A Gnome's Ponderings

I'm a gamer. I love me some games and I like to ramble about games and gaming. So, more than anything else, this blog is a place for me to keep track of my ramblings. If anyone finds this helpful or even (good heavens) insightful, so much the better.

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My extremely brief brush with gambling

Posted by Lowell Kempf

07 Dec 2011

Lowell Kempf

(Gnomekin)

United States
Chicago
Illinois

Over the weekend, my fiancée and I took a quick trip to Las Vegas in order to see some shows and get away from it all. While our purpose wasn’t to gamble, the hotel deal came with free slot credits so I had a chance to look at slot machines for the first time.

Modern technology seems to have changed the one-armed bandit quite a bit. They are now electronic marvels of bright lights and loud sounds, themed like a pinball machine. My impression from movies is that the only line that mattered in a slot machine was the center line but it seems that you can bet on multiple lines now. Maybe you always could and the movies just simplified it.

Sadly, since my back has been bothering me, I wasn’t brave enough to try any table games. I didn’t want to play for real money against real opponents when I had problems standing or concentrating. So, my impressions of the gambling of Las Vegas is limited to a few plays on the slots.

I had been curious to see how my love of gaming interacted with even this tertiary contact with the world of gambling.

And, at least as far as slot machines are concerned, there was no interactions. I felt that the only real control I had was how fast I was going to lose money. Tactics and strategy, as well as any sense of meaningful decisions, just weren’t there. The only real decision was deciding to play.

I don’t think that’s a fair assessment of gambling as an institution. After all, while I know I would have lost my shirt at Black Jack or Poker (seeing as how I barely ever play those games), I also probably would have had a lot more of that elusive control that I was missing.

That being said, I have also read that the Nevada Gaming Board intentionally tries limit gambling to games of chance. I understand that once it was determined that skill played an overriding role in Rummy, Rummy was removed from games you could play in casinos.

While it’s not my final conclusion on gambling (I may never have one and I want to keep the option of changing my mind), I think that gambling does not have the intellectual engagement that I enjoy in my gaming life and it lacks the sense of play. Gambling is serious business and gambling is also playing with odds that are beyond your control.

4 Comments

Wed Dec 7, 2011 9:32 pm

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Gabe Alvaro

(blindspot)

United States
Berkeley
California

Great post.

And I grapple with my observation that gambling as an institution is hugely popular, while playing games that require thought, good-decision making, and afford greater control are relegated in our culture to underground status.

The conclusion I then draw is that most of my fellow humans value:

a) less control over a game
b) the chance of a big money payoff over the satisfaction of having done well at the game

It's a pity that the term "gaming" is so widely used in connection with gambling and I think to some extent it colors the impressions of our hobby to outsiders, possibly prompting them to say sad things like "why would use my brain so much to play a game in which there is nothing for me to win?"

Posted Wed Dec 7, 2011 9:44 pm
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Patrick Carroll

(Patrick Carroll)

United States
Carver
Minnesota

"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." (GK Chesterton)

"That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)

For me, gambling has sometimes had a "coolness" factor to it; I'd get into it so as to connect with the image of the suave Mississippi riverboat gambler or James Bond at Monte Carlo. But I've never liked the games themselves.

Blackjack, craps, and poker were among the first games I learned in my life. My dad taught them to me. He liked the first two especially and would periodically drive three or four hours to Reno to play in a casino.

But when I was an older child or teenager, and I played these games with my friends, we always ended up shrugging and turning to Risk, Stratego, or a wargame--almost anything else. Gambling games seemed simplistic and boring.

Now I live in a state with casinos. I've briefly visited one or two, but I'd be happy never to set foot in one again. I don't think there's anything for me there.

I guess the joy of gambling is something other than the kind of joy I get from playing strategy games and thematic games and such.

Posted Wed Dec 7, 2011 10:01 pm
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Russ Williams

(russ)

Poland
Wrocław
Dolny Śląsk

I agree slot machines, craps, blackjack, etc are all quite insipid and uninteresting games.

But what about gambling with interesting good games? E.g. a lot of Korean Go (Baduk) players traditionally play for money. And I've seen chess players play for money on the streets.

Would playing a good "real" serious interesting game of skill which you enjoy as a game (instead of a stupid traditional casino game) for money be interesting? Worse, better, different?

We tried that a few times in my old gaming group years ago just to experiment, including experimenting with the age-old dilemma of "What do you do in a multiplayer game when you can see that you almost certainly can't win?" I.e. we tried some games with "Everyone contributes $1 and the winner takes all" (to formalize "Only winning matters, 2nd place is useless") and we tried some games with "Everyone receives $1 from the players they ranked higher than and pays $1 to the players who ranked higher than them" (to formalize "2nd place is at least better than 3rd place).

But we didn't keep playing for money, it was just an evening's experiment. It didn't seem to radically alter our experience or enjoyment of playing. Maybe it would have felt different if we'd played for more serious money, I dunno.

Posted Wed Dec 7, 2011 10:46 pm
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Adam Alleman

(Daddys_Home)

United States
Denver
Colorado

I love gambling. I am a huge fan of poker and believe that the strategy involved is deep and fascinating. When I visit the casino to play poker, I usually play a little craps. I don't play with much money and usually drink and whoop it up with the rest of the table. It's a welcome break from the poker table where everyone is an adversary. After a couple of beers, which either a really cheap or really expensive I head home.

I should add. I very rarely play slots and when I do it's for 5 buck or less and it's usually waiting for a poker tournament to start. Waste of time and money IMO.

Edited Thu Dec 8, 2011 3:19 am
Posted Wed Dec 7, 2011 11:21 pm
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A Gnome's Ponderings

My extremely brief brush with gambling

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