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The only career advice we got in my physics undergrad was when the quantum professor told us few if any would go on to PhDs, but we could get jobs in Vegas or W
by killjoywashere 9y ago
The only career advice we got in my physics undergrad was when the quantum professor told us few if any would go on to PhDs, but we could get jobs in Vegas or Wall Street. It was at that moment that I learned to stick with index funds and never, ever gamble. There's no way one of me for a few hours can possibly beat 100s of me working on a problem for decades.
- moondev 9y agoPlaying craps is a bunch of fun for me personally. I treat it like entertainment and just play the pass line plus odds. The pass line is just a 1.41% house advantage. And there is 0% house edge on odds. It's actually cheaper than buying drinks if you are planning to. Also much more fun than staying in your room and staring at your mutual funds the entire night!
- jrs235 9y agoI go slightly more risky. Putting a little more at risk by placing a few come bets plus odds too.
- smoothgrips 9y agoSame here. Last time I was at a craps table: pass line, come bet, with odds on both. Made something like $500 in less than an hour ($5 table). Granted, this doesn't happen every time. I do lose money sometimes. But, the atmosphere is fun. Chips flying all over the table... everyone drinking and feeling loose... laughs, jokes, chatting with others... the cheer when the shooter hits... camaraderie... it's great. Definitely better than sitting in your room. I see it as a form of entertainment. Before I go gambling, I plan it out. Determine how much I can comfortably play with. I also expect that I will lose it. And then once the money is gone, I'm done gambling.
- jeron 9y agoI've heard this strategy before - go to the penny slots for the drinks, not the money
- empath75 9y agoYou’re obviously going to lose money over time, but what makes craps fun is high variance. It’s pretty common to double or triple your money before losing it all and then some. You can definitely walk away a big winner if you’re just playing for a night or a weekend, though chances are, you won’t. Slots on the other hand is just a depressing one way money drain and I have no idea why people enjoy them.
- mikeash 9y agoI’m not sure if many people enjoy them. A lever that dispenses random rewards is basically a purpose built addiction machine.
- smoyer 9y agoI'm a morning person and so, even in Vegas (or moreso since there's no clock in the room), I was up at my normal time. Since I'm also normally on EST, this meant I was awake at 0300 or 0300. The first morning I tried to find breakfast early and found that the slots were full of disabled and/or elderly people who were trying to win their way to riches. And it was the slots that they seemed to think was the best way to get there. Talk about depressing ... I didn't mind spending a few bucks gambling for the entertainment and comaraderie but these people definitely couldn't afford even a single pull of the handle. Talking to a relatively low-level employee at the casino, she said that the floor was full that day because it was the week that public assistance checks were received in the mail ... and that the casinos shooed them out of the building by 0600 or 0700 so that the regular guests were unlikely to see what was happening.
- macintux 9y agoI saw a woman win 15k last night. On an 88¢ bet on a slot machine. That’s one reason why people play them: they know people do occasionally win big. Why not them?
- sillysaurus3 9y agoI've known about a dozen people over a decade who make a living gambling. Apparently it's not as hard as it sounds. Most people just don't try. It takes effort and discipline like anything else. And a healthy appetite for risk. Surprisingly, most physicists I've talked to also seem to have a healthy appetite for risk. Maybe this is a generational thing. The current generation has one eye on wall st and the other on startups.
- femto 9y agoBy my understanding, successful professional gamblers aren't actually gamblers, as they engineer the situation so the odds are in their favour and they are just printing money. Here is my understanding of how a professional “gambler” (arbitrageur?) in Australia made a fortune. Take a powerball/lotto game, where balls are drawn and punters win a prizes from a fixed size pool. Say the long term rate of return is 90%. The arbitrageur starts placing large volumes of bets, so they make sizeable portion of the pool of bets (say 30%) and have a significant chance of winning the jackpot. They also negotiate a rebate (say 15%) with whoever runs the game, so their long term rate of return is now greater than 100%. The gaming company wins, as they are bringing in an additional 30% revenue each week from the arbitrageur and only paying out a 15% rebate, and the size of the prize pool is fixed. The arbitrageur wins, as their long term payout is more than 100% due to their rebate. The mug punter (without a rebate) loses, as they are winning a smaller portion of the prize pool due to payouts to the arbitrageur. Meanwhile the lottery company is sucking in more mugs by advertising how many jackpots are going off (winners can be anonymous in Australia). In summary, the arbitrageur's rebate is legally transferring money away from those without power (the mug punters) back to those with power (the company running the game and the arbitrageur). Lose-win-win respectively.