I will establish the curmudgeon baseline in this game, and tell why.
My father was a world-class compusive/ addictive gambler.
My childhood was warped into the shape of his addiction ( and other addictions).
A world of misery and continual poverty was to be had (of Dostoyevskian proportions) from his gambling. I shall not enumerate instances further, but there was deep misery.
While I now credit, to a large extent, my total withdrawal from my parents' world and habitation to the world of books and all that followed to these extreme ghastly indulgences on my father's part, for decades I could not see it.
I strove to become a soul apart, in a world apart. And I accomplished my goal without ending in a mental institution.
While I understand ( quite well) the attractions of gambling, I personally do not recommend it to anyone. I lived, for a while, in Reno Nevada and was a Nevada resident while I taught at the University of Nevada. I had the chance to scrutinize, up close, many serious ( and completely addicted) gamblers. One cannot live in Reno, Nevada and escape entirely the influence of the ubiquitous casinos.
I am not trying to temporize a Johnsonian moral tale to you or anyone. I merely state my own position.
I am a great lover of "sins" of various kinds.
My medical condition precludes carrying on with the great drinking career I enjoyed in the closing decades of the last century.
And I have gambled, personally. Not much, but enough to gauge my own instincts.
To this day, I abhor all games, even Scrabble. Trivial pursuit is about my limit.
So I am an exteme case. Here is a web site which explains some of the reasons for my personal stand,
http://www.addictionrecov.org/addicgam.htm
and it describes my own home situation with my parent admirably well. I left home at 19 never to accept another penny from my parents, and had some very rough times until I finished working my way through college. My father and his various addictions were the main reason I left. My father died of lung cancer, very prematurely, at 53. He was an enormously energetic, imaginative, strong, resourceful person. He was simply consumed by his various addictions, many in number. The cigarettes (3-4 packs per day, unfiltered) and the cancer just happened to be the efficacious one to do him in.
Please understand. You asked us to recount our gambling experiences.
I am also not trying to claim the "truth" of any Reaganese claptrap about addictions.
I speak only for myself.
I have been a completely reckless follower and self-indulger in many passions and addictions. There is not a single cell of Nancy Reagan ( or William Bennett-- he should KNOW!) self-righteousness in me.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2082526/
and
On the Revelation of William Bennett's Gambling Habit
by Calvin Trillin
Bill Bennett told a grateful nation,
'Be moral. Just resist temptation.'
By windbag airing of this thesis,
Bill Bennett got as rich as Croesus.
His preaching sold in wholesale lots,
While he dropped millions at the slots.
But here's a thought to ease his pains:
He only lost ill-gotten gains
There you have my gambling experiences and experiments.
I might hasten to add that you, Doreen, and LR are, as I have stated many times, two of the most imaginative, energetic and generous souls it has ever been my extreme pleasure to know.
Just in case you two might have forgotten.
Peace and Love,
Zlatko
Well there is the chance that you all are about equal players, then it is the luck of the draw. But it ain't like poker, there is no bluffing. The cards fall as they are. 
) but important post Zlatko...
