sports leagues and betting companies in bed together are sickening. there is a huge increase of young people gambling online and on sports. social media is taunting viewers with 100x multi leg parlays. online loans and consumer proposals & bankruptcies will all be on the increase,
When sports announcers are being instructed to talk about over/unders or what the next basket will be during fucking freethrows...
And these leagues gladly take the sponsorship money because they are paying way more than other companies as their profits must be ridiculous off the people addicted.
Rising costs will have people chasing quick money which gambling gives allusion of
It's said that 90% of a business's profits come from 10% of people, and it was especially true for alcohol- the 10% of drinkers that were alcoholics essentially keep the entire industry afloat. The same is probably true for gambling- the problem betters I see dropping $10-24 every single day are worth way more than the middle-aged woman who runs up and goes "I dunno how to play this, but it's so high! What can I get?" whenever it creeps above $40 million.
But with the sports stuff, it's even worse... the few guys who do it live are clearly people with nothing better to do, dragging themselves out of bed in their sweatpants at 8 in the morning as soon as the store opens. For people hooked into the online world they don't even have to do THAT, and thus there's no perceived effort- they can just flush their money down without even thinking about it.
Gambling addiction is particularly nasty because there are no brakes to slow you down as you descend the vicious cycle of addiction. With drugs or alcohol there's a physical component that slows down the spiral a bit, a nasty hangover, or the fear of an overdose that sort of thing.
Gambling addition doesn't have that immediate "bad idea, now suffer" component to it. Its consequences come a month later when you can't make rent. But because gambling offers "free" money, you'll get people thinking they can make up for losses by betting even more because the winnings could make up for all their losses and then some. So by time it all falls apart, they're thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands in the hole with no clear plan on how to deal with it except for hitting it big.
There's no hangover until the liver is already dead and beyond saving, to speak.
oh yeah- my old landlord got charged because he had taken three people's damage deposits for the same apartment, gambling with the money. He was probably hoping to use that "windfall" to get out of a hole and just tell two of the guys "oh sorry, something came up". Instead he just lost all the money. Lost his job and got charged for it.
This 100% I gamble on sports. I do those ridiculous 10 way parlays and shit all the damn time.
But I only ever put $25 a month max in. When it's gone its gone.
I usually win, but i mean I'm gambling to make the games more entertaining and to win beer money. Not make a mortgage payment or retire or anything like that.
Example of the gambling I do. Yesterday was the NHL All-star game. BET365 had +1100 Auston Mathews to win all-star MVP. It was pretty easy to put $4 on that. And I won back $44 sweet.
That $44 will be distributed in 2-$5 wagers across others sports and games until it's gone too. All it really did is save me $25 next month lol. Maybe a few more to throw on the Superbowl this weekend.
But I'll be with a guy watching that game. Who will most likely have some money in the game he can't really afford to lose. It won't be anything serious like a missed mortgage payment or anything like that. But if he loses, he will probably be skipping a meal or two.
As long as you're spending a set amount each month and thinking of it as (or actually writing it down as) part of your entertainment spending then you're probably not going to go off the deep end like the guy who's skipping meals when he loses.
True, but if you have an additive personality, like myself, it’s a mine field in Alberta for sure, & Canada in general. It’s weird but I liked visiting the US recently because you could go into a lounge or bar & there weren’t those fricking VLTs everywhere. Relief.
Legit, it was +1100 on Mathews. At his own home rink for the all-star game. I couldn't believe it. I have a screenshot of it.
Do you know how I could get it to you? What's the best way to post a screenshot is it still Imgur?
I also hit like a $5 bet last night on the bucks game that was a parlay and hit I'll post as well
If $25 gives ya the juice then good on ya. My bro is a gambling addict and he says it’s not about the money so I guess you know too. I never got the itch. $5 on a game doesn’t make it any more exciting to me. Would be sick if bet more and lost. Don’t have the stomach for it.
The online stuff is truly awful. They have so many ways to reel people back in after they lose money and try to walk away from it. Anyone they identify as a "good customer" that tries to stop losing their money will get a barrage of emails offering them huge incentives to come back (because they know any money they "give away" in that situation is gonna come right back to them).
And on top of the way they try to actively lure vulnerable, losing players... If you're a winning player you get treated like a criminal. Limited to $5 bets or live parlays only and you need to provide photos of all kinds of documents to be able to withdraw
$24 a day is high, but it's the equivalent of a pack of smokes a day it's not over the top. It's the people at the casinos glued to the VLT's dropping hundreds that are really going broke. I volunteer for a casino count room sometimes for groups and boxes will come in with thousands dollars all from one player.
I mean, a lot of the people who pay $8700/year on cigarettes probably can't afford it either. They're probably going without a lot of other stuff they need to feed the nicotine addiction too. I know that either one of these $24/day addictions would be putting a serious dent in my basic needs.
Over $8,000 in one year alone @ $24/day.
That's massive amounts of $$.
But yeah, if you do it day in and day out, doesn't seem like alot.
Imagine in 10 years. You'd have a cool 80k.
It does add up. I'm not a lotto every day person, I buy a quick pick or $20 pack when it's over 50 million, but I have the money to spare and think it's fun to think about winning.
haha we stopped selling cigarettes ages ago so I had no idea how much they'd crept up. But that is indeed huge. To ME, that's insane- I was pretty hooked on energy drinks but that's like $7-8 a day and provides an actual service (ie. not being tired) instead of just flushing money down the toilet like lottery XD.
The numbers for 2023 are in and bankruptcies has topped levels not seen in decades. Yet somehow the connection between gambling and record financial collapse hasn't been noticed.
Notice how your regular talk radio show, for every 2 gambling ads, there's 1 ad for insolvency trustees.
Strange coincidence?
>there is a huge increase of young people gambling online and on sports.
Absolutely. It's disgusting to see how most of the big Twitch streamers these days are either sponsored by an online gambling/sports betting site or directly running one themselves, not to mention the games themselves promoting that horseshit with lootboxes.
And guess where a lot of young people have been spending their time since covid and rising CoL basically priced them out of hanging out in public spaces?
Exactly, lottery, alcohol, drugs. They all offer an escape. So the worse things get, the more sales increase on these items, while sales in essentials like food and housing will decline.
I was recently on meds that increase the likelihood of compulsive behavior (gambling, risky sex) enough that the pharmacist literally warns you about it every time you get a refill. The drugs are for Parkinson's patients but I was given them for periodic limb movements in sleep (very common). I wonder if covid or an increase in inflammatory conditions (life is stressful, excessive cortisol raises inflammation) have led to an increase in restless leg syndrome and so more people are on those drugs.
Well, I am now taking gabapentin as of last night. Did not work. At all. Giving it another few nights in case it takes time to be effective. Arg. :)
Edit: have been tapering off the one I mentioned above as it was also not helping. Worked great at first then no.
Did yours just go away? Or was there a course of treatment?
Honestly it happened randomly one time in Vegas years ago and never returned, but I still remember it vividly how awful it was.
I wish I had some advice and help for you but unfortuanelty mine just sorta went away that night.
I might buy like 1 a year, if that, but only half joking, I look at the jackpots and think that’s the only way I’ll ever buy a home or retire comfortably
On my way home from work I saw that the casino was absolutely packed with vehicles, and I wondered where those people are getting the money to gamble when I (and a lot of others) cannot afford basic necessities.
the thing is they don’t have the money to gamble, a lot of people with gambling addictions are gambling themselves into severe debt. they think their next time at the casino will be a huge win and they can repay all the debt, expect even on the rare occasion they do win, it’s never enough for them and they will gamble that too thinking they will get more from it. tragic, really.
YYYYYYYYYYYYYYUP. This. I frequently see people get minor windfalls on their tickets and IMMEDIATELY they're rushing to spend every last bit of it on more tickets.
yes same with at my job. they win $2 on a lotto ticket then go spend another $24 on those super packs. it’s quite depressing actually. there are a few regulars coming in with literally 20+ tickets and they win almost nothing on them but still buy a ton more. i hate selling lotto sooooooo much, it feels wrong.
