Growing up in the UK, gambling was bingo halls and bookmakers (betting on horses and greyhounds), and the weekly football pools. I worked in a ‘bookies’ office for a couple of years while at college (the hours were good, and it kept my brain active) but I guess it opened my eyes very early to the business of gambling: hundreds of people, mostly not well off, spending money on bets they should be spending on necessities.

When they won, it was ‘whoop-dee-doo’ and off to the pub and the best piece of fish from the chip shop. When they lost (mostly) it was just another grey day.

The bookie, on the gripping hand, never had a grey day. There was always enough for his expensive vacations, his & her new cars every year, and a house in the wealthiest part of town. He also paid well - so it wasn’t as if he was some kind of neo-Victorian mill-owner stepping all over the poor.

Gambling to me seems really really stupid. I’d much rather spend money on a new guitar (or new drum accessories for my son, or jewelery for my wife, or books for my daughter).

Vegas never appealed to me - it always seemed like glitz and glamor with zero substance. I much prefer substance. (Times Square at least has a sense of gritty reality)

I also have you both beat, hands down. I’ve spent a total of $4.39 on gambling (at today’s exchange rates. 3 pounds total on a ‘grand national’ pool to assuage my friends.) total winnings - zero.

Lastly, I love the idea of discouraging gambling without outlawing it. What about something equivalent to the surgeon general’s warnings on cigarette ads? Something like having the neon sign flash statistics about the average amount spent gambling versus what you could purchase with the same amount? Or maybe instead of advertising “loosest slots” they give stats about the real odds of winning a jackpot versus other more likely events… like having an anvil fall on your head.

great article.