After 50 plus years of hanging around pool rooms, card rooms, any place you could gamble, knowing big gamblers and little gamblers , smart people and suckers , Cheaters and experts
There are not many winners.
I have only seen a couple of people out of the thousands and thousands of gamblers I have met whos life style did not affect their children or family or parents in a negative way.
The worst examples were surprisingly not the losers , it was the guys who were "slick" and made money at it.
No matter how hard some of them tried , most didn't try at all , but a few did , to keep their business from their kids , eventually, the kids tried to be like dad.
Most ended up trying to fill shoes that were way bigger in their minds{and in the dads minds} than in reality and when they failed , they went to drugs, alcohol , suicide or prison, to escape.
The best gambler I ever met had three children and a wife, 2 went to prison all 4 became dope addicts and the 3 kids all died very young from drugs.
He was always very anti drugs and alcohol. {Go figure}
I used to gamble and one day I realised I didn't like the guy I was when I gambled , I started looking for that change in other people and guess what , everyone I have watched changes when they gamble, with some people it is almost imperceptable , until they get stuck real bad or get in a bad game.
It's there though if you look and listen .
Gambling is a vice and every vice has to be paid for in my mind.
If you don't pay for it , someone you know will.
One poster said he was the type gambler most people would call a nit,
He is the majority of gamblers everywhere, they hear about someone turning a toothpick into a lumberyard and chase that dream all their lives.
{ I did it too}
I chased a guy they called stutterman for almost 2 years until one day my wife said I was like a prostitute to him and the idea of winning his money, I almost got sick that she would feel that way about me.
Once I thought about it , she was right, that's exactly how I was acting.
To me , the worst that could happen is that you actually do score big.
I have seen about a dozen people in 50 years make big scores and all but 1 I know for sure ended up real bad.
I think all the one lost was his family. {to some people that is a small price to pay }.
We all have one finite resource we are born with, our time.
Everything in this world takes up your time.
We are all free to spend it however we choose for the most part.
I wish I could get back all the time I spent on barstools and in poolrooms and card rooms, I can't , so I can only hope someone younger who reads this understands what I am trying to say .
Enjoy life , there is nothing wrong with playing pool or cards or having a beer, just don't give your whole life to it like so many of us have.
When you toss the gambling illusion in there , it's just another reason to not be able to walk away.