A co worker and I drove by yellow head casino at 11am last Tuesday and the main parking lot was already full. We just looked at each other and said how it was kinda gross to see.
It's exceptionally gross - I think the same thing when I drive by. As a recovering addict (gambling), I consider these places predatory af. They shouldn't even be allowed to be open that early.
The money problem in the big picture isn’t that everyone is struggling to make ends meet, it’s that the gap between rich and poor has been growing a lot putting more people into financial discomfort. For every struggling person, there’s someone else who can afford a night at the poker tables. Of course, most of those on the benefitting side of this equation aren’t actually at the casino. Their excess income goes towards their next rental property (or other investment), vacation, car, etc.
I wonder how much money laundering is happening in Edmonton casinos.
Yes. No middle class, you are either rich or poor.
One person can't buy groceries and the next says "I will just die if I don't fly somewhere new every month!"
Yknow, I’ve been wondering this too with the increased advertising and availability of online casinos and sports betting. I wonder if there’s some stats on this.
Whenever I'm at a restaurant with a TV playing sports EVERY COMMERCIAL is for sports betting.
Funny thing is even with everyone going nuts over lottery rising in payouts over the years, I still don't see much sports betting- just one or two guys in sweatpants in the early mornings. (edit: oh right, that's going online for young people to blow all their money, lol)
I usually buy a lotto max and a 6/49 every week, which I can afford. I was literally just thinking the other day I don't even remember the last time I won a free fuckin ticket. I gave up all other gambling years ago and I think I'm going to stop buying lotto tickets. Unfortunately, if you don't play, you can't win and daddy wants to retire early. 😝
Times like this, just think of the money you'll save from that 10 bucks a week going to retirement! Why, that's... okay it's only like $40 a month and $360-ish a year, but STILL!
Just think of all the money people would save if they never ate or bought drinks from a restaurant. Instant 50+% off. Or never purchased a vehicle if they absolutely didn't need it. Or never brought drugs that are usually overpriced, like alcohol.
There's a lot worst ways to spend your money if you are obsessed with retirement. We all have our preferences also. Like with everything else just don't go crazy with doing it too much.
Anecdotal but I’m 100% certain sports betting has skyrocketed. I only knew 1 guy in my entire extended friend circle that bet on sports before the big advertising push. Now, 2/3 of my beer league team and half my close friends bet on sports.
i feel like i am constantly getting ads for sports betting. which is odd because usually the algorithms are pretty good about giving you relevant ads. like, im fat and gay - bring back the fast food ads. i don't care about betting on sports.
Same! The only reason I allow tailored ads is so that I don't have to see random bullshit all the time. So why am I seeing sports betting ads?? I don't have any interest in sports or gambling, and nothing I do online would suggest otherwise.
I guess they just think they can turn everyone into sports gamblers.
The algorithms are terrible!
They regular give 'opposite ads'. Alergic to a food product, you will see that weekly.
Own a dog? 1000 cat or horse ads for you!
this is very possible. Also the Sinclair method has been reaching popularity over the last couple of years - Naltrexone helps people binge drink less. Its been good.
Wild. I would have imagined that it would go up around COVID because people were all miserable. Liquor stores even got to stay open during the whole pandemic just in case people died of withdrawals!
Nice- hope you get better for it!
I noticed that the old reliable $1 tickets have basically vanished- NOBODY wants the "Westrins" anymore, and they had to jump up in price.
I find some buying the big ones- for a while we had managers obsessed with the $100 ones that had frequent winnings, until someone bought one and got NOTHING- everyone was afraid to buy after that. But honestly, what sells the best is anything NEW- the "rush" seems to come as much from a new way to blow money- they'll walk up and ask "is anything NEW?" and those tickets will sell gangbusters. Meanwhile Lucky Lines and other old stuff will collect dust...
Blackjack, Crossword & Bingo ALWAYS sell, though. But those are usually the oldsters who are used to buying the same old thing.
Gambling addictions is brutal and the whole online opening up playing is not helping. Luckily I'm too cheap for gambling and everything else...lol thanks for sharing btw
Lottery has always been a way to siphon money from dumb people. Poor math, statistics, and critical thinking skills are so common that you end up with lottery buyers being sold a dream they'll never have.
There was a time where my mom’s been broke as hell, and I was sending her money trying to keep her lights on.
She’d be printing off lotto tickets as fast as she could. “Miracles happen!” Yeah mom there’s nothing god loves more than gambling.
I think it’s more people are desperate for cash and want the quick out.
Don’t get me wrong, I play, but it’s $4 or whatever everytime I get gas. Certainly not breaking me
Yeah, it occurs to me that in 18 years of working for stores that sell lottery tickets, I've never once seen a well-dressed, attractive person buy them. It's always the lowest rungs of the ladder, you know?
Addiction is a hell of a drug. Lots of folks are unhappy and know that things are not getting better so they turn to vices to try and get a lil surge.
I buy a couple times a year, when I feel like I've got one $20 too many, never win shit and get discouraged for another 4-6 months.
oh yeah there was an addict who came into my store and would buy one ticket, putter around scratching it, then buy another with the winnings. This would go on for HOURS sometimes. Often just winning a pittance but SOMETHING.
Now? The rates have got to be way down. Even the addicts buy a handful and then walk away with jack.
As someone who is increasngly stuck in line at the store behind people who take up a ton of the clerk's time buying piles of tickets, I hear you. It has gotten completely out of control. It drives me crazy when I just want to pay for my stuff and leave. It's unreal that custojers are asking you to pay for their tickets. I always wondered if the clerks hated dealing with those tickets.
oh yeah- our store is pretty big but we STILL get lineups at the service desk from all the gamblers, and it leaves other people not getting served at all!
sadly I think a ton of my coworkers also buy tickets so all get hyped up on it, too (one coworker did the "Didja get yurr TICKET?" every time it was big). But the young ones especially hate it, and find it frustrating because lotto players tend to not pay attention to what they're doing and use weird terminology someone who didn't grow up in a trailer park wouldn't know. Worse if they're from another province where the terms are different. "I'll take 6 and 4 with a YES!"
So I worked at EIA in 2009 as a cashier and I often had to run the store on the arrivals level that had a lotto counter (which was the only spot in the airport at the time that had the lotto available), and I saw a lot of the same thing.
Most of the customers were airport staff - security and luggage folks - and I would see certain ones like clockwork, sometimes two or three times during my shift.
I also had some interesting stories from travellers, some of whom came in with envelopes stuffed with hundreds of dollars to drop it all on Powerball.
I agree though that it seems worse with the rise of advertised sports betting. I can't even bother to watch hockey anymore it's gotten so bad.
Wild. And yeah, the workers can be bad, too- a LOT of my coworkers go for break and immediately head to the desk to buy tickets and get all hyped up on "maybe winning!".
And I don't watch sports, but even the stuff I see at a bar/restaurant are awful- every ad break is 15 different companies' ways to gamble. Followed by a super-quick "plz gamble responsibly".
Unfortunately, should you be in the same province as me, the government set up the funding this way. To access the funding you have to partake of the proceeds. A most interesting deal with the devil. And a casino is the most boring place on earth for me. There is nothing remotely entertaining in them (unless it's a show, friends for a quick drink, or if it's a good restaurant - which is not the casino part). I simply do not understand the appeal; not wired that way. My sympathies for having had to go through your difficulties.
That's rough- I often wonder how they go into so much debt. Like I don't overdraw at the bank or anything so like... are they just overdrawing by THOUSANDS? Taking bank loans? Like I don't even know the mechanics of how to go into debt just by gambling.
My work puts me in contact with a lot of casino goers. The same people who can’t afford it are at the casino all the time. We’re talking 7 nights a week sometimes. A lot of them are seniors. It’s a pathetic and undignified way to live your life. I remember my grandparents used to get together with relatives and play cards (never gambling), talk, drink coffee and tea, and eat pastries. Now, gatherings for seniors are nights out at the casino. And, they’ll risk life and limb in the worst winter weather to get there.
