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I really enjoyed the work sport and social club Casino night. Upon entry, we were given fake money for 200 units, to be transformed into chips at any of the casino type games and played. I ended up playing at the poker table, doing a version of poker that I've not played before. And I learned whilst playing, with input from the dealer as to how it worked. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and in a couple of hours, had comfortably nearly tripled my original stake.
But, had I been playing with anything approximating real currency, all of my enjoyment would have been ruined. I truly don't understand why gambling takes hold of people. Whilst there was no risk, I was nicely relaxed and feeling good. With the introduction of risk, I would have been tense, nervous and actually probably slightly nauseous or tearful. I say probably with the latter two, because it's my normal reaction to adrenaline in any real quantity. I'm obviously far more a flight than fight personality, under the influence of adrenaline. So, if I'm producing adrenaline, I'm stressing myself and probably producing cortisol eventually too. Which isn't good for my health, so far as I know - certainly it produces nasty crunchiness in my neck and tension knots in my muscles. And yes, whilst I'm not tied to money for money's sake, I appreciate its role in providing me with home, sustenance and entertainment and am probably hideously conservative with it in order to provide for eventualities. That attitude has stood me in fairly good stead, since even when unemployed, I did have a reasonably large fall back position, which fortunately wasn't tested too hard.
Additionally, I've studied statistics fairly extensively and understand that for most gambling games, either the game is pure chance, the chances of your winning are lower than the chances of losing, or the 'house' cut is going to erode any pot that you might win. I'm not sure whether everyone actually truly comprehends the nature of chance in that way, so maybe that's a factor in managing to get hooked on gambling. But maybe the deciding factor is those people that enjoy adrenaline, that get the euphoric feeling that I've heard about but not really experienced. And those for whom money is less or more than the convenient common denominator for exchanging labour/goods that is the mark of our society? I don't really know; I'd appreciate input.
But, had I been playing with anything approximating real currency, all of my enjoyment would have been ruined. I truly don't understand why gambling takes hold of people. Whilst there was no risk, I was nicely relaxed and feeling good. With the introduction of risk, I would have been tense, nervous and actually probably slightly nauseous or tearful. I say probably with the latter two, because it's my normal reaction to adrenaline in any real quantity. I'm obviously far more a flight than fight personality, under the influence of adrenaline. So, if I'm producing adrenaline, I'm stressing myself and probably producing cortisol eventually too. Which isn't good for my health, so far as I know - certainly it produces nasty crunchiness in my neck and tension knots in my muscles. And yes, whilst I'm not tied to money for money's sake, I appreciate its role in providing me with home, sustenance and entertainment and am probably hideously conservative with it in order to provide for eventualities. That attitude has stood me in fairly good stead, since even when unemployed, I did have a reasonably large fall back position, which fortunately wasn't tested too hard.
Additionally, I've studied statistics fairly extensively and understand that for most gambling games, either the game is pure chance, the chances of your winning are lower than the chances of losing, or the 'house' cut is going to erode any pot that you might win. I'm not sure whether everyone actually truly comprehends the nature of chance in that way, so maybe that's a factor in managing to get hooked on gambling. But maybe the deciding factor is those people that enjoy adrenaline, that get the euphoric feeling that I've heard about but not really experienced. And those for whom money is less or more than the convenient common denominator for exchanging labour/goods that is the mark of our society? I don't really know; I'd appreciate input.
