These statistics may show the severity of gambling addiction, but the stories you’re about to read paint a grimmer picture of how it affects a person. These accounts are fromcasinoemployees, former addicts, and spectators, all of whom took the time to answer a recentReddit thread.
Most responses are heartbreaking, as they show how menacing a diseaseaddictioncan be. Scroll with caution.
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My MIL was at a casino in Vegas when there was some kind of altercation that involved a gun. The police told everyone to “get down”. While crouching on the floor people were still reaching up to play the slots.
I lost $17.50 at a claw machine in Atlantic City. It was 25c a go. I was 8 years old.I remember shaking my head and thinking ‘Damn. I’d better not ever gamble.“Never did. And never touched a claw machine again.
My first time to Vegas I went with a large group of people. One of the boyfriends started off strong at blackjack, at one point he was up $300 from the $25 he had started with.But then he lost it all, which for me meant he lost $25. That was not how he took it. And for the rest of the time we were there he tried to win the $300 back.I don’t know how much money he lost, but I do know he had drained his checking account and maxed out a credit cardHe didn’t win back any money.
I live in Australia which most people don’t know has the highest rate of gambling losses per capita when compared globally. You can gamble at any pub/bar in Australia as long as you are 18 or older. In one state alone in the last 3 months of 2024, the total losses were $2.2B. It’s very hard to watch but hard to fix as it’s legal and socially acceptable. At least when you go to Vegas it’s a trip with friends and/or family and people are having fun. No one is really having fun here, they’re like robots on the slot machines. I have regularly seen people blow through a whole paycheque in minutes and then try to borrow money to win it back. Or get pay day loans with insane interest rates. It’s a big problem here, but there’s too much money involved for anyone to change anything.
I was a hostess at a casino about 10 years ago. I worked on the top floor and normally watched people on the roulette tables below between orders. I saw a guy turn 50k into 250k, he was awesome tipped us all and left.I carried on with my shift went for my lunch at about 1am then went to the smoking area to find the same guy that had won with his head in his hands. He ask me for a cigarette so I gave him one, I noticed he was crying. He proceeded to tell me how he went for some drinks came back and lost it all and more. It was a regular thing seeing people crying in the smoking area,but this guy really f****d up.Edit: my grammer sucks.
I fix/repair Pokie Machines in Australia, mostly in small rural towns and the turnover figures on the machines are astonishing. One of the Pubs has a lady that drops 40-50K a week and all the pub has to do is ask her if she’s okay? Would she like a cup of tea? People get so mad when they lose on these machines that they smash the screens or play button assemblies. Absolutely bonkers and completely government endorsed.
Not a casino employee, but we got a call at work one night for a check the well-being. It was casino security requesting us to check on subject who had lost a lot of money at their tables. The security manager advised the the subject left and was heard making a comment about wanting to end their life due to their losses.Thankfully, I got to the address and was able to speak with subject. They were embarrassed but eventually told me that they had a gambling problem and that this wasn’t the first time. They ended up getting transported to the hospital and then eventually spoke with one of our social workers, who was able to get her in therapy.Last I saw them, they had got out of debt and started her own business.
Worked at a casino for a few years in my early 20s doing FoH executive/high level player engagement.There was a woman in her 70s who played big but always made SOME money back. Well, she finally hit for around $1m USD and promptly told the casino she would no longer be gambling or visiting. She was steadfast in that promise.Fast forward a year, and the casino wants their money back. They invite her down with all of the comps for her birthday - “Okay, but I’m still not gambling”. We extended the invitation and gave villas/free everything to EVERY gambling aged family member she had. It was probably 15+ people there to “celebrate her birthday”.By the end of the week, the family members gambled nearly $700k of her money back into the casino.
I worked at the member rewards desk and a high-ish ranking member asked me to change her mailing address so we can still send her promotions… to the address of a local homeless shelter.
Had a guy sit down at a $15 table and turn $200 into ~$13k in about 30 min. He kept pressing and kept winning. Before long he had a small crowd and full barrel of $500 chips and was working on a second.I finished the shoe and told him that he beat the casino and it was time to run away and never come back.Instead of walking he starts playing 3 hands at $1.5k each… three table losses in a row and he’d given it all back and started making trips to the ATM…Next thing you know, he was down about $2.5k and sobbing to the pit boss because he’d spent everything he had and couldn’t get out of the parking garage.He was given a parking voucher and put himself on the banned list.Felt sick for the guy.Also watched a few jackpots get zeroed out for child support but those always got a laugh from the table.
I’m a high limits baccarat dealer and i have many many regulars i see every single day. There’s one lady who plays 3-4k a hand and gets so far down that when she hits for a bonus and makes 150k she barely cares because it doesn’t even put her at even.
