• ceenote@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I know you’re joking, but I used to work at a convenience store and the scratcher addicts were the most depressing part. I guess I should be grateful that the store I worked at wasn’t in an area where more depressing kinds of addicts would be around.

    • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      I remember one day walking into a 7/11, in maybe 2002, and there were 2 guys in suits, totally dishevelled, collars undone, looking like they’ve been awake for 3 days, depression coating their faces, and they had a stack of scratch tickets that they were silently just scratching off.

      The story I have in my head is that their business fell apart and this was some past ditch desperate attempt to save it with the little money they had left. I have no idea what actually happened but here we are 20+ years later and I still think about them occasionally.

      • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        The one thing that going to a real casino taught me is that, despite what Hollywood would have us believe, casinos are not full of impeccably dressed classy people, but very old retirees that look like they only have a few years left to live, and disheveled men who look less well dressed than me in my PJs at home, who are gambling away large sums of money in a fit of anxiety and addiction.

        Really depressing crap.

        • OpenStars@discuss.online
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          1 month ago

          And yet Donald Trump still managed to lose money somehow, which should have really told us something about his supposed “business accumen”.

          • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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            1 month ago

            Oh yes. The bankruptcy of Trump’s casino was a thing to behold. I wish I could find the video of the people who worked with him back in the day as they all remarked as to just how absolutely ignorant he was about all aspects of both gambling and managing a casino.

            • OpenStars@discuss.online
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              1 month ago

              But with the power of daddy’s money, he “earned” his position as CEO/owner nonetheless!

              Which is already so cringe it hurts, but then to turn around and use that to prove how “well” Trump - not daddy, but himself - could run the entire nation…

              img

              As a nation, we deserve our fate I suppose.:-( We should do better. We need better. We won’t survive unless we aim to be better.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 month ago

          I associate my time in Las Vegas mostly with elderly people with oxygen tanks, chain smoking while they put coin after coin in the slot machine. Just sad.

          • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
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            1 month ago

            Vegas is a good place to go if your idea of a good time is eating and hanging around the pool. Other than that, it’s a glittering shithole in the desert built on the losses of prior visitors.

            • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              And they took the pull handles away because they can siphon money out of retirement accounts much faster if the victim player only needs to press a button.

              • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
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                1 month ago

                That’s sad. Pulling the lever was such fantastic part of the experience. Now we can’t call them “One Arm Bandits.”

                We use to live in a society.

      • Blackout@fedia.io
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        1 month ago

        The guy who started FedEx literally put his company’s payroll on a roulette table just to make enough to stay in business.

    • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Dude it was depressing stopping off at the beer store on the way home from work for a 6pack so I could kick it and relax on the couch…

      …and there’d be a group of blue collars going there to cash their weekly paychecks, buy a couple 40s and $50 worth of scratchers. They’d win $10, and buy $10 more worth of scratchers. They’d win a TICKET, get another and win nothing, then complain that they were “so close” to winning 10-grand.

      • Zirconium@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Work at a rutters. had multiple guys who were serious come in with like 20 $1 and 5 $20 every other day. We had one guy who’d buy $100-$200 every visit (up to 3 times a day). Must’ve been in his 50s but he said his wife didn’t know. Scratch offs scare me now I’ve only ever seen one $1500 win but I’d only work part time so.

          • Zirconium@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            As far as I know, I would get told he already visited by people in 1st shift and he’d come in like 6 and spent $100-$200 then come back an hour later

    • peteypete420@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      I used to work at a liquor store that had a lottery machine (scratch offs, state lotto) and yea the addicts were pretty depressing. This was a liquor store so we had sadder ones, but still.