Straddling - a smart play?

[Swax]

I apologize if this should go in another forum - I haven't seen a lot of live play chat here...but I'm hoping that some of the reliables in here might help me out.

I recently discovered a live $3/$6 game around here that is such a fish pond that it's almost difficult to believe it even exists. 80% of the people see the flop, no one ever raises...ridiculous.

However, I have noticed that once in a while, while UTG, one of these minnows will pull a straddle - which, I gathered, entails UTG putting double the big blind (or 1 big bet) in before looking at his cards, but then gives him the right to act last in subsequent betting rounds.

So it basically functions as an UTG preflop raise that shifts the button for that hand over one position - except you may be raising with absolute junk.

Now, this play is certainly a bad one for these people who have no concept of how to use position. They were citing things like "I had a hunch and wanted to get more money in the pot" for doing it, which should tip you to their poker IQ's (god I love this place!).

However, have any of you good players tried this in a low limit casino game or anything like that? Is it +EV to put in a 1BB bet blind in order to take the positional advantage? Thoughts?