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This was a quite brilliant program, exposing the futility of all luck-based gambling.
A spunky businessmen on a gambling-binge vacation  was like a foghorn about his methods and techniques whilst a few grand up, but became callow and aggressive after a 24-hour losing streak.
Allan was a wealthy Canadian who flew in for some ‘fun’, playing the high-roller tables and slots in his own private rooms.  Disturbingly, he was hosted by his ‘friend’ who worked at the Casino and made sure Allan had just the right amount of freebies as a man of his ‘stature’ (i.e. losses) deserved.  The guy was clearly worth plenty, but he still p*ssed away $300k for his entertainment.
His friend’s claim that he was still the "same old Allan, win or lose" was betrayed by Allan’s eyes as he entered his (free) limo back to the airport.
And finally, seventy-something Martha sat in front of the slots every day and had ripped up a healthy $4 million pounds in the last seven years.  A few months earlier, the Casino had held a beautiful ‘ornate’ funeral srvice for her departed husband; ‘And it didn’t cost me a penny’ she smiled.  Not much it didn’t.
Her ‘occasional 25-cent’ gambler son faced a penniless inheritance with seeming equanimity but matricide was looking a viable option to me.
Theroux’s gift is for befriending his subjects with his doe-eyed faux innocence, making trite conversation before softly inserting the killer question.  Then he does not let go.  Their pain, humiliation and the sheer self-knowledge of their own stupidity was left hanging in the air with every awkward silence and mumbled reply.
It’s not my type of gambling.
How is it anyone’s?<br>
An absolute gem of a programme. Just wished I’d recorded it so one of my addicted friends could have watched it.
It just seemed so sad that they were squandering their money so quickly and easily. They even realised that the odds were stacked against them but seemed to think that losing fortunes was OK because they "got comp’d a great suite and free drinks".
Just wish Louis had asked some of them "why don’t you bet on the horses instead?" They obviously don’t want to play anything where there is some skill involved.
Must have made quite chilling viewing for thoses involved with granting licenses for the new super casinos.
Wonder why Hilton casino granted them such access privledges? They must have known they wouldn’t have come out of this with much credit and it was no travelogue for them.
A shame they didn’t show some of the sports book areas though. I have wondered if it is possible to get an edge over there with our generally superior knowledge of international racing.
Anybody interested in this sort of programme may also like to read Stung (aka The incredible obession of Brian Molony) by Gary Stephen Ross.
Adrian,
The highlights can be downloaded from the BBC web site:-
Regards – Matron<br>:cool:
"It’s not my type of gambling. How is it anyone’s?"
The psychology of gambling is of major interest to me and it is clear that the underlying motivation driving the compulsive gambler is generally not winning money, rather it is something about the underlying process that grips them.
Certain gambling activities (such as slot machines) are potentially addictive, the industry actually developing the machines to incorporate as many psychological ‘tricks’ as possible in an effort to hook the vulnerable.
In cases where people become addicted to a certain type of gambling they can, and often do, develop clinical symptons which require intervention in order to modify the behaviours.
It is of sadness to me that betting and gambling, which I greatly enjoy and which has shaped a large part of my life in a positive way, does have a darker aspect to it and that there are many who fall victim to it’s negative side and urgently require help.
I was in a casino in Barcelona at the weekend and personally I find roulette, blackjack and slot machines pretty boring.. Made me realise that it’s not really gambling that I enjoy but the challenge that a horse race presents and the association you begin to build with those characaters involved.. I saw one guy lose 30,000 euros in ten minutes, on the spin of a wheel. Personally I cannot understand what they get out of it.
Quote: from cormack15 on 2:16 pm on Feb. 5, 2007[br]<br>It is of sadness to me that betting and gambling, which I greatly enjoy and which has shaped a large part of my life in a positive way, does have a darker aspect to it and that there are many who fall victim to it’s negative side and urgently require help.<br>
Indeed, and in addition, gamblers – like smokers and drinkers – as a whole tend to be tarred with the same brush as the addict: it’s a sin the moral majority preach, whereas in truth to those that indulge in moderation and above all understand and respect the potential pitfalls, all three can be immensely rewarding and have most definitely "shaped a large part of my life in a positive way" too.