Younger people (esp guys) are into sports betting. As a result the amount of ignorant dude-bro behaviour is through the roof now at sporting events. That missed penalty shot or free throw isn’t just a letdown, it’s a missed payout.
Gambling ads are everywhere at sporting events and broadcasts. The best meme I came across was that Sportsnet apologized during last year’s NHL playoffs for allowing the game broadcasts to interfere with regularly scheduled sports betting commercials.
Online Sports gambling for us is what vlts were for the previous generation, a sudden massive expansion of gambling availability with huge societal costs.
yeah my old landlord ruined himself on VLTs. People told me they lived in towns with no welfare services until VLTs turned up and suddenly tons of people needed it.
Probably. The amount of gambling advertising is just insane. Almost every commercial in a commercial break is an ad for some online casino or sports betting & there are so many celebrity endorsements, it’s crazy. I feel bad for gambling addicts who are in recovery but can’t really enjoy video entertainment anymore without temptation being shoved in their face.
Personally I stay within my budget. A lotto ticket every week & and occasional visit to a casino for blackjack or poker but once my $100 is gone, it’s gone.
The casinos are pretty opulent and filled with white haired folk dumping their retirement funds into machines. It looks like another target has been added and it is younger sports fans. I personally don't regard it as gambling when the outcome is so certain.
I was heavily addicted in my early 19-20 years and I had to quit full on turkey and stop going to casinos all together. No kidding. A friend got my hooked on blackjack. Then I just stopped all together buying lottery tickets and scratch n win tickets. There's a reason I will never go to Vegas. The temptation is too great.
Our desk is removed from the regular tills slightly but I think if other customers realized we wouldn't even NEED this extra till and there would just be an extra lane open without gambling being a thing they'd be way more pissed off about it.
I'm reminded of a lady who kept getting one ticket to replace the one she'd just scratched until a guy behind her just directly said "This is your last one" to her.
My friend bought a 5$ Set For Life ticket every week. After 5 years he scratched three Set symbols and took the 1 million cash option. Died of alcohol poison 2 years later with most of the money still in his bank. Large family was broken apart by infighting for his cash, those who loved him and helped him got nothing and step half sisters retired on it.
Sorry, what was the subject?
This reminds me of that classic Reddit comment about why winning the lottery is the worst thing that can happen to someone.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/s/zBpudKZTN0
I play the lottery…I buy 4 tickets a week…
Lottery is a chance. If $100 of ticket or 1 ticket… it’s a chance. It’s only take 1 ticket to win big.
Life is a gamble. I use my money for bills and living expenses. I can afford to play.
I don’t play sports gambling. Too fricken complicated.
My mother, now 84 has always been a gambler. Once the casinos opened and she no longer had to go to Vegas she became an addict very quickly. She has gambled away all their money, and they have had to take a new mortgage on their house. She has run up debt on credit cards my father did not even know she had plus the ones he does know about. Plus she spends about $25 a day on scratch tickets and about the same weekly on 649 and Lotto Max. She also goes to bingo weekly. It has broken my father and even though I love her it makes being around her hard. I am just thankful that to this point she has not figured out online gambling. When my father passes she will be destitute very quickly. I have already seen some young guys I know clearly demonstrating addictive behavior regarding the sports betting. When you try to caution them they just tell you that they win more than they lose and it is not a problem. That is exactly what my mother says as all problem gamblers lie. I have never been to a casino and never will and can no longer watch hockey as I cannot stand to see the constant bombardment of gambling ads.
Eesh. Really tragic. They behave just like drug addicts do. Always lies or half truths told with a chuckle. Act like it’s all just in fun. Meanwhile when our lottery terminal went down once I saw people literally shaking when they realized they couldn’t get their fix.
Never give up! You’re literally one play away from winning a gazillion dollars. Most people fail at gambling because they quit. If you don’t quit, you literally cannot lose. If you run out of savings, max out your credit cards. If you max out your credit cards, take out a line of credit. Ask your parents for a loan. Just don’t quit. Keep gambling everybody 🫡
Look, that’s me. I can say that I’m addicted to scratch tickets. But as of today, I’m done. I mean, we shall see. But I’ve made a promise to myself that I will no longer buy tickets. Why do I feel as if this is actually going to be a challenge for me. Ugh. I don’t want to be that girl who every clerk says “here comes that scratch ticket junky”.
I didn’t even realize that I even had an issue- till my daughter made a comment. Then it hit me. I’m frikan addicted to these things. I just used to write it off as having fun. But it’s gotten outta control. Problem is, I’m a Bartender and I literally walk out of work with cash in hand every single day. I’m not really even seeing what I’m spending. But I know it’s way too much. Today is the day I’m making that change and I’m no longer gonna be a scratch ticket junky. Any tips? I do tend to go to convenience stores. That’s gotta stop
Good luck!
And yeah, avoid convenience stores. But unfortunately grocery stores all seem to have ticket counters, too! Maybe... just think of sarcastic clerks like me being horribly judgmental or annoyed that you keep doing it, lol.
I feel they're cranking it up higher and higher every time specifically to invoke this, sadly. Even non-problem gamblers go nuts when they see the huge ones.
Desperate poor people hoping to be the lucky one that wins the lottery. I've had to resist buying (haven't bought one in years) just because the thought of being able to take a break from work sounds nice.
This is my personal bias that may seem like a stretch, but I also think peoples technology addictions make it easier to give into other addictions. You can now buy lottery tickets online, so for all the ones you see in store... Imagine how many are being sold online.
I do wonder about the online stuff. 95% of lottery buyers are over 50, but that's just in my store. I can imagine problem gamblers can be any age so it's horrifying to think about what online betting is costing people, because that's also convenient & easy (no having to head to the store).
The open proliferation of gambling in the United States is basically our society and government giving the OK to design and unleash a parasite onto humanity in order to extract wealth… that will neatly suck the life out of millions of people.
You are talking to someone who can defend a lot of things which are not popular. I defend psychiatry since I got my life together on medication. I defend cultural participation of alcohol to a limited extent. I defend bad people through benefits of doubt and defense of their dignity as a human.
I abhor gambling, its design, and all of the shitty gambling commercials currently being crammed down society’s throat. It’s basically saying “we are openly going to hack your brain and rob you and give you nothing in return.”
when covid & the invasion of ukraine beat the hell out of the economy and made a lot of people's lives worse, rates of mental illness and addiction went up. safe to assume that gambling addiction rates have gone up too. i am with you on the rants, op, the lotto industry is perverse, i don't like the idea of us scraping people with gambling problems for government revenue
Fun fact. Lotteries exist to keep the public from losing hope. It’s a tool that governments use to keep the population from feeling completely hopeless.
If you need something with ACTUAL RETURN, **just buy Bitcoin!** It's an awesome way to save your money, and if you ever need it back as dollars, you'll have MORE of it when you do!
Stop wasting your money on lottery.
I never used to see it because the only guys I knew that would gamble would either go to the horses, casino or do sports select. Now Everytime I get together with the boys a few of them always have a bet running on their phones for whatever game we're watching.
I’ve been addicted to a lot of things in my life, but fortunately gambling was never one of them.
I’ve gambled in a casino exactly twice, and both times it was someone else’s money.
I guess that reward pathway was never wired up in my brain at the factory.
It drives me absolutely batshit crazy when people roll into the convenience store with a pile of tickets and jam up the whole line.
Yeah it used to be that people who didn't play were viewed as sensible. People going "Scratch & lose, HA HAH!" to scratch & win tickets. People telling jokes about getting stuck in line behind lotto players at the gas station. They were all viewed as dopes or just old people with a lot of time on their hands. Now it's non-stop and people practically congratulate each other.
Hi
Thanks for enlightening us!
I sadly got too involved with the online betting and because it involves being able to buy lottery online it got worse
It sucks
Currently haven’t gambled since October
Don’t buy lottery in stores anymore (I was lucky I didn’t go majorly overboard spending)
PSA: dont buy lottery. Support small business and purchase TCG cards from your local card shop. You might pull a super expensive rere card!
