Thursday, May 04, 2006

Another Gambling Problem

Charles Barkley, in response to questions about John Daly sort of admitted his own gambling problem.
"Do I have a gambling problem? Yeah, I do have a gambling problem but I don't consider it a problem because I can afford to gamble. It's just a stupid habit that I've got to get under control, because it's just not a good thing to be broke after all of these years."
It's only a problem if you lose money you can't afford to lose. Makes sense. Charles is taking a reasoned approach here, saying he enjoys gambling, but he gets out of control, so he needs to learn how to gamble at lower stakes and not try to break the casino.
He claims he's lost $10 million gambling over the years. This is a more believable figure than Daly's $50 - $60 million. I wonder if Daly wins $5 million on one trip to Vegas, then 2 months later he drops $4 million into the $5000 slots, does that mean he lost $4 million, or won $1 million? If he doesn't count his winnings against his losses then his estimate makes sense, but is meaningless. If he never wins, well, then he's a bigger fool than I thought.

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