<story><title>To make a fortune, target bored young men who want to make a fortune</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/gambling-young-men-sports-betting-crypto-meme-stock-market-addiction-2024-4</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Verdex</author><text>There was an old Casino parody film from the mid 90s (iirc Mafia!).&lt;p&gt;Anyway, they had a scene where they were showing the different games that were being played in the casino.  Things like a bunch of Saudi princes playing an extremely high stakes game of Candyland, etc.&lt;p&gt;One of the games was called the black hole or something like that.  Anyway, people would step up to the table and the guy working the table would just sweep up their money into a hole and tell them they lost.  It had a constant stream of people walking up to the table to lose money.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s more or less the mental model that I use for gambling.</text></item><item><author>jjice</author><text>As a mid-twenties man, I see this constantly among my friends.&lt;p&gt;It started a few years ago when sports betting was legalized in my home state and when I was at a bar before Thanksgiving to see some friends, half of them were watching a basketball game involving teams they&amp;#x27;ve never cared about. They showed me that they were betting some wild parlays to hit on this game they had no interest in watching otherwise. They showed me that the apps keep track of your net earnings (I assume this is a legal requirement) and _all_ of them were in the negative between $400 and $800. Keep in mind that these are young men who just graduated college and we were all pretty broke.&lt;p&gt;Flash forward, a lot of them still sports bet regularly with regular losses. I live in a different state now, but a group of my friends around here recently go into going to a casino near by. I was blown away by the justifications on their gambling habits. &amp;quot;I usually win&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;I only gamble what I come in with&amp;quot;, but the latter isn&amp;#x27;t true and I&amp;#x27;ve seen it with my own eyes. I met up with them (not to gamble, but to see a friend), and thirty minutes in one of them was asking the other for $40 so he could &amp;quot;win it all back&amp;quot; at the roulette table.&lt;p&gt;It blows my mind. We know so well that gambling is a losing battle. Some can have fun and call it the price of fun, but it&amp;#x27;s such a slippery slope to find yourself losing way more than you intended.&lt;p&gt;Anecdotally, I notice that the women in my life gamble less.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wmanley</author><text>Found it: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=0VFgzneS0Dw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=0VFgzneS0Dw&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>To make a fortune, target bored young men who want to make a fortune</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/gambling-young-men-sports-betting-crypto-meme-stock-market-addiction-2024-4</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Verdex</author><text>There was an old Casino parody film from the mid 90s (iirc Mafia!).&lt;p&gt;Anyway, they had a scene where they were showing the different games that were being played in the casino.  Things like a bunch of Saudi princes playing an extremely high stakes game of Candyland, etc.&lt;p&gt;One of the games was called the black hole or something like that.  Anyway, people would step up to the table and the guy working the table would just sweep up their money into a hole and tell them they lost.  It had a constant stream of people walking up to the table to lose money.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s more or less the mental model that I use for gambling.</text></item><item><author>jjice</author><text>As a mid-twenties man, I see this constantly among my friends.&lt;p&gt;It started a few years ago when sports betting was legalized in my home state and when I was at a bar before Thanksgiving to see some friends, half of them were watching a basketball game involving teams they&amp;#x27;ve never cared about. They showed me that they were betting some wild parlays to hit on this game they had no interest in watching otherwise. They showed me that the apps keep track of your net earnings (I assume this is a legal requirement) and _all_ of them were in the negative between $400 and $800. Keep in mind that these are young men who just graduated college and we were all pretty broke.&lt;p&gt;Flash forward, a lot of them still sports bet regularly with regular losses. I live in a different state now, but a group of my friends around here recently go into going to a casino near by. I was blown away by the justifications on their gambling habits. &amp;quot;I usually win&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;I only gamble what I come in with&amp;quot;, but the latter isn&amp;#x27;t true and I&amp;#x27;ve seen it with my own eyes. I met up with them (not to gamble, but to see a friend), and thirty minutes in one of them was asking the other for $40 so he could &amp;quot;win it all back&amp;quot; at the roulette table.&lt;p&gt;It blows my mind. We know so well that gambling is a losing battle. Some can have fun and call it the price of fun, but it&amp;#x27;s such a slippery slope to find yourself losing way more than you intended.&lt;p&gt;Anecdotally, I notice that the women in my life gamble less.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Slow_Hand</author><text>This is a slightly different topic (government spending), but I&amp;#x27;ve always loved this old Onion News Network video: &amp;#x27;Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?&amp;#x27;. The sentiment feels the same to me:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=JnX-D4kkPOQ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=JnX-D4kkPOQ&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>