Recent comments

flabberghaster wrote

Reply to comment by rain in Gambling CW -- What's the catch with these promos? by twovests

I think you should not give these casinos one red cent, you're not gonna beat the house. Everyone who gambles thinks they might, and if they were right, there would be no casinos.

If you gamble, go in expecting to lose. If you're doing it for fun, then have fun. But you're giving money to some of the worst and most rapaciously exploitative businesses in America.

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hollyhoppet wrote (edited )

Reply to Gambling CW -- What's the catch with these promos? by twovests

This is literally how professional gamblers do their thing lol. One of the strategies is to drift from "free money" deal to "free money" deal and take advantage of it without falling for the addiction trap. The thing is you only get those promos once per place. If you're going to do it read the terms of service very carefully to make sure there isn't a catch.

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rain wrote

Reply to comment by flabberghaster in Gambling CW -- What's the catch with these promos? by twovests

I was figuring something like this would be the case. I wonder if I could find paired hedge bets that would let me get at least a hundred out of those bets.

If I try there are a few self imposed rules…

Rule 1) no extra money loaded - no matter what it looks like on paper if I can’t do it solely off of the initial deposit then the whole thing needs to be abandoned.

Rule 2) Just as soon as I can get the money out, pull it and never use their site again

What do y’all think, should I try? Fair disclosure: even if everyone says yes I may decide not to

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rain wrote

Reply to Gambling CW -- What's the catch with these promos? by twovests

Now you have me seriously thinking about signing go to a gambling site with the intent of taking their promo and running - mostly to write up the experience. But I just had a $250 car repair bill I need to pay for. Maybe this is the way to do it lol

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flabberghaster wrote

Reply to Gambling CW -- What's the catch with these promos? by twovests

My understanding is you don't get actually paid out until you wager a certain amount that's much much higher. Like you bet five dollars and get two hundred, but to be eligible you have to bet like a thousand dollars total.

That's what they said on a podcast, or what I took from what that podcast.

Not an expert.

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Dogmantra wrote

Reply to why can some people open The Box and not others? by hollyhoppet

The popular explanation is that it only opens for the pure of heart, but that was a myth spread by a group of the first people to successfully open The Box to big themselves up. A lot of people still believe this though, and many aspiring Boxcavators (as you know, this is the term for people who open The Box) waste their time doing things like volunteering for charities in an attempt to make themselves more pure of heart.

We don't know for sure but the current best explanation we have is that it's got something to do with how many times you thought about shrews prior to your 15th birthday, but it's proving difficult to experiment on because when people have been instructed to think a lot about shrews we can't be sure if it's multiple thoughts, or if continuously thinking about shrews counts as just one single long thought.

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twovests OP wrote

Reply to Gambling CW -- What's the catch with these promos? by twovests

By "nonlinear cost function", I mean scenarios where the dollars gained are worth more than those lost, or scenarios with quantifiable factors other than dollars gained and lost.

I've gambled four times in my life under a nonlinear cost function:

  • Need 4 Pee: Bladder 'bout to blast, I hid myself away into a Boston Bodega, begging for the bathroom. "For customers only," said the sign, and the cheapest product was a $2 scratch off. I paid, peed, and knew my winnings: One trip to the bathroom. This was nonlinear because I was going to pee.

  • Not going to finish that? Years ago, I went to a casino with a friend, and having had never used the machines before, I wanted to try them out. I had $40. The experience was underwhelming, but someone had left cash in the machine and I win on my first bet. I ended up coming out with $100. This was nonlinear because (1) I was paying for the novel experience, and (2) I ended up getting free money.

  • Orange lining: This most recent election, I put some money on Trump. The thinking was this would hedge against layoffs a bit, and give me something to look forward to even in the worst case. I didn't put in a lot, maybe I should have? This was nonlinear because I expected dollars to be worth less if Trump won, and also for emotional reasons.

  • The 401K account counts too: Putting money into investment account is also gambling. But that employer match and tax incentive makes it nonlinear, even if you believe the economy is just a bubble.

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voxpoplar wrote

Reply to My legally distinct Metroid OC by twovests

When I read Eire I think of the Irish name for Ireland (Éire) so pronounced it like "air-ah" in my head but is it intended to just be like "air" or "ear" or something else?

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