GAMBLIN'

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Can anyone point me to any good articles about or ideas about online gaming and gambling - does it make money, where is it legal in Europe, etc. This is for work actually.

But also just in general - are you a gambler? I love poker but I hate playing it for money - takes the fun out of a very good card game in my opinion. Similarly I have never ever placed a bet.

― Tom, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Same with Tom here in that I don't play for money when I play, or else just play for fiddling small change. I *am* quietly competitive when I'm involved, but more for seeing if I can win or not than anything I could get from it. That said, sometimes I like to play to lose. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My mate Doug has managed to win money online - it was sent by post to him from Vegas.

I *love* a flutter, me. Maybe it's being brought up in close proximity to Romford and Walthamstow dog track. But - my finest moment was at Kempton Park when I won enough money (Aidan MacGuire, thank you!) to have an afternoon on champers and fine food at the racecourse and then, when I got back to Uni, treat my mates to a couple of rounds at the bar, go clubbing, and still have £50 left in my back pocket. Quality. Sid James, eat your heart out.

However, I have lost more than I have won, on balance.

My mate Phil's dad was one of the tic-tackers at the local track. Now *he* was hardcore.

― Will McKenzie, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hold up - wait a minute Mr Ewing. Poker without money is about as tedious as watching paint dry, or playing Pontoon. Its a game about people, not a card game at all, and if it was just a matter of picking up some cards and swopping a few and then going I've got the best hand you just have a dull game of chance.

Still I guess you wouldn't want to play poker with me. Late Night Poker on C4 is the best TV Show EVAH!

Gambling in general. I love it at the dogs, but the horses leave me cold. Fruit Machines, dud - I think you need to go to school to learn how to use 'em. I'm probably too tight to get a gambling habit, but I do often make ludicrous bets with people which I invariably lose. (DOn't talk to me about that Gucci belt).

― Pete, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sorry I should have specified that "for money" = "for proper high- stakes money" as opposed to "for a share of the household coppers bag". Yes you need a stake but the competitive instinct is there whatever.

― Tom, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Late Night Poker on C4 is the best TV Show EVAH!": not least because peopled by denizens of some strange cartoon caricature world; they look like they've been designed as a an all-types Komikal Krew, not just chosen by the (surely) physiognomy- unrelated skillz of the pokerface

― mark s, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I get tons of flyers and betting forms in the mail from online gambling sites every day -- don't know who thinks I must have an addiction because I never gamble. I'm far too cheap to risk throwing money away.

― Nicole, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I played a coppers game at Christmas a couple of years ago with Masonic uncle and his family. WIthin two hours we were on a hand which had got up to 70 quid. So in my book, no such thing as coppers game.

I won it btw - beauty of my anti-poker face - everyone thinks I'm bluffing - see the Hair Museum below for perfect example of this phenom.

DO you think I could get on Late Night Poker? The Barnet Ape is a bit like The Devil Fish.

― Pete, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I once returned home from a night on the lash to find Pete curled like a little baby squirrel in front of Late Night Poker ASLEEP so he clearly doesn't love it that much. I am very bad at gambling as can be proved by my latest bet with Pete whereby I bet him that he wouldn't be a Radio One DJ in the next 10 years (from April this year). If he wins I have to run around Trafalgar Square naked 5 times. If I win nothing happens except I am proved right. What a crappy bet.

I like the idea of lurking in casinos in a low-cut frock leaning over men who are winning and getting them to spend their dosh on me, though.

― Emma, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Better EVEN is Radio 5 Live poker - Poker on the Radio! Absolutely fantastically pointless show. Oh he's probably got a good hand but because we're on the radio we don't know so instead we'll spend time on over-the-top descriptions of all the players. Or maybe I dreamed this.

― Tom, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have only gambled once. A guy at work took us to a casino in central London and I played roulette and then blackjack and won 70 quid off an initial 20 quid pot! I haven't done it since - I think it could get a bit too compulsive. Also casinos are full of weirdos.

― Sam, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah poker without even a nominal sum is crap. A fiver each is generally our fee for entry. Although we might go to ten or twenty like at Christmas if we all have the cash. As for betting, I often will stick a pound or two on something if its decent odds. Or often will go to the races at Christmas or on a bank holiday. Its a great laugh actually around Christmas with some friends. Do I win? Sometimes. And then theres the grand national in which I often seem to get lucky. What a great day of the year that is.

― Ronan, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

on looks you are a shoo-in pete

― mark s, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was going to take that as a compliment until I remember Sir Clive Sinclair and his baseball cap. I wuv the middle aged housewife poker queens on it, I'm trying to imagine what the local poker scene is in - say - Berkhamsted.

― Pete, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cannot get over enough of the guilt to have fun doing this.

― anthony, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Poker on the Radio

Hmmm, you don't know a bloke by the name of Ben Schott, do you? He was this bloke I sort of knew at university who had a long running extended joke/sketch/parallel world centred around a radio program called Roulette Live.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

in OZ the govt has banned it for australians, and refuses to get ozzies to honour any debts they may acrue on foreign websites - gotta love having a methodist for a pm.

― Geoff, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

If I wanted to go into William Hill and place a bet on something random (say Arnie becoming governor of California), could I? How does it work? Does the guy behind the counter just give you some odds on anything you want?

― Sam (chirombo), Friday, 5 September 2003 12:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I opened an account at william hill online purely cos I was sick of losing £2 a week to the lottery. I tend to put outrageous bets on in the hope the long shot will come in. A 2p Goliath is a beautiful thing.
I've also had bets on the weather (won at 6/1), Beauty contests, The Booker, Mercury Music prize, Travel writing prize, Fame academy, Arnie (about 6/1 I think, probably getting longer as he shows what a hollow puppet he is), had good results with some 20p trebles and best over all win was a horse at 80/1.

After about 6 weeks, I'm well ahead and have had a lot of fun.

So the arnie thing - have a look at the bookies websites under specials, it'll show you the prices there. Currently you can get 500-1 that Elvis will be found alive by the end of the year.

― Simeon (Simeon), Friday, 5 September 2003 14:37 (twenty-two years ago)

My game's Texas Hold 'Em (poker variant), at around 50 cents to $1 per ante. Did quite well, about $26 in winnings. Then we played high card and I lost $50.

― Leee (Leee), Friday, 5 September 2003 20:49 (twenty-two years ago)

How odd. The Ben Schott I mentioned above is now a very rich man courtesy of his Original Miscellany fame. Roulette live was much funnier.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 5 September 2003 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I always play for money, but never so much money that the tension overrides the fun. Nickels, dimes, and quarters with friends, usually. If someone wins big, it's euphoria. If someone loses big, he or she just has to get one less giant bag of chips for the week, or something.

In Vegas or Reno, when you're playing against the dealer, i always play Pai Gow Poker. If you know what you're doing, you'll end up pushing a lot, therefore you ride out the major $$$$ ups and downs of most table card games like Blackjack or what have you.

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 5 September 2003 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

i got a system on BJ, works well with groups if y'all are clued in on the fundamentals of counting and casually speaking in code. recommended reading: bringing down the house [excerpt]

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 5 September 2003 21:19 (twenty-two years ago)

also yanc3y to thread (he rec'd positively 5th street)

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 5 September 2003 21:19 (twenty-two years ago)

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