Recent comments in /f/just_post

twovests OP wrote

Yeah, that's another issue. I was looking at this as "their business model is to lose money to get people hooked, but if I don't get hooked, I'm just taking money from an evil business."

But that ~$200 loss is subsidized by the people who do get hooked. The fact that they offer $200 in bonus bets means they're expecting to extract at least $200 from every person who takes the bet to break even, which is a mind-boggling amount to spend to gamble.

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twovests wrote

There's something called a rainbow table which is used for hacking. The idea is to save all the password hashes you crack, to reuse later.

Luckily, Postmill salts password hashes. Even in the event of a breach, a rainbow table could not be used on them.

(That said, if your password is weak, it'll still be easy to crack)

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flabberghaster wrote

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 )

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

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

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

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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twovests OP wrote

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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