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Old 09-15-2022, 08:18 PM   #41
Cecil Terwilliger
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This is the place for them I guess.
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.

Last edited by Cecil Terwilliger; 09-15-2022 at 08:20 PM.
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Old 09-15-2022, 09:56 PM   #42
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This is the place for them I guess.
Sorry, but lots of my stories are gross. Also keep in mind, this was in Edmonton, because I went to the U of A. So you have the E=NG factor as well.

Adult diapers are way more common than I had ever thought before I started working at the Casino. Some customers wore them because they were elderly and incontinent and others wore them so they could stay at the table games or slot machines without having to leave. We found more than a few seats with urine/feces on it because the diaper leaked. One person broke into a storage closet in a men's washroom and raided the cleaning supplies. All that was left behind was their soiled diaper.

We regularly found urine in the small garbage cans by the slot machines, because some of the men would piss in there instead of leaving the machine to the go to the washroom.

Several times there were people who were sick and vomiting. They would puke into a garbage cans instead of leaving the table game or slot machine. These people were not drunk. They had the flu or something. We'd have to get security to remove them, and they'd become angry because they'd lost thousands in the slot machine.

We had a regular who we called the 'Angry Russian' because he was angry all of the time and had a Russian accent. He would regularly spit on the slot machine screens. If it wasn't paying him or if he felt ripped off he'd spit on the machine. I personally saw him do it a dozen times over about a 4 year span. Security removed him several times for doing it.

Way more pregnant women who would smoke and drink while gambling at the tables/slots than I'd care to remember. One was in there nearly every evening for her entire pregnancy (drinking and smoking every time). Then she disappeared for about 4-5 days and was back again every evening for months. She obviously had the baby in those 4-5 days. You're probably picturing some pretty trashy looking people but she was always dressed nice like she had a day job in a professional office.

Also dozens and dozens of incidents where people left babies/toddlers/pets in their hot cars while they gambled inside. It was a regular problem and our security officers used to do sweeps of the parking lot to check. I personally found a toddler who was left in the car, when I was walking in for my shift. No idea how long the kid had been in there but any amount of time is too much.

By the time I left, about 1/4 of our staff were previous customers. They had lost so much money at the Casino that they came here to work. For some it fulfilled their addiction to just be in the same space. One guy was dragged in by his wife. I was a supervisor on that shift and she came up to me and asked if I'd hire him, because he'd lost their life savings ($50,000) in our Casino. She was angry as all hell. I didn't have the authority to hire people so I told him how to apply and off they went. Funny enough he got a job there like 2 weeks later and was still working there when I finally quit months later.

The number of times people wanted to do cash advances on their credit cards was also crazy. People would come up the cash cage and want to get money of their credit cards. We'd go through like 4-5 cards getting little bits off of each. You knew when a person was maxxing out their Canadian Tire credit card they were in a dire situation.

One of the regulars was my old boss from a previous job. He made good money at his job, but I'd watch him drop $5-10k on a night and he was there almost every Friday and Saturday night for years. He was always taking cash advances on multiple credit cards.

Anyways, Casino's are sad places. I save my own gambling for Vegas, which me and the wife do maybe once every 2-3 years. Otherwise, the places in Alberta are likely filled with the same clientele who just keep losing their life savings over and over. That was my experience anyways. I worked at the Casino from about 2004 to 2008.

Last edited by b1crunch; 09-15-2022 at 10:15 PM.
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Old 09-15-2022, 10:12 PM   #43
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Eye opening for sure. It's not something I'm familiar with at all but it does sound sad. Appreciate the info from your experiences.
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Old 09-15-2022, 10:57 PM   #44
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Worked at a pizza place that has a bar side and 4 VLTs in it. If I had to open, I would unlock the front doors at 11am and a few times a person or two would be waiting to go to the machine and start playing. Theyd still be there by the time my 8 hour shift ended.

If I closed, I think we closed at 3am and I would have to empty the cash from the machines. The amount of money in there was… disturbing. So much dough. I know the family that owns the joint. The VLTs literally keep it afloat, as they don’t make enough from the food to be a viable business. That’s actually the case for a lot of restaurants. Margins on food don’t cut the mustard, it’s always gambling or alcohol.

Gambling addiction is a real ####ing problem, no doubt.
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Old 09-16-2022, 05:19 AM   #45
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Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger View Post
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.
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.
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Old 09-16-2022, 06:10 AM   #46
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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.
I live here now... everyone is taught how to put a multi on from grade school on up.

Our golf club is getting a new clubhouse. The pokie area (vlts) has been reduced, because the machines are dying out. All the kids are betting on their phones now.

I've been watching these gambling complaints the last 12months. We live in Canada's gambling future down here. You'll get used to it. Start a punting club with your mates and get in on the ground floor.
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Old 09-19-2022, 04:17 PM   #47
DownInFlames
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Hasan Piker confronts a streamer who stole a whole bunch of money from his friends and viewers to fund his gambling habit. The guy doesn't sound like he's remorseful at all.

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Old 09-20-2022, 09:20 PM   #48
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Gambling streams have been banned on twitch

https://twitter.com/user/status/1572347129192132611
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Old 09-20-2022, 09:34 PM   #49
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Gambling streams have been banned on twitch

https://twitter.com/user/status/1572347129192132611
Well, sorta.

They banned certain games from certain websites.
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Old 09-20-2022, 09:39 PM   #50
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Banning illegal / “grey” market sites operating “in” the US

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