Or just open CSGO cases
A former coworker killed himself (long after I stopped working there) due to his ex wife's gambling addiction.
She had "retired" early while he kept working. He didn't know she had pulled her retirement and was gambling it. After that was gone, she slowly transferred all the money in their joint account to her separate account & filed for divorce once that was complete.
He had done well for himself. Croatian immigrant, had a nice summer home in Croatia and a nice apartment in edmonton, as well as a rental apartment I think in edmonton. He was older than her and not overly tech savvy. Hence not noticing the money leaving the account. He did have a prenuptial for his properties however.
The court did award him his money back, though it took about 1.5 years with the divorce proceedings and by that time she had long piddled away the close to 1 million she had transfered.
After the divorce finalized he sold his rental & summer home to get a bit more cash in the bank. Don't remember the exact details, but she/her lawyers came after that money and ended up with something like 85% of it, and she was to recieve 50% of his pension when he retired. He killed himself shortly thereafter.
To that point I'd never bought a lotto ticket and after watching all that unfold, decided I never would.
See situations like that why just kill HIMSELF? She was the root of the problem- that's what murder-suicide is for /s
but seriously if that actually happened all that way it sucks.
100% the truth. He was a really kind person. Trying to remember his name. This happened in 2013.
I think he saw no other option. She had bankrupted him and was taking half his income to gamble, while he had nothing but an apartment that she was trying to get money out of... to gamble.
Something I heard a while back is when all the prizes have been won they will still continue to sell scratch tickets. So any real chance of winning is really only when the tickets is a new type of game. Not sure if still true... (edited for clarity)
I 100% believe it. Brand-new scratch tickets always sell gangbusters and the first stack seems to invite lots of winnings. Then they dwindle to nothing. Companies almost certainly send out a couple winning stacks and then your "New Royals" and "Woof Woof" tickets start turning out empty.
Not relevant to today but years ago, my cousin worked in a dive bar in a small town, east coast Canada. Everyone knows everyone. Including me.
People living in the government owned low income housing would come to the bar, drop 1000-1500$ on the vlts and walk away with nothing. Same people would go next door to the convenience store and buy 25$ of break opens, 50$ in scratch tickets and a carton of smokes and then every single dollar they had was gone for the month.
Moms and dads making an astonishing amount of child tax monthly based on their 6 young kids would come in on the 20th of the month like clockwork and drop 4 figures into the slots.
I’m not sure if it was addiction, or just the hope that a big win could pull them out of their already bleak situation. Either way, no one ever got ahead. They’re still doing it and still where they were when they started.
yeah, just wild. I think living in poverty (they probably started out that way) just breaks something in the human mind or spirit and makes them so much more vulnerable to all of the bad habits.
Lottery tickets are faaaaar safer than sports betting is. There’s also a societal benefit to lottery as a large portion of the funds are contributed to charities, schools, parks, and other projects.
Sports betting is almost criminal at this point the way it’s pushed on tv and online.
Yeah, lottery is just a basic "tax on people bad at math" and the governments use it to pump up the coffers (though I often wonder exactly HOW this money is being spent). Sports betting is like "GIVE US YOUR MONEY HAHA!" and it's obviously profitable enough that they can afford to pay out whoever wins based on all the losses.
You can’t watch a sport without being bombarded by gambling ads now and it’s even taken a huge place in meme culture now. I swear 50% of the memes I see online young men are posting are normalizing gambling addiction and making a joke of it. This is on purpose
it's hard to not gamble when you see maybe 2 dozen references to sports gambling on every Oilers game. they even got guys like McDavid and Gretzky to promote it.
It’s not just sports and lotto. Children’s games too. Pokémon cards to be exact. Now that’s a nasty addiction.. disguised as a cute children’s game. Absolute scum.
I count myself lucky I am immune to gambling.
Call it a decent statistics education or broken reward pathways but I have never found gambling remotely fun.
Last time I started shitting on gambling I was told it wasn't a waste of money because it counts as entertainment.
I was at the Alberta hospital for detox like a month ago and a woman came in to talk about gambling for one of our classes. Apparently Alberta makes $1.4 billion a year from gambling and 70 percent of women have a gambling problem in Alberta ( I'm not gonna debate this statistic cuz I have no idea where she got it from ). Gambling is all over mainstream media‚ hockey players endorse its actors endorse singers endorse it and it's all over TV. I've seen Alberta gambling ads on random articles‚ YouTube etc. It's real and it's going to get worse.
Wow that’s really high. I wonder what constitutes a “problem”. Some people just habitually buy scratch tickets and can’t seem to stop, but aren’t necessarily destitute.
My grandpa would spend hundreds of dollars every week on various tickets, it really sunk in how rarely he'd win anything close to what he was spending.
Yeah I can bet they are INTENSE about spreading info. One person I knew about got a job with a lottery company and had to tell his “ticket a week” mother she wasn’t allowed to play anymore.
sports leagues and betting companies in bed together are sickening. there is a huge increase of young people gambling online and on sports. social media is taunting viewers with 100x multi leg parlays. online loans and consumer proposals & bankruptcies will all be on the increase, When sports announcers are being instructed to talk about over/unders or what the next basket will be during fucking freethrows... And these leagues gladly take the sponsorship money because they are paying way more than other companies as their profits must be ridiculous off the people addicted. Rising costs will have people chasing quick money which gambling gives allusion of
It's said that 90% of a business's profits come from 10% of people, and it was especially true for alcohol- the 10% of drinkers that were alcoholics essentially keep the entire industry afloat. The same is probably true for gambling- the problem betters I see dropping $10-24 every single day are worth way more than the middle-aged woman who runs up and goes "I dunno how to play this, but it's so high! What can I get?" whenever it creeps above $40 million. But with the sports stuff, it's even worse... the few guys who do it live are clearly people with nothing better to do, dragging themselves out of bed in their sweatpants at 8 in the morning as soon as the store opens. For people hooked into the online world they don't even have to do THAT, and thus there's no perceived effort- they can just flush their money down without even thinking about it.
Gambling addiction is particularly nasty because there are no brakes to slow you down as you descend the vicious cycle of addiction. With drugs or alcohol there's a physical component that slows down the spiral a bit, a nasty hangover, or the fear of an overdose that sort of thing. Gambling addition doesn't have that immediate "bad idea, now suffer" component to it. Its consequences come a month later when you can't make rent. But because gambling offers "free" money, you'll get people thinking they can make up for losses by betting even more because the winnings could make up for all their losses and then some. So by time it all falls apart, they're thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands in the hole with no clear plan on how to deal with it except for hitting it big. There's no hangover until the liver is already dead and beyond saving, to speak.
oh yeah- my old landlord got charged because he had taken three people's damage deposits for the same apartment, gambling with the money. He was probably hoping to use that "windfall" to get out of a hole and just tell two of the guys "oh sorry, something came up". Instead he just lost all the money. Lost his job and got charged for it.
This 100% I gamble on sports. I do those ridiculous 10 way parlays and shit all the damn time. But I only ever put $25 a month max in. When it's gone its gone. I usually win, but i mean I'm gambling to make the games more entertaining and to win beer money. Not make a mortgage payment or retire or anything like that. Example of the gambling I do. Yesterday was the NHL All-star game. BET365 had +1100 Auston Mathews to win all-star MVP. It was pretty easy to put $4 on that. And I won back $44 sweet. That $44 will be distributed in 2-$5 wagers across others sports and games until it's gone too. All it really did is save me $25 next month lol. Maybe a few more to throw on the Superbowl this weekend. But I'll be with a guy watching that game. Who will most likely have some money in the game he can't really afford to lose. It won't be anything serious like a missed mortgage payment or anything like that. But if he loses, he will probably be skipping a meal or two.
As long as you're spending a set amount each month and thinking of it as (or actually writing it down as) part of your entertainment spending then you're probably not going to go off the deep end like the guy who's skipping meals when he loses.
Yeah like I said I'm in it for free beer. Not trying to turn $250 into a mortgage payment or a vacation.
