I’m not referring to the people who gamble once in a blue moon. I’m talking about those who gamble habitually.
How come they’re all such garbage people, with legitimately no exceptions? Take a look at any high-stakes poker table and everyone except maybe the dealer is a de-facto scumbag.
why are most people pice of shits? because they’re miserable. I can speak from experience.
One of my friends supported himself by playing poker while he was studying. He’s a cool guy.
Addicts? I think that’s separate from gambling, but anyone who does it obsessively to the point it makes them a “piece of shit” is is an addict. And it’s an expensive addiction.
I met a guy who had been a pro poker player for years and he was ok, just a person. He quit while he was ahead. I think you do have to be ok with lying to be good at poker, but other than that I don’t think your universal rule holds.
You take that back about Kenny Rodgers!!
I get what you’re saying about gambling and pieces of shit, but you also say, “but not THIS kind of gambler.” I used to play a ton of online poker, but there was no real money. I WAS gambling, and there were in-game prizes and prestige to win, but I think we’d both agree that probably doesn’t make me a piece of shit.
So, let’s put a finer point in it.
A would say that gambling is ESPECIALLY ATTRACTIVE to pieces of shit. The idea of getting rich by doing nothing, is going to sound REALLY good to the same people who would run a scam on your grandma. Throw in the fact that deception is a key element of poker, and you’ve created a game that gives an advantage to con men.
You’re probably right that you’d find a higher percentage of pieces of shit in a group of gamblers when compared to non gamblers, but It’s not the gambling that makes them shitty, they already were, and if gambling didn’t exist, they’d probably just be finding other ways to scam their way to riches.
I think it’s probable that gambling, or any other habit that strongly activates certain reward pathways to the extent that it can form an addiction, would change your behaviour patterns in broader ways.
Almost all characteristics are both nature and nurture, and frequent gambling could change the balance of your personality.
One of my colleagues is a former professional poker player and he seems well adjusted to me. He was between jobs and is good at maths/bluffing so spent around a year playing poker tournaments. I suppose the difference with poker is that you are playing against other people as opposed to the house so you have better odds if you are good (although the house has a rake which takes some of the money staked each round).
And, as you said, your friend has the skills to shift his experience from games of chance towards games of skill.
Back when I was a student I also knew fellow students that would play online poker for beer money. Basically there is a dominant strategy for each hand you have, so if you’ve got 4 or 5 games being played concurrently then ultimately you’ll end up coming out in profit.
These were just philosophy students too, not mathematicians. I wonder why more people don’t do something similar. Maybe it requires more self control than you’d expect to stick to the “rules” of the strategy.
