Man this article is sad. Being addicted to gambling really does suck the life out you.
Maybe go see a movie instead.
We are seeing similar with sports betting and marijuana in the US. Less than ten years ago, these were major crimes basically everywhere. Now, in large swaths of the country, you can't drive a mile without seeing a billboard for one or the other. Making them illegal again is not the answer, but we don't seem to have a standard way of shading things like this in any meaningful way.
(By the way, I'm not against people smoking a little weed or betting on football, but plenty of people do get momentum with both and it can have harmful effects for them. I believe the industries pushing both behaviors are in large part profiting off this small group of heavy "users". )
Why is this an argument? So push it underground. As a rule, old folks aren't going to take their pensions to Fast Freddy's strip club backroom poker nights. People think that because a law doesn't work 100 percent, it shouldn't exist.
Banning subsidized travel to casino’s alone would go quite far. Similarly banning slot machines from having sound, flashing lights, animations etc would reduce though obviously not eliminate the draw.
Trivially so. People with gambling addictions don't wind up as old folks with pensions.
True
But we can regulate it
We can limit the damage
My fear is that there's no great way to outlaw predatory casinos that pick the pockets of the poor, that still allows responsible home games and private clubs. A lot of US states try/tried various ways, with rules about who can take a rake and so on, but it's difficult to make them ironclad and casinos are highly motivated to find loopholes and operate a millimeter from the edge of the law. And if you get too strict, suddenly you've criminalized grandma's $0.25 bingo game with the ladies.
And yet apparently there is something about gambling with real-life consequences that is very attractive to oh so many people who (again, apparently) can not replicate the similar experience in a less life-ruining way, so they return to gamble again and again?
Is this ‘a gambler’? Addict, risk taker or similar?
Does the word have to denote (literally mean) that the person is emotionally excited and engaged at the same time? If so, then perhaps "a daredevil", "hotheaded", "impetuous", "impulsive" or "rash".
There are a lot of close words like "reckless" or "irresponsible" which are often used when the person is excited, but technically they don't require it. Someone can be quite reckless while also half-asleep doing something they don't personally care about.
I think degen is the common term that used here. It's short for degenerate.
Sir, I think you mixed up your HN account with 4Chan...
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/degenerate#Adjective
>(of a gambler) Addictive or compulsive.
The best I can come up with is "adrenaline junky", but that isn't specific to gambling; I feel like people use that to refer to people who like base jumping or something.
In contrast, "junky" is an adjective to describe a generally bad state or quality. "Junky adrenaline" is probably medical waste.
Ex: "It's not safe to travel in a junky car driven by a junkie. Worse still to sail on a junkie's junky junk."
action player — This is fairly neutral, and describes what I think you mean. Someone who likes to gamble. Sometimes these players are really bad, sometimes they are only sort of bad. These players make bank when playing against weak players who overfold and aren’t willing to gamble.
VIP — This is a polite way to say “donator”. Many/most action players are VIPs. Their attitude is that they can gamble in the pits or gamble at the poker table, and often times the poker table presents less bad (or even good) odds when compared to the house.
LAGtard — LAG is short for “loose aggressive”. LAG can be a very profitable style, especially when deep stacked. That said, LAGtards tend to play the style badly.
spewy — describes someone who puts a lot of chips into the pot, often times in questionable spots. Noun form is “spewtard”.