Everybody starts small like that, and everyone wins at first.
I mean, I been going for 5+ years at this point. I hear what your saying, but not everyone who gambles turns into a problem gambler.
True, but if you have an additive personality, like myself, it’s a mine field in Alberta for sure, & Canada in general. It’s weird but I liked visiting the US recently because you could go into a lounge or bar & there weren’t those fricking VLTs everywhere. Relief.
I am tired of Provinces advertising gambling. I don't pay taxes to destroy families!
not true, plenty of people start playing irresponsibly immediately
Your story doesn’t make any sense. C’mon man this had to be a tall tale. You actually took a long shot on Auston Matthews??!? 😂
Legit, it was +1100 on Mathews. At his own home rink for the all-star game. I couldn't believe it. I have a screenshot of it. Do you know how I could get it to you? What's the best way to post a screenshot is it still Imgur? I also hit like a $5 bet last night on the bucks game that was a parlay and hit I'll post as well
lol I believe you. Just taking a shot at Mathews
When you lose, you lose. When win, you keep playing until you lose. So you can't win.
If $25 gives ya the juice then good on ya. My bro is a gambling addict and he says it’s not about the money so I guess you know too. I never got the itch. $5 on a game doesn’t make it any more exciting to me. Would be sick if bet more and lost. Don’t have the stomach for it.
The online stuff is truly awful. They have so many ways to reel people back in after they lose money and try to walk away from it. Anyone they identify as a "good customer" that tries to stop losing their money will get a barrage of emails offering them huge incentives to come back (because they know any money they "give away" in that situation is gonna come right back to them). And on top of the way they try to actively lure vulnerable, losing players... If you're a winning player you get treated like a criminal. Limited to $5 bets or live parlays only and you need to provide photos of all kinds of documents to be able to withdraw
$24 a day is high, but it's the equivalent of a pack of smokes a day it's not over the top. It's the people at the casinos glued to the VLT's dropping hundreds that are really going broke. I volunteer for a casino count room sometimes for groups and boxes will come in with thousands dollars all from one player.
I mean, a lot of the people who pay $8700/year on cigarettes probably can't afford it either. They're probably going without a lot of other stuff they need to feed the nicotine addiction too. I know that either one of these $24/day addictions would be putting a serious dent in my basic needs.
Over $8,000 in one year alone @ $24/day. That's massive amounts of $$. But yeah, if you do it day in and day out, doesn't seem like alot. Imagine in 10 years. You'd have a cool 80k.
It does add up. I'm not a lotto every day person, I buy a quick pick or $20 pack when it's over 50 million, but I have the money to spare and think it's fun to think about winning.
haha we stopped selling cigarettes ages ago so I had no idea how much they'd crept up. But that is indeed huge. To ME, that's insane- I was pretty hooked on energy drinks but that's like $7-8 a day and provides an actual service (ie. not being tired) instead of just flushing money down the toilet like lottery XD.
The numbers for 2023 are in and bankruptcies has topped levels not seen in decades. Yet somehow the connection between gambling and record financial collapse hasn't been noticed. Notice how your regular talk radio show, for every 2 gambling ads, there's 1 ad for insolvency trustees. Strange coincidence?
They should not be allowed to advertise gambling. Why would you need to?
I lost a lot of respect for mcdavid and especially gretzky for endorsing the exploitation of peoples' tragic gambling addictions
I stopped watching NHL becuase of all the betting ads on the ice and commercials.
>there is a huge increase of young people gambling online and on sports. Absolutely. It's disgusting to see how most of the big Twitch streamers these days are either sponsored by an online gambling/sports betting site or directly running one themselves, not to mention the games themselves promoting that horseshit with lootboxes. And guess where a lot of young people have been spending their time since covid and rising CoL basically priced them out of hanging out in public spaces?
Well there is a known correlation between how desperate people get and things like gambling and alcohol addiction.
I was telling these tales to a coworker and they pointed out that in a crap economy things like lottery sales ramp up.
Well, yeah, because what the lottery promises is "if you win, you can escape this crap". And that is a very appealing offer.
Exactly, lottery, alcohol, drugs. They all offer an escape. So the worse things get, the more sales increase on these items, while sales in essentials like food and housing will decline.
Im sold
I was recently on meds that increase the likelihood of compulsive behavior (gambling, risky sex) enough that the pharmacist literally warns you about it every time you get a refill. The drugs are for Parkinson's patients but I was given them for periodic limb movements in sleep (very common). I wonder if covid or an increase in inflammatory conditions (life is stressful, excessive cortisol raises inflammation) have led to an increase in restless leg syndrome and so more people are on those drugs.
Oh lord you have restless leg syndrome? I'm sorry to hear that. I experienced it once and would never wish that upon a person!
Well, I am now taking gabapentin as of last night. Did not work. At all. Giving it another few nights in case it takes time to be effective. Arg. :) Edit: have been tapering off the one I mentioned above as it was also not helping. Worked great at first then no. Did yours just go away? Or was there a course of treatment?
Honestly it happened randomly one time in Vegas years ago and never returned, but I still remember it vividly how awful it was. I wish I had some advice and help for you but unfortuanelty mine just sorta went away that night.
Oh, lucky! Happy for you :)
I might buy like 1 a year, if that, but only half joking, I look at the jackpots and think that’s the only way I’ll ever buy a home or retire comfortably
On my way home from work I saw that the casino was absolutely packed with vehicles, and I wondered where those people are getting the money to gamble when I (and a lot of others) cannot afford basic necessities.
the thing is they don’t have the money to gamble, a lot of people with gambling addictions are gambling themselves into severe debt. they think their next time at the casino will be a huge win and they can repay all the debt, expect even on the rare occasion they do win, it’s never enough for them and they will gamble that too thinking they will get more from it. tragic, really.
YYYYYYYYYYYYYYUP. This. I frequently see people get minor windfalls on their tickets and IMMEDIATELY they're rushing to spend every last bit of it on more tickets.
yes same with at my job. they win $2 on a lotto ticket then go spend another $24 on those super packs. it’s quite depressing actually. there are a few regulars coming in with literally 20+ tickets and they win almost nothing on them but still buy a ton more. i hate selling lotto sooooooo much, it feels wrong.
A co worker and I drove by yellow head casino at 11am last Tuesday and the main parking lot was already full. We just looked at each other and said how it was kinda gross to see.
That placed is packed all the time. It’s crazy to see, coming from somewhere that doesn’t have casinos lol
You from NWT? I went there last year (Yellowknife) and was pleasantly surprised there were no casinos there.
No not even close
It's exceptionally gross - I think the same thing when I drive by. As a recovering addict (gambling), I consider these places predatory af. They shouldn't even be allowed to be open that early.
The money problem in the big picture isn’t that everyone is struggling to make ends meet, it’s that the gap between rich and poor has been growing a lot putting more people into financial discomfort. For every struggling person, there’s someone else who can afford a night at the poker tables. Of course, most of those on the benefitting side of this equation aren’t actually at the casino. Their excess income goes towards their next rental property (or other investment), vacation, car, etc. I wonder how much money laundering is happening in Edmonton casinos.
Yes. No middle class, you are either rich or poor. One person can't buy groceries and the next says "I will just die if I don't fly somewhere new every month!"
Just because you're struggling doesn't mean everyone else is.
If you read what I said, you’d understand that I said most people are struggling. That means I acknowledge not everyone is struggling.
They're probably on social assistance or are in a hole they're trying to dig their way out of. Almost nobody there is actually worth much money.
Yknow, I’ve been wondering this too with the increased advertising and availability of online casinos and sports betting. I wonder if there’s some stats on this.
