The Elaborate, Dying Art of Hustling for Money at Dave and Buster's

It was really interesting and I was actually able to build up a bankroll that I learned to play poker with, and then played poker to put myself through graduate school. (Poker is always plus EV if you are at the right table for the right amount of time)

But, wow, was there ever a lot of grinding. People putting in 24+ hour long sessions playing video poker during specials, people counting cards for hours to push small edges with an amount of variance that would kill the average person's emotions, etc.

Internet casinos changed the game a little bit because the really serious people went towards automating play and establishing many fake identities to claim new player bonuses with, my first exposure to people running many computers through multiple VPNs, etc which to me started to push the line away from advantage play and towards criminal activity.

But, often times the online casinos were just as shady. More than once a fabulous bonus was offered, the casino stayed open for a few weeks, and then magically while they were "processing withdrawals" they just disappeared off the face of the earth.

As they said, "A hard way to make an easy living"

Arcade games aren't controlled by a gaming commission like slot machines. There's nothing to stop one of the engineers who works on the machine from putting in a tell for themself and then exploiting it after work.

I knew a man who made a living at the slots in Vegas before everything was computerized, with a small team of guys who watched the machines, and knew when to play them.

When I was younger, there was one mechanical game you'd find in arcades, again, before it all was computerized, that I had gotten good at. I'd win the jackpot every time, within $5.00 of play. I recall finding it in the back corner of an Arcade, again in Vegas, in the mid-90s. Nobody ever played it, apparently, because the jackpot was huge. 5 dollars later, and the people who worked there were handing me rolls of tickets. But that is the last time I ever saw it.

Now, with everything computerized, it does feel less interesting to me. You aren't just using skills and competing with physics. You are competing with software that is affecting the outcome. Even on the games that look mechanical, their parts can have adjustments made to their speeds and motion that means you have some loss of control.

At the end of the day, though, these games are supposed to be about entertainment. You spend some money, you have some fun, get a prize or two, the business makes some money and everyone gets to keep doing it.

Or at least "this is why arcade prizes are so shitty for kids", because adults like these are trying to game the system to make a living. They arcades have to push difficulties and lower the worth of their prizes specifically because of people like this, and they make it worse for everyone else. It's a real shame.