Guy started with $300 and could do now wrong. When he got up to $5000, we asked if he wanted to go to a high rollers pit because people would jump in on his game and “mess him up.” He said yes if I followed him there. In the high rollers pit he again could do no wrong, but what he was doing was chasing and bets he lost with higher bets. This worked out for him for a long time. He got up to almost 100 grand of $300 bucks. He called his girlfriend to get packed, they are going to Vegas to get married. He started losing. I told him to stop when he got to 80 thousand. He told me he just lost 20 grand and if he made it back he would quit. I told him he won 80, stop. By the time the girlfriend got there he lost it all and had $3000 dollars in markers. When she got there he got up and held her and cried.
Worked surveillance at a casino for a bit. Every time someone hit a jackpot at a slot machine we’d pull up their account. They were always, 100% of the time, down on their lifetime earnings. This included people that hit for $50K+Worst one I saw was -$375k for the year. In July.
I worked at a casino as security for about a year so I have plenty of stories.But in relation to your question, I saw a guy come in with a group of friends, never seen him before. He proceeded to win 10k that night on a couple slots. I saw him come back every night for the next month. Always walking out with his head down.The casino I worked at was smallish but every decent payout had to be done with security present. So ya he went through it all thinking he had the system figured out and then some.Lots of people had similar fates.
A guy that randomly came into the casino I work at played a progressive blackjack side bet and wouldn’t you know it hit for 500k. Dude bought a Rolex and got his girlfriend a pair of bs. Over the course of the next 1-2 years he was on a slow decline because you can tell he was starting to get into ds and his bets were getting bigger and bigger.He disappeared for awhile and heard from coworkers he overdosed and passed away.Winning that jackpot was probably the worst thing for that guy.
Former a****t five years clean here since 01/01/2020. I once had two doctor’s appointments in the same day (one was for my knee and the other was just a routine check up) but they were spaced out between three hours. Since I wasn’t at work that day, I drove 60 miles to the casino only to lose $700 in that timeframe. I did however make my second appointment so that was a plus.
I worked as a dealer years ago in California. One night a guy came in with $800 to high limit, and started betting $100 a hand on blackjack. He was pressing hard and was up $250,000 in a few hours. He truly believed it was divine intervention and he was invincible, he got greedy, and lost everything back. He left down $800 after about 8 hours.
I have a friend who once made it big and made $50k in an evening.When I went gambling with him he lost $10k, and this was a regular thing. Always chasing the dragon.The only gamble I made that night was the questionable grilled cheese they made me.
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I worked in the cage at the time, guy came up and withdrew 10k from his checking and went out and played. Came back 30 minutes later and did it again. Another 30 minutes and did it again. Came back a fourth time and then started doing cash advances against his credit cards. Goes through all of them over the next 5-6 hours. Right before my shift ends he’s at my window going through every card in is wallet, all of them are declining and he asks if we offer credit. Which thank god we didn’t. All together he probably lost a bit more than 120k in a night. Not the most I’ve seen but he clearly couldn’t afford to lose that much.
Worked in a casino for nearly 10years. What do you deem a bad loss? I dealt to a wealthy Chinese guy. He lost 12 million barely a dint in his account. Dealt to a lady who lost a 1000 bucks and it was pretty much her whole bank account but she didn’t seem fussed. There’s always a few that stick out though, a guy was winning about 9 million at the end of my shift. I went home and came back, when I got back he had lost all of it plus another 15 million and was transferring more when I got there as his lucky dealer. I was in fact no longer lucky.
Worked in the industry for twenty years. The worse addiction I saw was a woman, probably in her late thirties who sold a boat she didn’t own, twice, to two different people.This same person also was in charge of a Girl Scout fund for a trip that was planned. When the time came there was no money in the fund.
“Friend” of mine lost around 1m PLN (~$246k). In ONE poker game. He gambled his house, literally he brought his notarial papers.
Ive seen big losses to about 100k, but the one that sticked out to me the most was a guy who started betting 50 a hand on blackjack, lost, came back and put up another 200-500 a hand while he is shaking. He went to the atm 3 times. The last 500 he lost, as I was about to grab the chip, he held his 500 in green in the bet. I had to tell him to let go. I think he was down 10,000 that night and looks like his life saving. Never saw him again after. .
Not a casino worker, and not one that I witnessed personally, however I used to work for an online/phone sports betting company.One guy was betting on a big soccer game. His team were winning convincingly (3-0) with 80 minutes out of 90 played. He’d just sold his house and had the cash sitting in his account (a couple of hundred grand). The odds were pretty poor, but he saw an opportunity to gain a few more quid, it was a sure thing, right? Except the opposing team scored 4 goals in the last 10 mins plus injury time and won 3-4.
