I have been playing a few live games at the local casino recently all NLHE £0.5/£1 and have booked a few winning sessions running very hot, my problem is that I often leave the with a all round bad feeling after and frequently ask myself why I go back? Its like seeing people punting off there money and the depression and anguish it brings them effects me.

I dislike casinos in general, sometimes just sit and watch people all round the roulette wheel and can often pick out the addicts with there dead eyes and tired skin and clothes.

Has anyone else had these feelings?

Yes, but you accept the free choices of other people and that there is no way short of totalitarianism to control them.

the last few months I've played, mostly 6/12 Limit O8, the feeling of dread when I leave has kept me from going back. Lately one ~6 hour session is plenty about every two weeks. Thursday night the local Indian casino couldn't even keep one table going so maybe that is a sign that others feel the same way.

Maybe it's our sub-conscious survival mechanism telling us this type of environment is not healthy either physically or mentally. Being surrounded for hours at a time by the sick, lame (inane) and lazy has our brains chanting get out, get out!

Yes absolutely, casinos are such dark places. I call it ‘the arcade of sorrow’ lol. Even the card rooms are often fairly depressing... but hey at least poker players are playing each other and not the house.

I know exactly what youre talking about, it’s actually one of the reasons I prefer online

At my local casino all the weak regs are relatively well off germans that are happy no matter if they win or lose.
The atmosphere at the tables is always great and I often stray from paying attention to poker because of how good a time I'm having.
There are also the sad losing regs, but they're of a certain demographic I don't particularly care about, so seeing them lose and feel bad actually makes me feel even better.

Interesting question. If there is such a thing as an empath, intuitive, etc. - and there is at least a spectrum of sensitivity along these lines - then sensing such things is real. For my money I say definitely real. I used to have that feeling every time I went to Las Vegas, as if such a cloud of emptiness/despair, PAIN, hung over the whole city, or at least the casinos. Yeah, just the casinos. Didn't feel it on the golf course or at the swimming pool. I think I did at the airport arriving. Maybe it dissipates outside, lol. But Wow, it was palpable at times. It would hit me out of the blue and be hard for me to believe myself, let alone try to convince someone else. So I never did ... until now.

However I never felt bad about people losing in a casino. I did at times in home games re sick gamblers you knew who were destroying their lives.

It's sad to see people lose money.

It's a great opportunity to observe the irrational behaviors and thoughts of others when money is involved, and use it as a way to learn about yourself.

The way it is IS the way it is. Just witness without judgement.

If a Hero feels bad about winning money, poker is not the game for them.

Money is how we keep score.

If people have free will, it is rather tilting at windmills for a Hero to think things should be arranged differently.

It is observant to see the fact that, as one author wrote, some Villains are throwing away their time and their money with methodical certainty.

It is compassionate to be sad for that reality.

It is unrealistic that any of us can stem the tide of Villains exercising their free will.

A Hero has free will as well. Hero can choose to play or choose to stay away.

The entire idea of a "fair contest" is that the more skilled will win more frequently than the less skilled.

As Max Holloway would say, "it is what it is".

"A is A".

I could have answered your question before seeing the other replies in this thread. Yes, your experience is not uncommon.

But, of course this is not the question you really mean to ask. Somewhere in your rant, you do actually ask the right question.

I personally like casinos. I do not think they per se are 'dark places'.

I frequent casinos, because I think gambling is fun and exciting, in particular when I win. And I enjoy winning money from people who are willing to put them at risk, whether it is because they just bad players, 'addicts' (a highly problematic and misused term), bored, or trying to fill an existential hole in their soul.

At least here in the US, casinos are increasingly upfront about how they finance their overhead. Signs saying "The house edge is real" abound on the casino floor. But even without them, anybody with access to the internet should be able to figure out, that there is no way consistently to beat slots or table games.

It is not up to you or me to tell other people how to spend their cash. I am a big believer in consumer protection, but beyond revealing the odds and reminding people where the vast sums invested in building and maintaining glitzy casinos come from, gambling is NOT a grey market. It is glaringly black and white.

People enter casinos with a drive to take my (or the casino's) money, and if they are not up for the job, unless they fall into the category of people we could call developmentally disabled, it's really their own job to figure that out.

But you, OP, may not be that different from those people you describe who 'punt off their money and experience anguish and depression'. While you say you win, you profess to leave the casino 'with a all round bad feeling after and frequently ask myself why I go back'.

Your personal economy does obv not depend on your poker winnings.

Your post sounds rather like you actually relish in the emotionally negative experiences, which your casino visits bring you.

After all, as you ask, why would you go back to an experience which stinks every time, if not for that very reason?