Am I alone in preferring to remain silent about my gambling activities when in the company of ‘outsiders’? The ‘stigma’ runs deep, not that it bothers me in the slightest.
<br>I thinks it’s the words used that tar all gamblers with the same brush. Someone that loses control of their gambling is called a ‘problem gambler’ or a ‘compulsive gambler’ and told to go to ‘Gamblers Anonymous’. The word gambler is always there.
But the average drinker can be separated from the addict, who is called an ‘alcoholic’ and goes to AA, not Drinkers Anonymous.
I’m not sure about smoking – what do we call someone that smokes too much. It certainly isn’t ‘problem smoker’ and there’s no Smokers Anonymous.
AP
Quote: from Drone on 4:35 pm on Feb. 5, 2007[br][Am I alone in preferring to remain silent about my gambling activities when in the company of ‘outsiders’? The ‘stigma’ runs deep, not that it bothers me in the slightest.
I’m quite happy for anyone to know that I’m a punter. I carry a Racing Post around with me at work and read it when I can.
I was never a great fan of Woodrow Wyatt but I do remember reading a piece he wrote years ago about the satisfying intellectual exercise of studying a race, coming up with an opinion and backing it with hard cash. I think he likened it to someone having a go at the Times crossword. He was right. Nobody would be embarrassed to be seen completing a crossword or other puzzle in public and none of us should have any qualms about being seen reading the racing pages. If it attracts a few pursed lips from our more strait-laced brethren then more fool them.
You’re quite right. It shouldn’t bother you in the slightest.
It was a strange :old: day<br> I felt particualrly miserable<br> as I approached Paxman this morning<br> in a side street in W11<br> Just me and him, and we gazed through each other,<br> me in an anorak and him in a sprucer grreen coat,<br> and underneath him, legs that appeared to have direction<br> while mine were going to an ironmongers.<br> I looked slightly up at him<br> and ehgaged him with a particualrly miserable stare.<br> I rather enjoyed giving him a whiff of the real Paul Sheldon<br> misery <br> an hour after his probable shower<br> and a few minutes before eleven,<br> and, he looked through me BUT<br> there was no answer to it.
Oh Theroux,<br> yes has a touch,<br> but forget travelocity<br> I miss Alan Whicker.<br> I was driving in Park Lane<br> a decade back, I’d say,<br> and refused to let his chauffeur<br> cross to the right lane.<br> Whicker looked down at me with disdain <br> from his back leathered Bentley,<br> and so marvellous to see the misery in him<br> – even his pin stripes crinkled with abject anger
<br> Just been watching about the blood and guts<br> of the H5 virus and how the white swan’s health<br> is an indicator.<br> Whicker is or was some sort of swan,<br> his voice and feathers now largely gone,<br> but that earlier drawl, and beady eyed miscomprehension<br> would have copped the jackpot<br> without throwing a dice.<br> Not at the slotty Hilton -<br> OH no mighty Caesar’s Palace -<br> the biggest bird sanctuary in the world,<br> where a reputation can be won or lost<br> on the positioning of a mike<br> and where the losers receive greenbacked chips <br> of misery that stack far higher<br> than Paul Sheldon’s complete compendium
<br> flatcapgamble… Russian dissidents or not Paxman looked particualrly miserable this evening – must surly have been that morning encounter.
Quote: from apracing on 6:47 pm on Feb. 5, 2007[br]<br>I thinks it’s the words used that tar all gamblers with the same brush. Someone that loses control of their gambling is called a ‘problem gambler’ or a ‘compulsive gambler’ and told to go to ‘Gamblers Anonymous’. The word gambler is always there.
But the average drinker can be separated from the addict, who is called an ‘alcoholic’ and goes to AA, not Drinkers Anonymous.
I’m not sure about smoking – what do we call someone that smokes too much. It certainly isn’t ‘problem smoker’ and there’s no Smokers Anonymous.
AP<br>
Agree Alan. One of my friends refuses to call himself a gambler, instead referring to his bets as ‘investments’.
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