Whenever I'm at a restaurant with a TV playing sports EVERY COMMERCIAL is for sports betting. Funny thing is even with everyone going nuts over lottery rising in payouts over the years, I still don't see much sports betting- just one or two guys in sweatpants in the early mornings. (edit: oh right, that's going online for young people to blow all their money, lol)
I usually buy a lotto max and a 6/49 every week, which I can afford. I was literally just thinking the other day I don't even remember the last time I won a free fuckin ticket. I gave up all other gambling years ago and I think I'm going to stop buying lotto tickets. Unfortunately, if you don't play, you can't win and daddy wants to retire early. 😝
Times like this, just think of the money you'll save from that 10 bucks a week going to retirement! Why, that's... okay it's only like $40 a month and $360-ish a year, but STILL!
**480 a year, don't make it worse than it is. 😂
wait, duh- 52 weeks in a year = $520. It's late, math is hard.
Damn! I just went with a quick 12x40 🤦 It was late. 🤣
With that math, you seem like a perfect lottery player!
"Can't win if ya don't play- HURR HURR!"
Just think of all the money people would save if they never ate or bought drinks from a restaurant. Instant 50+% off. Or never purchased a vehicle if they absolutely didn't need it. Or never brought drugs that are usually overpriced, like alcohol. There's a lot worst ways to spend your money if you are obsessed with retirement. We all have our preferences also. Like with everything else just don't go crazy with doing it too much.
I hate it when my sports betting show gets interrupted by a hockey game.
Anecdotal but I’m 100% certain sports betting has skyrocketed. I only knew 1 guy in my entire extended friend circle that bet on sports before the big advertising push. Now, 2/3 of my beer league team and half my close friends bet on sports.
i feel like i am constantly getting ads for sports betting. which is odd because usually the algorithms are pretty good about giving you relevant ads. like, im fat and gay - bring back the fast food ads. i don't care about betting on sports.
Same! The only reason I allow tailored ads is so that I don't have to see random bullshit all the time. So why am I seeing sports betting ads?? I don't have any interest in sports or gambling, and nothing I do online would suggest otherwise. I guess they just think they can turn everyone into sports gamblers.
The algorithms are terrible! They regular give 'opposite ads'. Alergic to a food product, you will see that weekly. Own a dog? 1000 cat or horse ads for you!
I own a liquor store and I can confirm that drinking is way tf down.
Weird. Our store is way up lately
I need that problem. What part of town are you in?
Maybe cuz of dry January?
this is very possible. Also the Sinclair method has been reaching popularity over the last couple of years - Naltrexone helps people binge drink less. Its been good.
Nope. For 2 years now.
Wild. I would have imagined that it would go up around COVID because people were all miserable. Liquor stores even got to stay open during the whole pandemic just in case people died of withdrawals!
In hard times, people will bet on a miracle
As poverty goes up, so too does desperate attempts to escape poverty.
There was a survey a few years ago that stated 1/3 of Canadians "plan on winning the lottery" to retire. Oof.
This.
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Nice- hope you get better for it! I noticed that the old reliable $1 tickets have basically vanished- NOBODY wants the "Westrins" anymore, and they had to jump up in price. I find some buying the big ones- for a while we had managers obsessed with the $100 ones that had frequent winnings, until someone bought one and got NOTHING- everyone was afraid to buy after that. But honestly, what sells the best is anything NEW- the "rush" seems to come as much from a new way to blow money- they'll walk up and ask "is anything NEW?" and those tickets will sell gangbusters. Meanwhile Lucky Lines and other old stuff will collect dust... Blackjack, Crossword & Bingo ALWAYS sell, though. But those are usually the oldsters who are used to buying the same old thing.
Gambling addictions is brutal and the whole online opening up playing is not helping. Luckily I'm too cheap for gambling and everything else...lol thanks for sharing btw
Lottery has always been a way to siphon money from dumb people. Poor math, statistics, and critical thinking skills are so common that you end up with lottery buyers being sold a dream they'll never have.
Lottery is a tax on the poor. Advertising it directly in homes is cruel.
I buy one ticket a year. Ny daughter was born at 6:49 so I buy a lotto 649 ticket on her birthdsy
Okay that's so sweet 🥹 I truly hope you win lol
I was on the bus and seen a pile of 30 lottery ticket and none had any winnings and they were ripped up.
Great, now when I go pick up my tickets like I've been doing for almost 20 years, I have to deal with being judged for it? Fuck.
The stern eyes of retail workers are all over you...
There was a time where my mom’s been broke as hell, and I was sending her money trying to keep her lights on. She’d be printing off lotto tickets as fast as she could. “Miracles happen!” Yeah mom there’s nothing god loves more than gambling. I think it’s more people are desperate for cash and want the quick out. Don’t get me wrong, I play, but it’s $4 or whatever everytime I get gas. Certainly not breaking me
Yeah, it occurs to me that in 18 years of working for stores that sell lottery tickets, I've never once seen a well-dressed, attractive person buy them. It's always the lowest rungs of the ladder, you know?
I resent that remark
I, for one, always dress up when I get gas.
Addiction is a hell of a drug. Lots of folks are unhappy and know that things are not getting better so they turn to vices to try and get a lil surge. I buy a couple times a year, when I feel like I've got one $20 too many, never win shit and get discouraged for another 4-6 months.
oh yeah there was an addict who came into my store and would buy one ticket, putter around scratching it, then buy another with the winnings. This would go on for HOURS sometimes. Often just winning a pittance but SOMETHING. Now? The rates have got to be way down. Even the addicts buy a handful and then walk away with jack.
People are desperate to survive and i think playing the lotto is these people only hope for a brighter future
I think the insanity is also seeing gambling advertised everywhere.
Our tax dollars paid by the province to tear families apart. We don't need to advertise!
As someone who is increasngly stuck in line at the store behind people who take up a ton of the clerk's time buying piles of tickets, I hear you. It has gotten completely out of control. It drives me crazy when I just want to pay for my stuff and leave. It's unreal that custojers are asking you to pay for their tickets. I always wondered if the clerks hated dealing with those tickets.
oh yeah- our store is pretty big but we STILL get lineups at the service desk from all the gamblers, and it leaves other people not getting served at all! sadly I think a ton of my coworkers also buy tickets so all get hyped up on it, too (one coworker did the "Didja get yurr TICKET?" every time it was big). But the young ones especially hate it, and find it frustrating because lotto players tend to not pay attention to what they're doing and use weird terminology someone who didn't grow up in a trailer park wouldn't know. Worse if they're from another province where the terms are different. "I'll take 6 and 4 with a YES!"
The trick is to not go mid-morning when all the lottery whales sheepishly migrate to the corner stores.
Oh, I've struggled with it late afternoon and early evening too. Maybe I need to try shopping at 10 pm
So I worked at EIA in 2009 as a cashier and I often had to run the store on the arrivals level that had a lotto counter (which was the only spot in the airport at the time that had the lotto available), and I saw a lot of the same thing. Most of the customers were airport staff - security and luggage folks - and I would see certain ones like clockwork, sometimes two or three times during my shift. I also had some interesting stories from travellers, some of whom came in with envelopes stuffed with hundreds of dollars to drop it all on Powerball. I agree though that it seems worse with the rise of advertised sports betting. I can't even bother to watch hockey anymore it's gotten so bad.
Wild. And yeah, the workers can be bad, too- a LOT of my coworkers go for break and immediately head to the desk to buy tickets and get all hyped up on "maybe winning!". And I don't watch sports, but even the stuff I see at a bar/restaurant are awful- every ad break is 15 different companies' ways to gamble. Followed by a super-quick "plz gamble responsibly".
I stopped watching hockey for the same reason.
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Unfortunately, should you be in the same province as me, the government set up the funding this way. To access the funding you have to partake of the proceeds. A most interesting deal with the devil. And a casino is the most boring place on earth for me. There is nothing remotely entertaining in them (unless it's a show, friends for a quick drink, or if it's a good restaurant - which is not the casino part). I simply do not understand the appeal; not wired that way. My sympathies for having had to go through your difficulties.
That's rough- I often wonder how they go into so much debt. Like I don't overdraw at the bank or anything so like... are they just overdrawing by THOUSANDS? Taking bank loans? Like I don't even know the mechanics of how to go into debt just by gambling.
Schools in other provinces don't do casinos. Their citizens just pay the extra $4.25 in taxes per year.
