/gambling themed motor yacht on lake havasu

wait, lake mead whooops

Hell I don't know. I am probably making the whole thing up.

I know that he was definitely "playing with the rent," and I mean all of the rent. Which is not so shocking, except that he was playing slots.

Lake Mead is so gorgeous.

I was just thinking about the Clark's on Clark/casino comparison. There are dirty bars in New Orleans where you get both perpetually dark (24 hour) bar WITH video poker machines.

What's sort of scary about that is that the establishment is required to pay out up to a certain amount of winnings. One guy at The Friendly Bar won $1000 while I was there, and the bartender gave him all of it in $100s.

You had to get buzzed into this bar.

all chicks in thongs leaning seductively on slot machines.

i should get my airbrush guy on the phone, start hashing out the deets. maybe do a mock-up, get it on the hood of my car.

Well, it does go back to liminality and worlds that are parallel to "real life", whether it's through sex, drugs, or rock 'n' roll.

(so maybe the above was in poor taste)

Hey, quick word! I know we're getting to that threshold where it's almost time, but don't nobody make no new thread yet until we consult with Dan!

chicago: the slot whisperer

EH??

Starting new threads is too contentious. I'm dropping out of the whole tread-starting game for a while.

Chicago: At Least Our Compulsion Doesn't Make Us Broke Or Give Us The Clap

Slot Whisperer! Slot Whisperer! But wait for Dan.

Chicago: Interesting to Type, but Perhaps not to Read

Chicago: Dan Already Has a Great New Title

Chicago: This isn't interesting to anyone.

Chicago: This Isn't Viral Marketing, This Is My Wife!

Chicago: At Least Our Compulsion Doesn't Make Us Broke Or Give Us The Clap

I vote for the very first one, which is the reason for the 2nd.