Quote:
Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger
When I was younger I worked next to a subway. A young Iranian man worked there every single day all day. He was a newish Canadian and his wife had recently immigrated. Just a super nice guy. I wondered if he owned the franchise or if it was maybe a family member. He seemed to be there 24/7 so I always figured he was more than just a dedicated employee.
After like two years of seeing him multiple times a week as a customer, I saw him at elbow river casino.. We chatted for a few minutes and he confided in me that he had lost $40,000 and his wife had no idea. He had squandered their life savings. He did not look happy.
I knew another woman who retired at 65, got bored, started gambling and blew thru $120k+ in RSPs in like 2 years. I think she went back to work as a cashier at Safeway or something.
Ok so those aren’t wild. Just depressing.
We are gonna be the next Australia. A country full of degenerate compulsive gamblers.
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Having lived in Australia for many years (I'm back in Canada now) I can say the thing that shocked me the most about that country is the gambling culture. I don't think anyone here can even imagine it tbqh.
At least 95% of pubs/bars/restaurants have gambling rooms attached to the facility. In some places they may only be a few hundred square feet of what they call "pokie" machines (basically VLTs). But in many (most) places the setup is much more elaborate. You have rooms with 10-15 tvs setup only for betting on dogs and horses. Many places have 1000+ square feet of pokie space with 20-30-40-50 VLT machines. Many of these bars had mini casinos attached to them, for all intents and purposes. And they act like casinos too, they keep bringing the heavy gamblers free food and comped drinks to keep them from moving too far.
Most of these rooms are packed at any hour of the day. People sitting inside hour after hour, day after day doing nothing but gambling. Some drink heavily while doing so, but it seems most were getting their buzz off of the hardcore gambling they were doing. Frankly it was disgusting.
And this is coming from someone who enjoys to make a sports bet here and there and really enjoy a poker tournament now and then. So I like to gamble a bit myself. But let's really hope Canada doesn't follow down the same road. It leads to alot of misery for alot of people.