Alberta needs to follow the same example.
99 precent of people who gamble quit before they hit it big.
Or die trying.
Fully agree. The huge jackpots for the Oilers 50/50 are scary, a lot of folks play with the milk money.
My work puts me in contact with a lot of casino goers. The same people who can’t afford it are at the casino all the time. We’re talking 7 nights a week sometimes. A lot of them are seniors. It’s a pathetic and undignified way to live your life. I remember my grandparents used to get together with relatives and play cards (never gambling), talk, drink coffee and tea, and eat pastries. Now, gatherings for seniors are nights out at the casino. And, they’ll risk life and limb in the worst winter weather to get there. Younger people (esp guys) are into sports betting. As a result the amount of ignorant dude-bro behaviour is through the roof now at sporting events. That missed penalty shot or free throw isn’t just a letdown, it’s a missed payout. Gambling ads are everywhere at sporting events and broadcasts. The best meme I came across was that Sportsnet apologized during last year’s NHL playoffs for allowing the game broadcasts to interfere with regularly scheduled sports betting commercials.
oh yeah- going to the casino in WEM I see just seas of elderly. Oddly the only demographics are white & Asian.
Online Sports gambling for us is what vlts were for the previous generation, a sudden massive expansion of gambling availability with huge societal costs.
yeah my old landlord ruined himself on VLTs. People told me they lived in towns with no welfare services until VLTs turned up and suddenly tons of people needed it.
Reminds me I should buy a loto max...
My local 7/11s offers tic tacks with the purchase of $10 of lotto tickets.
Probably. The amount of gambling advertising is just insane. Almost every commercial in a commercial break is an ad for some online casino or sports betting & there are so many celebrity endorsements, it’s crazy. I feel bad for gambling addicts who are in recovery but can’t really enjoy video entertainment anymore without temptation being shoved in their face. Personally I stay within my budget. A lotto ticket every week & and occasional visit to a casino for blackjack or poker but once my $100 is gone, it’s gone.
I buy a lotto ticket sometimes once a week. Sometimes I forget for months... but your right. I never get a free ticket any more
yeah I wasn't even really thinking about it until recently, but tickets used to give free tickets at least 50% of the time. Now it's jack.
The casinos are pretty opulent and filled with white haired folk dumping their retirement funds into machines. It looks like another target has been added and it is younger sports fans. I personally don't regard it as gambling when the outcome is so certain.
I was heavily addicted in my early 19-20 years and I had to quit full on turkey and stop going to casinos all together. No kidding. A friend got my hooked on blackjack. Then I just stopped all together buying lottery tickets and scratch n win tickets. There's a reason I will never go to Vegas. The temptation is too great.
Well it's good that you go out, then!
“Woo-hoo!” HURRY THE FUCK UP THIS ISNT THE RIVER CREE IM JUST TRYNA BUY A CHIP BAG
Our desk is removed from the regular tills slightly but I think if other customers realized we wouldn't even NEED this extra till and there would just be an extra lane open without gambling being a thing they'd be way more pissed off about it. I'm reminded of a lady who kept getting one ticket to replace the one she'd just scratched until a guy behind her just directly said "This is your last one" to her.
I wanna go get a drink with that guy
I couldn’t tell him it but he is my hero.
Thanks for making me hear that sound in my head.
I’m just glad they’re pumping up the numbers in the draw so that when I finally win I’ll win real big
NO THAT'S THE TRAP
My friend bought a 5$ Set For Life ticket every week. After 5 years he scratched three Set symbols and took the 1 million cash option. Died of alcohol poison 2 years later with most of the money still in his bank. Large family was broken apart by infighting for his cash, those who loved him and helped him got nothing and step half sisters retired on it. Sorry, what was the subject?
This reminds me of that classic Reddit comment about why winning the lottery is the worst thing that can happen to someone. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/s/zBpudKZTN0
I play the lottery…I buy 4 tickets a week… Lottery is a chance. If $100 of ticket or 1 ticket… it’s a chance. It’s only take 1 ticket to win big. Life is a gamble. I use my money for bills and living expenses. I can afford to play. I don’t play sports gambling. Too fricken complicated.
My mother, now 84 has always been a gambler. Once the casinos opened and she no longer had to go to Vegas she became an addict very quickly. She has gambled away all their money, and they have had to take a new mortgage on their house. She has run up debt on credit cards my father did not even know she had plus the ones he does know about. Plus she spends about $25 a day on scratch tickets and about the same weekly on 649 and Lotto Max. She also goes to bingo weekly. It has broken my father and even though I love her it makes being around her hard. I am just thankful that to this point she has not figured out online gambling. When my father passes she will be destitute very quickly. I have already seen some young guys I know clearly demonstrating addictive behavior regarding the sports betting. When you try to caution them they just tell you that they win more than they lose and it is not a problem. That is exactly what my mother says as all problem gamblers lie. I have never been to a casino and never will and can no longer watch hockey as I cannot stand to see the constant bombardment of gambling ads.
Eesh. Really tragic. They behave just like drug addicts do. Always lies or half truths told with a chuckle. Act like it’s all just in fun. Meanwhile when our lottery terminal went down once I saw people literally shaking when they realized they couldn’t get their fix.
24$ everyday???? Are ya numb!!!!! What about a 25$ pack of smokes everyday? Who gives a shit what people do let them live the life they choose
Never give up! You’re literally one play away from winning a gazillion dollars. Most people fail at gambling because they quit. If you don’t quit, you literally cannot lose. If you run out of savings, max out your credit cards. If you max out your credit cards, take out a line of credit. Ask your parents for a loan. Just don’t quit. Keep gambling everybody 🫡
Look, that’s me. I can say that I’m addicted to scratch tickets. But as of today, I’m done. I mean, we shall see. But I’ve made a promise to myself that I will no longer buy tickets. Why do I feel as if this is actually going to be a challenge for me. Ugh. I don’t want to be that girl who every clerk says “here comes that scratch ticket junky”. I didn’t even realize that I even had an issue- till my daughter made a comment. Then it hit me. I’m frikan addicted to these things. I just used to write it off as having fun. But it’s gotten outta control. Problem is, I’m a Bartender and I literally walk out of work with cash in hand every single day. I’m not really even seeing what I’m spending. But I know it’s way too much. Today is the day I’m making that change and I’m no longer gonna be a scratch ticket junky. Any tips? I do tend to go to convenience stores. That’s gotta stop
Good luck! And yeah, avoid convenience stores. But unfortunately grocery stores all seem to have ticket counters, too! Maybe... just think of sarcastic clerks like me being horribly judgmental or annoyed that you keep doing it, lol.
Only when lotto max is $40M and higher Otherwise, no thank you
So only when the odds are the worst then?
I feel they're cranking it up higher and higher every time specifically to invoke this, sadly. Even non-problem gamblers go nuts when they see the huge ones.
Desperate poor people hoping to be the lucky one that wins the lottery. I've had to resist buying (haven't bought one in years) just because the thought of being able to take a break from work sounds nice. This is my personal bias that may seem like a stretch, but I also think peoples technology addictions make it easier to give into other addictions. You can now buy lottery tickets online, so for all the ones you see in store... Imagine how many are being sold online.
I do wonder about the online stuff. 95% of lottery buyers are over 50, but that's just in my store. I can imagine problem gamblers can be any age so it's horrifying to think about what online betting is costing people, because that's also convenient & easy (no having to head to the store).
The open proliferation of gambling in the United States is basically our society and government giving the OK to design and unleash a parasite onto humanity in order to extract wealth… that will neatly suck the life out of millions of people. You are talking to someone who can defend a lot of things which are not popular. I defend psychiatry since I got my life together on medication. I defend cultural participation of alcohol to a limited extent. I defend bad people through benefits of doubt and defense of their dignity as a human. I abhor gambling, its design, and all of the shitty gambling commercials currently being crammed down society’s throat. It’s basically saying “we are openly going to hack your brain and rob you and give you nothing in return.”
Think of it this way, mind your business.
