how do you handle a friend on tilt gambling away his $$ till its gone?

[Easy E]

[ QUOTE ]
i try to talk him out of it and just swallow the loss...i dropped 60 bux and didnt care to lose anymore.

...he insists the machine is ice cold (which it was) and is due for a big hot streak now.

....he has the gleam in his eyes that he aint leaving until he made back all his $$.

At this point i give up and leave him alone, and tell him i'll be playing 25c video poker a couple of rows over.

An hour later i dropped another 80 just waiting for him to finish.

he wasted 3 days of profits from his families restaurant he runs,

He is not a degenerate gambler, he goes to casino quite rearely, but when he goes, he thinks he has to stay and keep playing until he hits a jackpot or go broke.

He'll laugh about it a couple of days from now, but while its happenening hes a whole different person.

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Both of you have control issues and shouldn't be playing in a casino.

And for what it's worth, He is not a degenerate gambler YET,

[Easy E]

<font color="blue">What the hell is a non-degenerate gambler when you're playing with the worst of it? </font>

Being a disadvantage gambler doesn't make you a degenerate. It's when you don't control your bankroll and tilt off money when losing that you could be at risk for degeneracy

[sekrah]

I'm talking about full-blown, all out hammered here. I cannot handle myself.

I rarely get drunk at the poker table..

[MicroBob]

I agree with telling him that you won't go back there with him again.


I don't get the part about him getting mad at you for not pulling him away sooner.
Sounds like you gave it a reasonable try to say "okay dude. we're done. let's go home." and then he would get all pissy at you and stuff another $200 in there.

This dude has a SERIOUS problem. And it's possible that he goes to this place more than you are aware of and loses more than you know about.
Seriously...do you KNOW that this guy only goes there rarely??

Anyway...don't go back again. Tell him it was REALLY uncomfortable for you. Tell him you think he should never go back there because he was REALLY out of control and it wasn't even close. Tell him that he was like a different freaking person and that he had this bizarre look in his eye that you had never seen before when he was all pissed off at you for trying to call it a night...and that you were truly surprised at hoe weirdly psycho he got when he so forcefully insisted on staying and putting another $200 in there.



Perhaps another option would be to tell him that the ONLY way you will go back there with him again is if he leaves his wallet and bank-cards behind and only takes $200 with him (and if he agrees to play the table minimums so that his night can last longer....he will either win $100 to $200 or lose $100 to $200 and he will take as long as possible to do it).
But I still think it's probably best if you take the other strategy of flat-out telling him "dude....that was REALLY uncomfortable and you REALLY have some sprt of a problem. I am NOT going to take part in something like that with you again."

It was time to drag him out of the casino when he started playing Pick A Number Between 1 and 10, Guess Which Hand, Rock-Paper-Scissors, and War.

Seriously, though, some people just won't learn until they learn the hard way. To quote Citizen Kane: "Anybody else, I'd say what's gonna happen to you would be a lesson to you. Only you're gonna need more than one lesson. And
you're gonna get more than one lesson." Unfortunately, some of those lessons are very costly.

[bholdr]

[ QUOTE ]
Ask him EXACTLY how you should handle this situation in the future. After he explains, tell him you will follow his instructions RUTHLESSLY so ask him AGAIN if this is what he REALLY wants. Then follow your orders soldier!!!

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this sounds like the right approach, though i would say that your buddy should adopt some kind of stop-loss strategy, like only bringing $300 with him and no cards, etc.

he may or may not be a problem gambler, but i'd make sure that he takes a look at the wizzardofodds.com and understands that ALL of his gambling is -EV. it doesn't seem like he gets this.

[PokerPaul]

Yes he did makie me feel a bit uncomfortable, not to mention the rest of the evening being a downer after that.

But i do know him pretty well, and i can tell you he does not go to casino that often, cuz he is always working. He has like 3 jobs and family with 3 kids and quite rarely actually has time to go out.

He doesnt really always want to go to casino either..its just when he goes...he goes on tilt.

Although, i should add that the previous 3 times i went with him, each time he did hit a jackpot at a slot machine..each between 1300 and 2200. He thought i was his good luck charm, and one of those times, it was almost same scenario, he was losing bill after bill, with me trying to get him to stop.....and then BOOM, jackpot, and everyone was happy.

Maybe he thought along the same lines again.

Yeah, your friend fell prey to the "intermittent rewards" trap when he lucked out on those earlier jackpots. Like the mice in the experiment, he keeps feeding the machine, waiting for the cheese that comes way too infrequently.

[drewjustdrew]

[ QUOTE ]
Although, i should add that the previous 3 times i went with him, each time he did hit a jackpot at a slot machine..each between 1300 and 2200. He thought i was his good luck charm, and one of those times, it was almost same scenario, he was losing bill after bill, with me trying to get him to stop.....and then BOOM, jackpot, and everyone was happy.

Maybe he thought along the same lines again.


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This is a very common pattern with problem gamblers. In the distant past, I could be accused of the same thought processes.

I believe your friend is guilty of questions 7 and 9 on the Gamblers anonymous questionnaire (I am guilty of 10 questions and don't think I have a problem, so take it with a grain of salt, or consider me a problem gambler, whatever).

Survey

[PokerPaul]

thanks for the reply.

I will try to forward that link to my friend.

For kicks i took it myself, even though i don't "gamble", but i used poker to analyze instead and got a score of 6.

says i don't have a gambling problem, but it does have a limited amount of control in my life