Gamblers lost $12.7 Billion in FY07 in Nevada

[jackflashdrive]

The $100 slots have a relatively small house edge (3% or so I think). Can you see why it wouldn't be appropriate for me to hand him the money and say "OK, you can play any of these casino games excecpt for blackjack" or "You can only use this for poker (even though you might be -EV for the game)." Or should I comment that he should drag out his 'fun' by playing smaller stakes, even though this makes it all the less likely that he will go on the big rush that he really wants? That would make me a prick.

Yes, if he was wasting an inherited fortune I wouldn't feel like I was spoiling his fun to advise him against it. Very different situation.

Should I tell him "I'm disgusted by watching you feed this money into a slot machine, because the parallel between your behavior and that of a rodent pressing a lever according to a schedule of reinforcement designed to maximize said behavior is just a little too vivid, and you've drawn me into what I regard as your sorry condition through my own association with the money."?

[MicroBob]

jack,

first paragraph - okay, I see your point a bit better now.

last paragraph - I think it would be totally awesome if you told him that although I'm sure he would find it not as awesome. But if I was around when you said that to him I would want to be your BFF.

[BenJammin']

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i read this as "gambler lost $12.7 billion" and was like HOLY [censored] [censored]

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me too!

[Shoe]

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http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/9089381.html

Wagered: $170 billion
Lost: $12.74 billion

Slots: $8.34 billion
Blackjack: $1.4 billion
Baccarat: $900.4 million
Craps: $471.8 million
Sports betting: $175.7 million
Poker: $170 million

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12.74 B/ 17 B = 7.5% house edge. The article says that $8.3 B came from slots and $4.2 B from table games. The house edge for table games is ~2.5%, so the edge on slots must be around 10%.

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Although that is probably true, your logic is flawed. It could just be that the edge is exactly the same but slots get 4x more play than the table games.

[Shoe]

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God, Nevada must love the taxes this generates.

Anyone who has ever driven US 95 up the Colorado River through AZ, CA, and NV may recognize this: the road in California is old, no shoulder, winding, hilly. Then you hit the Nevada border and BANG! Graded, wider, newer, huge shoulders. Gotta be your casino tax dollars at work. That's always been my theory anyway.

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Not really; there's no state income tax in Nevada, which makes me wonder how do states with no state income tax have moneys.

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...

other tax?

they still tax the [censored] out of the casinos

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They also have a high sales tax.

[Syntec87]

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i read this as "gambler2k4 lost $12.7 billion" and was like HOLY [censored] [censored]

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me too!

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