I've been trying to take a poll among dedicated players and punters about what being involved in it all means to them, I guess really emotionally more than anything else. Frankly, or whatever their name might be, I haven't been getting great answers. So many people just are not introspective, granted. Extroversion is better in some ways but so foreign to me that I react to it the same way that the extroverted who are shocked that there are such introverts even alive.

The poll hasn't been going well as it has been hard to get a hold of old-timers, and it is their retrospective view I would value most. The youthful ate up with it submerged in the middle of it I'm thinking can't have the same perspective. I sure didn't ... was just "all-in" cathected out the yahoo with very little meta take on it in the beginning.

So I ask these guys, "Why were you in it?" ... and I get pretty much blank stares or silences. Nothing juicy. Nothing like, "Well my self-in-the-world didn't feel very effective in the mainstream of society ..." or "it was existential escape" ... or "it felt like an addiction" ... nothing like I was hoping to hear. Another study bites the dust. More like the question is stupid because the answer is self-evident: "It was there and I liked it." Often there are deeper answers especially for major life pursuits.

my first exposure to gambling was 10 years old playing zelda on Nintendo. my sister cracked the pattern at the gambling cave. i used the pattern to run up a bunch of gems, and i quit around the 7th level.

its all about exposure and opportunity. i grew up without internet. kids today know all about fanduel, draftkings, and probably poker and real sports betting too.

i went to the dog track at 14, picked the winner at 11:1. after that it was just an ebb and flow of exposure, opportunity, mistakes, and learning. if i lived in a more rural area, i wouldn't have had the same opportunities.

learning includes how well i understand myself and others, as well as how well i understand expected value. sometimes it was two steps forward three steps back. sometimes it was just three steps back ha.

in densely populated areas, gambling is just always there. around every corner is another shitty bet. some people just never gamble, which is a solid strategy given how rigged most bets are.

poker is different because the house doesn't really care who wins. the house gets its rake either way. poker provides the opportunity to win long term if youre better than your opponents. thats why i chose to dive into poker study exactly when i had lost interest in all other gambling.

Opportunity and exposure I agree, but I think there is often something in the personality to which it really appeals. No doubt the massive exposure now is going to create millions of problem gamblers. I'm really interested in the "alternate reality/alternate lifestyle" components of that appeal.