@the-gipper said:

My budget for the whole week was like 100 bucks and I don’t think I even spent half that 

Like I said, whatever the comfort zone and it remains fun.

@atom said:

i put a few bucks down on the Browns to win it all next year odd's were 34-1

That might be an interesting ticket around  November or so this year.  We'll see how they do in the upcoming draft.

@texasag1969 said:

The soul sucking for Texans is located in D.C. Just ask our namby pamby senators. Casinos are at least fun to have money lifted from your wallet.?

EDIT: Oklahoma has been stealing our money and our football players for decades. If we didn't allow any to cross the border, they would be bottom tier Little Big 12.

Same with Michigan. Without the Ohioans who went to work or play for the Michigan program they would be on the level of say Indiana. Start with Bo from right here in Barberton

@the-gipper said:

I assume it is just north of Dallas, and that Texas has no casinos, and that is why this is such a big ass money grabbing soul sucking venture....for all you DATs to go lose your money there?  

The soul sucking for Texans is located in D.C. Just ask our namby pamby senators. Casinos are at least fun to have money lifted from your wallet.?

EDIT: Oklahoma has been stealing our money and our football players for decades. If we didn't allow any to cross the border, they would be bottom tier Little Big 12.

@texasag1969 said:

WinStar is shaped like a giant L with 9 casinos listed by name in a long string. Always best to name a time & place to meet up with the spouse because it could take hours to find each other if we didn't.

https://www.winstar.com/casino-map/

I assume it is just north of Dallas, and that Texas has no casinos, and that is why this is such a big ass money grabbing soul sucking venture....for all you DATs to go lose your money there?  

@the-gipper said:

1. 1 – WinStar World Casino & Resort, Thackerville, Oklahoma.

WinStar is shaped like a giant L with 9 casinos listed by name in a long string. Always best to name a time & place to meet up with the spouse because it could take hours to find each other if we didn't.

https://www.winstar.com/casino-map/

These are the 5 largest in the USA.

In the World:

• Tusk Rio, Klerksdorp, South Africa (266,000 square feet) ...
• Ponte 16, Macao, China (270,000 square feet) ...
• Foxwoods, Ledyard, Connecticut, USA (340,000 square feet) ...
• City of Dreams, Macao, China (420,000 square feet) ...
• Venetian Macao, Macao, China (546,000 square feet) ...
• WinStar World Casino (600,000 + square feet)

@the-gipper said:

My budget for the whole week was like 100 bucks and I don’t think I even spent half that 

We go to Winstar, the world's largest casino, just across the Oklahoma border. We always get two free nights and my budget is $200 for the two days. I always come back with half or better though last time I came back with a surplus of around $120. And I have a beautiful wooden framed $750 professional photo of the back of Long's Peak with full fall colored aspen in the foreground that I bought for my wife after a trip to Blackhawk. I hit a real royal flush on a quarter machine for $1000. Actually threw away a deuce on the deuces wild machine because I had 4 of the real royal. Queen of Hearts is now my lucky card. Passed up the sure $125 for the deuces wild royal and went for it all.

@texasag1969 said:

That's the best rule there is! I'd add two more. 

1. If you are on a downer losing streak and it's not fun, then just stop. Go watch a game on the house TV for a couple of hours.

2. Don't drink and bet. It makes you stupid. Drink when you're done betting for the day. "Free" drinks are never free if you are still betting.  ★

★ 2. Is the one some people and organizations are worried about with the new state sports wagering the "bar stool betting".

Lose a game and pull out your phone and get to get even or double up and other bad ideas.  In one weekend you can lose a fortune.......or several paychecks.

Gambling is fine for those who can handle it but not for compulsive or just plain stupid bettors.

@ballpeen said:

A few rules when gambling.

Set your budget and stick to it.

That's the best rule there is! I'd add two more. 

1. If you are on a downer losing streak and it's not fun, then just stop. Go watch a game on the house TV for a couple of hours.

2. Don't drink and bet. It makes you stupid. Drink when you're done betting for the day. "Free" drinks are never free if you are still betting.

@the-gipper said:

 My wife gave me $20 to bet on her behalf. I am coming home with $89 of her money. Played at the slots at Bally‘s. 25 years ago we came here and she won 1000 bucks. So don’t say that the house always wins. If you’re smart enough to quit while you’re ahead you can win.

Over the course of the night, the house always wins even if you walk away a winner.  People do have to win, or nobody would go.

A few rules when gambling.

Set your budget and stick to it.

Stay inside your comfort zone.  Once you get past that, it isn't fun.  My comfort zone is $300 a night, between the two of us.  I view it as entertainment since I don't go to Vegas all that often anymore.  When I first get there I place $300 in to 2-3 envelops, 1 for each night.  All betting money comes from the envelope, nothing from the wallet.

At the end of the night, any money left stays in the envelope and doesn't become more money for the next day.

The biggest rule is NEVER try to win back money lost.  You can never win your money, you can only win house money, and they win more often.

@mjp28 said:

It was long ago but they looked a lot like the Irish Sweepstakes tickets.

Now scratch offs are big and where can you get them?  Amazon of course.

Yep, I found some Xmas ones there and stored them in my cart for next time I have a big order. Excellent Xmas gag gifts.?

@texasag1969 said:

Oh I gotta find me some of those. I have a whole new load of racquetball friends I can pull that on.?

It was long ago but they looked a lot like the Irish Sweepstakes tickets.

Now scratch offs are big and where can you get them?  Amazon of course.

@mjp28 said:

I had a couple of those joke tickets like the Polish lottery you won $1,000,000.......in small print on the bottom ($1 a year for 1,000,000 years).

