Posted on 04/21/2005 8:13:00 AM PDT by WKB
SALEM, Ore. - Maryann started gambling 10 years ago, playing video poker machines in hotel restaurants in Oregon as she traveled for her job.
"It got so any place I would see a lottery sign and that was a restaurant or other place that was comfortable, I would play," said the woman, who is in her 40s.
She figures she lost $60,000 on video poker before admitting she had a problem and enrolling in a gambling-addiction treatment program.
Maryann, who doesn't want her last name used, is among a growing number of women across the nation who are getting hooked on gambling.
Nationwide, men make up two-thirds of problem gamblers. But that may be changing in states where video gambling is no further away than a corner deli or tavern.
Video gambling machines have particular appeal to women, said Rachel Volberg, a Massachusetts researcher who has studied problem gambling.
"The games are a lot less intimidating for women to play," Volberg said. "You don't have to sit at a card table and have men making jokes about 'the little woman learning how to gamble."'
Oregon is one of nine states that allow games such as video poker and electronic keno in bars, taverns and other retail outlets apart from casinos.
The National Council on Problem Gambling says there's been an uptick in compulsive gambling by women in those states with widespread "convenience" gambling.
"As electronic gaming devices spread throughout the country, we are seeing greater numbers of women with gambling problems," said Keith Whyte, executive director of the Washington-based group.
Part of the reason is that the games often are located in brightly lit, attractive places such as coffee shops, delis and bowling alleys, not just in smoke-filled bars and taverns, Whyte said.
"Women feel comfortable in these places," he said.
Few states with widely available video gambling have conducted studies to track rates of compulsive gambling among women, Volberg said. But officials in several of those states said there's no doubt that a "feminization" of gambling is taking place.
In Louisiana, where there are 10,000 video gambling terminals at 3,000 locations statewide, 57 percent of the calls to that state's gambling addiction hotline are from women.
"The video machines are everywhere," says Reece Middleton of the Louisiana Association on Compulsive Gambling. "It's no wonder we've got women in trouble
Have you ever noticed that when your gambling friends win, they brag about it and when they lose, they lie about it?
When the casinos first came to Mississippi
It seems "Everybody won" but then they would lose it and then some.
I stopped asking "How much did you win"
and started asking "How much more did you bring home
than you took with you"
I like to do some slots -- I visit Las Vegas about 2 to 4 times a year. I don't gamble the whole time -- I do some sightseeing, shopping, seeing shows, wade in the pool, work out, etc. etc. But I do like to play the slots and do some sports betting from time to time. I've never won any big jackpots, just a few dribs and drabs...usually enough to pay for my next meal or something like that. Most of the time I come back with at least what I went to Vegas with...occasionally, a little more.
My way of dealing with gambling is to treat it as another travel expense. I don't know about most of you, but before I travel anywhere, I usually calculate what I think I will be spending for food and the like, and when I go to Vegas, I include a budgeted amount per day for gambling. Each day I play with the amount I've budgeted -- if I get too close to the end of that day's budgeted amount, I walk away. That's the real trick -- you have to know enough to walk away, whether you are winning or losing.
Gambling is like eating, drinking or even surfing the net -- a little bit or even a moderate amount is fine, maybe even healthy, but overdoing it can get you into big trouble. My addiction is eating, but gambling and drinking I have under control.
Or when I plop down a sizable amount for an entry fee into a tournament?
It can be as addictive as hard drugs.
As long as thats all shes wearing.
"It can be as addictive as hard drugs."
Easily...and just as hard to kick.
That's not just "gambling friends", that's a trait of ALL gamblers.
That's the best way to do it. That's how my husband and I do it.
I won in Las Vegas!
Well... I took $2000 with me and ran it up to $4000. Then I lost it all back including my original $2000. But I won because I had a good time and what is $2000 when I had such a great time winning??? Or, I didn't lose because I only "spent" the $2000 that I took there to spend. (don't see it as a loss but as an expense) It's all psychology.
NOI..I was serious..my local Runner's club..we go to a 10K about once a month..different locals around the metro area..good time....and female runners..shorts..tees and or sports bras..lean, lanky, good leg lines, and slightly sweaty...very, very sexy.....how do I better my times..just find an attractive posterior and tuck in right behind her..very motivating....
The only difference is that a gambling addiction won't necessarily physically destroy you like the drugs would (unless you owe money to the wrong kind of people), but you get everything else, the wrecked relationships and careers, bankruptcy, etc.
You have to be very careful and go in with a plan.
Is that OK?
Yep ~ if you foot is wide enough to engage the brake and throttle it's the same as heel and toe. Heel and toe is move you make; by applying the brake while you blip the throttle to put the tranny in a lower gear ~ it just makes things smoother and cuts down on wheel hop, damaged gears and damaged clutch. It makes you smooth and fast. Road racers use it all the time.
The ability to shift gears without using the clutch in a big rig is learned. You must shift within about 100 rpm of a 4000 rpm change or else you will feel the transmission fighting your effort to change gears.
Up shifts-- when the tach is at 2100 rpm back off the throttle a bit, pull the stick out of gear. The transmission will 'open' at 1700 rpm allowing you to shove the stick in the next higher gear.
Downshifts-- when the tach is at 1700 rpm back off the throttle a bit, pull the stick out of gear. Push the down a bit, transmission will 'open' at 2100 rpm allowing you to shove the stick in the next lower gear.
If you know the top speeds attainable from your gears, it is possible to drop four or five gears in one shift. Pull the stick out of 15th, when the truck slows to the top speed of a particular gear, say 36 mph, if you have the rpm at 2100 the transmission will 'open' for 7th gear.
I've only done these shifts a few thousand times so I'm not as smooth at them as some of the old timers like PeterBilt who has run the Sierra Nevada's more times than I have hair on my head.
I drove big rigs for 31 years. ;)
I work at a Casino here on the Coast. I see there broke behinds sittin on the benches every day. I've seen people win 2000 dollars, and put all of it back in the same slot machine. And yes, I see more women than men in the casino. No gambling for me !! :)
Jeff
I ask again, provide evidence of Bennett speaking out about the evils and dangers of gambling or writing about them in his books.
I tell you again, he's silent on the issue. He shouldn't be. It's strangling this country.
Talk about making a man out to be more important, influential, and essential than he ever has or will be.
Further, you possibly meant gambling is strangling this country. If so, that is equally as moronic a statement.
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