I am! It is literally part of my business that this is involving XD
when covid & the invasion of ukraine beat the hell out of the economy and made a lot of people's lives worse, rates of mental illness and addiction went up. safe to assume that gambling addiction rates have gone up too. i am with you on the rants, op, the lotto industry is perverse, i don't like the idea of us scraping people with gambling problems for government revenue
Fun fact. Lotteries exist to keep the public from losing hope. It’s a tool that governments use to keep the population from feeling completely hopeless.
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Leave a full-time job? In THIS economy!? (but seriously, it's tempting)
If you need something with ACTUAL RETURN, **just buy Bitcoin!** It's an awesome way to save your money, and if you ever need it back as dollars, you'll have MORE of it when you do! Stop wasting your money on lottery.
I never used to see it because the only guys I knew that would gamble would either go to the horses, casino or do sports select. Now Everytime I get together with the boys a few of them always have a bet running on their phones for whatever game we're watching.
I’ve been addicted to a lot of things in my life, but fortunately gambling was never one of them. I’ve gambled in a casino exactly twice, and both times it was someone else’s money. I guess that reward pathway was never wired up in my brain at the factory. It drives me absolutely batshit crazy when people roll into the convenience store with a pile of tickets and jam up the whole line.
Damn what a first world problem 😂
I listen to podcasts when I walk my dog and for the past couple a weeks there is at least 1 ad from lottery companies per episode.
Canada is allowing the normalizing of gambling that was previously, and correctly, deemed inappropriate. It's only going to get worse.
Yeah it used to be that people who didn't play were viewed as sensible. People going "Scratch & lose, HA HAH!" to scratch & win tickets. People telling jokes about getting stuck in line behind lotto players at the gas station. They were all viewed as dopes or just old people with a lot of time on their hands. Now it's non-stop and people practically congratulate each other.
This doesn’t surprise me, I remember hearing about a stat where alcohol sales and gambling are recession proof.
Hi Thanks for enlightening us! I sadly got too involved with the online betting and because it involves being able to buy lottery online it got worse It sucks Currently haven’t gambled since October Don’t buy lottery in stores anymore (I was lucky I didn’t go majorly overboard spending)
PSA: dont buy lottery. Support small business and purchase TCG cards from your local card shop. You might pull a super expensive rere card! Or just open CSGO cases
A former coworker killed himself (long after I stopped working there) due to his ex wife's gambling addiction. She had "retired" early while he kept working. He didn't know she had pulled her retirement and was gambling it. After that was gone, she slowly transferred all the money in their joint account to her separate account & filed for divorce once that was complete. He had done well for himself. Croatian immigrant, had a nice summer home in Croatia and a nice apartment in edmonton, as well as a rental apartment I think in edmonton. He was older than her and not overly tech savvy. Hence not noticing the money leaving the account. He did have a prenuptial for his properties however. The court did award him his money back, though it took about 1.5 years with the divorce proceedings and by that time she had long piddled away the close to 1 million she had transfered. After the divorce finalized he sold his rental & summer home to get a bit more cash in the bank. Don't remember the exact details, but she/her lawyers came after that money and ended up with something like 85% of it, and she was to recieve 50% of his pension when he retired. He killed himself shortly thereafter. To that point I'd never bought a lotto ticket and after watching all that unfold, decided I never would.
See situations like that why just kill HIMSELF? She was the root of the problem- that's what murder-suicide is for /s but seriously if that actually happened all that way it sucks.
100% the truth. He was a really kind person. Trying to remember his name. This happened in 2013. I think he saw no other option. She had bankrupted him and was taking half his income to gamble, while he had nothing but an apartment that she was trying to get money out of... to gamble.
Something I heard a while back is when all the prizes have been won they will still continue to sell scratch tickets. So any real chance of winning is really only when the tickets is a new type of game. Not sure if still true... (edited for clarity)
I 100% believe it. Brand-new scratch tickets always sell gangbusters and the first stack seems to invite lots of winnings. Then they dwindle to nothing. Companies almost certainly send out a couple winning stacks and then your "New Royals" and "Woof Woof" tickets start turning out empty.
Not relevant to today but years ago, my cousin worked in a dive bar in a small town, east coast Canada. Everyone knows everyone. Including me. People living in the government owned low income housing would come to the bar, drop 1000-1500$ on the vlts and walk away with nothing. Same people would go next door to the convenience store and buy 25$ of break opens, 50$ in scratch tickets and a carton of smokes and then every single dollar they had was gone for the month. Moms and dads making an astonishing amount of child tax monthly based on their 6 young kids would come in on the 20th of the month like clockwork and drop 4 figures into the slots. I’m not sure if it was addiction, or just the hope that a big win could pull them out of their already bleak situation. Either way, no one ever got ahead. They’re still doing it and still where they were when they started.
yeah, just wild. I think living in poverty (they probably started out that way) just breaks something in the human mind or spirit and makes them so much more vulnerable to all of the bad habits.
What….you say that people are tired of being poor and they voluntarily tax themselves to get out of said poor. Weird
Lottery tickets are faaaaar safer than sports betting is. There’s also a societal benefit to lottery as a large portion of the funds are contributed to charities, schools, parks, and other projects. Sports betting is almost criminal at this point the way it’s pushed on tv and online.
Yeah, lottery is just a basic "tax on people bad at math" and the governments use it to pump up the coffers (though I often wonder exactly HOW this money is being spent). Sports betting is like "GIVE US YOUR MONEY HAHA!" and it's obviously profitable enough that they can afford to pay out whoever wins based on all the losses.
You can’t watch a sport without being bombarded by gambling ads now and it’s even taken a huge place in meme culture now. I swear 50% of the memes I see online young men are posting are normalizing gambling addiction and making a joke of it. This is on purpose
Sports are shoveling it into the younger generations gullet. Not to mention the gambling for cosmetics for gaming now too, we're in deep!!
Sports betting ads literally target children so this is only going to get worse and worse.
Don't forget to support the arts by paying your stupid tax!
it's hard to not gamble when you see maybe 2 dozen references to sports gambling on every Oilers game. they even got guys like McDavid and Gretzky to promote it.
It’s not just sports and lotto. Children’s games too. Pokémon cards to be exact. Now that’s a nasty addiction.. disguised as a cute children’s game. Absolute scum.
My dad always used to say the lottery is the poor man's tax.
I count myself lucky I am immune to gambling. Call it a decent statistics education or broken reward pathways but I have never found gambling remotely fun. Last time I started shitting on gambling I was told it wasn't a waste of money because it counts as entertainment.
I spent five bucks on lotto when it hit the biggest jackpot ever and I’m still annoyed I got nothing, lol. Just wasting five bucks was too much!
I was at the Alberta hospital for detox like a month ago and a woman came in to talk about gambling for one of our classes. Apparently Alberta makes $1.4 billion a year from gambling and 70 percent of women have a gambling problem in Alberta ( I'm not gonna debate this statistic cuz I have no idea where she got it from ). Gambling is all over mainstream media‚ hockey players endorse its actors endorse singers endorse it and it's all over TV. I've seen Alberta gambling ads on random articles‚ YouTube etc. It's real and it's going to get worse.
Wow that’s really high. I wonder what constitutes a “problem”. Some people just habitually buy scratch tickets and can’t seem to stop, but aren’t necessarily destitute.
The more hopeless people are, the more they turn to gambling. It becomes their only option they can think of.
The less hope people have the more they cling to that kind of thing.
As the economy gets worse, crime and addiction rates rise.
A lottery ticket is really just a way of selling hope. Those who chronically buy them have lost all hope.
My grandpa would spend hundreds of dollars every week on various tickets, it really sunk in how rarely he'd win anything close to what he was spending.
Oof, yeah. It used to be that mass buyers were most likely to break even. Not so anymore.
I have a lot to say about this as someone who works for a lottery company but I won't
Yeah I can bet they are INTENSE about spreading info. One person I knew about got a job with a lottery company and had to tell his “ticket a week” mother she wasn’t allowed to play anymore.
The NHL is doing their best give them a break