I’m not a casino worker however I worked at a gas station that sold scratch tickets.I was doing a 3-11pm shift on a Friday and about 9:00 pm this guy comes In all hyped up that he got paid and wanted to buy some 10 dollar scratchers. Not a problem I say and go to grab 5 of the 10$ tickets he asked for. He stops me before I can get them out and says “No, I want to pick I have a system with the numbers”, Cue my eye roll and exasperated internal sigh as these guys take forever.5 minutes later he is rung up and heads not out of the store, no, no. To the ticket stand at the back to scratch them. He comes back 10 minutes later wants me to check them for him, so I do, I can’t recall if he won anything or not on these five. But if he did it wasn’t enough. He goes for round two of the same thing 5 more 10 dollar tickets same hyped up energy same process of picking and scratching.This continues for an hour and a half all the while he is getting more and more anxious and as his hype was replaced with this deranged fear. The process became faster as he started panicking and picking faster and faster as he spiraled down a pit and I was talking to him telling him that it’s okay to stop and no one is guaranteed to win and there is no system after the second round to deaf ears.In total he bought all our 10 dollar scratchers but 1 lost and lost about 600$, I got to listen to him call his girlfriend and explain he lost the rent money and hear her yell at him knowing exactly what happened. I got to listen to him call his boss legit crying asking for help. It was sad any time I feel like gambling I think of that guy and I make another choice. S**t ruins lives for people who can’t control it.
I know a guy, a friend of a friend, that has an awful gambling problem that cost him his marriage. Prior to that years ago we were both invited to the common friend’s bachelor party in Atlantic City. He had st credit back then and was strictly a cash and carry guy. He brought $2000 cash with him to cover his half of the room he was splitting, meals and drinks, and gambling. We were walking through the casino to check in and he peeled off from the group. He showed up at the check in desk and said “I just lost all my money on roulette. Can you guys cover me for the weekend?” Apparently he had a “feeling” while walking past a roulette table and threw all his money on red and lost. We were 3 hours from home and faced with supporting this leech for 2 days. The guys who knew him well had seen st like this from him before and basically told him he’d get basic food and a place to sleep. No steaks, no booze, and most importantly, no gambling money. He was so pissed off that he called his dad and made him drive to Atlantic City to pick him up.
My wife works for a casino.One of their high rollers is known for losing obscene amounts of money.So far, due to all his losses, the casino has gifted him a brand new Bentley Continental, a 71 Hemi Cuda that had been meticulously restored, two different Escalades (including a brand new Blackwing last year), and a Lucid Air.He loses a LOT of money to that casino in order for them to buy him cars like that. And there are others who get the same treatment.
Not a casino worker, I did watch an elderly man get frustrated at the blackjack table, bet several hundred on one last hand, lose, then get up and punch himself in the face while yelling F**k over and over.I was horrified,my friend was horrified, the dealer sighed and said “he does that” 🤷♂️.
Worked in a casino restaurant in my 20s. I’d finish my shift walk through the casino to my car. When walking back through in the morning I’d see the same people wearing the same clothes on the same machines. Only difference it’s coffee with their cigarettes now instead of soda.
I was a slot attendant the person who pay out jackpots to players a man told me he couldn’t go home because he spent his mortgage money there and his wife will k**l him.
I live in NV so there’s casinos and slot machines literally everywhere. I was walking to a restaurant inside this casino near my place when I saw this guy crying at the slots, like full on wailing, pounding at the machine begging for his money back. Threw himself on the floor yelling a woman’s name, security had to drag him out of there. It wasn’t even funny, just really sad. I lost my appetite and left shortly afterwards.
This question was asked before.Scide i guess is thing at casinos. The go in with a plan to kl themselves, gamble all their money away and end it in their room.
As a card dealer, on two separate occasions - with two separate players - I took $100,000 each within a couple hours.
I know someone who won 30k gambling. Went to a car dealership to buy a car. He was like 5k short of the car he wanted. Told them he would be back and then Proceeded to lose all the 30k.
I used to be a “Game Tech” We were glorified helpdesk IT for the machines and we also paid out people’s jackpots. It was a small indian casino in rural OK. We would have a guy from Wichita who’d come down and fill our $25 machines with $100 bills and play $75/bet and we’d have to clean 60k out of the cash cassette more than once per night. He would pay random casino guests to run to the convenience store and get stuff for them, then tip them $100 even though they weren’t employees. Allegedly dude was DEEP into some real-estate, supposed to be the youngest person to ever get their realtor license in Kansas, and he was old AF.
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