Oh I gotta find me some of those. I have a whole new load of racquetball friends I can pull that on.?

@lodilobo said:

An idiot woman who worked for me went to the corner store for lunch, and asked if I wanted any scratch off lottery tickets. I gave her 10 bucks and told her to pick some winners. This was a long time ago, so I think there were only $1.00 tickets. She brought them back and put them on my desk. When I saw them, I scratched them immediately, and lo and behold...a $10k winner! I was strutting around...showing off my winnings...until she said.."Where can you redeem the ticket?". I Iooked on the back, and it said "Redeem at YO' MAMA'S HOUSE!" It was a fake. I wanted to kill her. I'm still laughing g my ass off, though. She played it perfectly.

I had a couple of those joke tickets like the Polish lottery you won $1,000,000.......in small print on the bottom ($1 a year for 1,000,000 years).

@texasag1969 said:

Best practical joke I ever pulled was buying the winning numbers from the Wed. lottery for the next lottery on Sat. and showing friends my "winning" ticket the next morning matching the published winners in the morning paper. Worked like a charm. Had some good laughs outa that. Only one person figured out what I had done by looking at the date for the drawing, not just the "winning" numbers.?

An idiot woman who worked for me went to the corner store for lunch, and asked if I wanted any scratch off lottery tickets. I gave her 10 bucks and told her to pick some winners. This was a long time ago, so I think there were only $1.00 tickets. She brought them back and put them on my desk. When I saw them, I scratched them immediately, and lo and behold...a $10k winner! I was strutting around...showing off my winnings...until she said.."Where can you redeem the ticket?". I Iooked on the back, and it said "Redeem at YO' MAMA'S HOUSE!" It was a fake. I wanted to kill her. I'm still laughing g my ass off, though. She played it perfectly.

@hoorta said:

That's the  attraction of  Mega Millions and Powerball.  You're  never going to win, but as my brother says,  somebody always  does. 

I always thought I  had terrible luck, but no longer. It's too long a story and too late to type it  on a tablet.  

I do lottery buying on a strict budget no pick 3, 4, 5 except on rare occasions. I only play 1 ticket on the others basically the same numbers every draw.....easy to check.

Your best bang for the buck is the Rolling Five, the jackpots start at $100,000 and roll sometimes quickly to $200,000, $300,000 or more and the odds are only 575,757/1 and not 300,000,000/1.  

@the-gipper said:

Yes I watch that show all the time. And it is a lot of  scratch off’s but those of the ones you have to pay like 10 and 20 bucks for

 I see now they have $30 scratch offs, we've never played one and the wife says they're not always at the Giant Eagle but we might try one at the Lotto Shack.  Maybe we will call David to find us our Winter vacation home on TV.  

@texasag1969 said:

Best practical joke I ever pulled was buying the winning numbers from the Wed. lottery for the next lottery on Sat. and showing friends my "winning" ticket the next morning matching the published winners in the morning paper. Worked like a charm. Had some good laughs outa that. Only one person figured out what I had done by looking at the date for the drawing, not just the "winning" numbers.?

I did that on myself once I wrote down the winning numbers and went back and read my numbers by mistake that I was going to play and called my mother in law and told her we hit big......only to realize that we were poor again.  . 

Never did that again.

Way way back I used to play the numbers with my bookie, so much easier you just give him the numbers and let it roll, if you hit $5,000 or more they take 10% and you have no IRS 1099-G to worry about.  Well I played 327 straight and box for a year, dropped it, the next day it came out in Ohio the following day in PA, I missed both.

Oh the lottery stories, mainly the one that got away.

@hoorta said:

That's the  attraction of  Mega Millions and Powerball.  You're  never going to win, but as my brother says,  somebody always  does. 

I always thought I  had terrible luck, but no longer. It's too long a story and too late to type it  on a tablet.  

Best practical joke I ever pulled was buying the winning numbers from the Wed. lottery for the next lottery on Sat. and showing friends my "winning" ticket the next morning matching the published winners in the morning paper. Worked like a charm. Had some good laughs outa that. Only one person figured out what I had done by looking at the date for the drawing, not just the "winning" numbers.?

@mjp28 said:

That's just the point the house generally wins over time, 365 or 366 days a year, year after year.  Same with the lotteries they advertise the payouts to attract more bettors to make even more money.

But some people like your wife are just lucky good for her.  Lotteries and casinos are really in the dream business I have a brother in law who with 15 other workers won $734,000 each.....and a few years later GM bought a bunch of them out he got $35,000 cash + a 30 year pension and was only 59.  Living the dream.

That's the  attraction of  Mega Millions and Powerball.  You're  never going to win, but as my brother says,  somebody always  does. 

I always thought I  had terrible luck, but no longer. It's too long a story and too late to type it  on a tablet.  

@mjp28 said:

Speaking of dreams I'm watching My Lottery Dream Home on HGTV.  Amazing how many people win on scratch offs, the lotteries sell TONS of them.

Yes I watch that show all the time. And it is a lot of  scratch off’s but those of the ones you have to pay like 10 and 20 bucks for

@lodilobo said:

A couple years ago, my wife bought a couple scratch off lottery tickets....the bingo or word ones, where it takes a half hour to scratch off and see if you won. She asked me to take hers to get her winnings.....she said she thought she won $10.00. I took it and found she won $600.00. Like an idiot, I gave her the money. I should have given her $10.00 and said..."yep...you won 10 bucks".

You probably took a lot of $&@“ for that move, but your wife will never doubt or question you again.