How long have you been gambling?

I have entered the scene on 2018 when i was attending world cup games in moscow with my country.

The first time I played in a casino was back in 1993.

Dependent on the definition of gambling, I would consider poker a game of edges, not really gambling.
Many others consider it a game of coin flips, definitely a game of gambling.

Around 4 years been playing some roulette sometimes in relapses, it's negative-sum game and it's really bad game overall not just money wise but for brain too, it's just fast paced dopamine that ruins enjoyment of other activities in your brain. Not anymore goddammit! from July 1st 2026 to 2028 I will not play a single session EXCEPT for the bare minimum usually 0,50€ just to chat at the table and always on either black or red. I am not ready to give up on my chats with the dealers quite yet. I will try to move fast with that and try to see limitations of my social capabilities and test my delusions. If I play further or avoid real life interaction over that I will have to humiliate myself more.

I've been playing since I was 14, and now I'm 58. I started at school, with Soviet kopecks, heads or nuts, holding two coins in my palms.

Gambling can mean many different things to people but i recall at age 13 playing some arcade slots in my local town and realising quite fast that it was a waste of my pocket money, there were the odd days when i doubled or tripled my weekly PM and boy, those were good weeks (swimming pool admission, cinema, sweets galore and much more) but generally i steered clear at 15 years of age and then at 18 - got into poker in my local pub and then it grew from there...

Colbefc said:

I am 73 and started playing poker when I was about 15, so I have been playing for nearly 60 years but I can
promise that playing poker for that long does not automatically make me a good player, in fact it definitely hasn't
made me a good player.

Click to expand...

I'm also your vintage...I'm not sure if this counts, but I was born after my mother played poker all night...well almost all night...her water broke during the game, and off she went to the hospital.
I remember going to the race track when I was 12...one bet allowed me to pay for dinner for 5 at a fine dining restaurant...I started playing poker at home for fun, but really started playing in earnest in university in 1972, instead of going to class...that might be why I got Cs and did not get into Law School as I had dreamt of...54 years of playing poker hasn't done much for my expertise...I am still a rank amateur.

I really only play poker now, unless they give me free plays.

I was 15 when I first started betting on horses around 1978, and my first casino experience was approximately 1985.