I understand playing cards (ie. poker) but the majority of casino fare is downright unappealing to me. I just don't get why wasting one's earnings in the hope of *maybe* getting lucky is fun. :-P

Peg (my wife) plays slots for fun. Penny slots where she gets the thrill of occassionally turning her 16-25 cent bet into 3 or 4 dollars. I play poker for 5 or 6 hours while she spends $20 on the slots and we walk away with me counting my winnings and replacing her lost $20 and her having had fun. You can't go to the movies on $20 and I get to enjoy the game without her calling and saying "Are you done yet?" like I get at the local poker games.

+1 Draugnar. I am a pretty avid poker player, and going to the casino is fun. You can usually pick up enough cash to afford the casino food, which is always good! I have to stick to the Indian casinos though because I am not yet 21.

How old do you have to be to get into the Res. casinos?

Haha, I forgot, it seems I wouldn't even be allowed into silly American casinos. Yay for an 18 yr old drinking age! ;)

Seriously though, 21? It is positively inhumane, and ridiculously ineffective. :P

UK ftw :D
Saying that, still haven't actually been to a casino.

I've been to a few casinos. The food is generally pretty good. When not eating I generally make for the roulette table, but casino poker is ok too. Not as much fun as real poker.

@Jamie - Casinos *have* real poker. At least the ones I go to do. The WPT Poker Room at the Hollywood is one of the finest poker rooms in the world. Mike Sexton raves about it on the WPT Tour TV show. Part two of the inaugural Hollywood Open is on tonight I believe. I've got it set to DVR. You can walk in any day of the week and sit down at a $1/$3 or $2/$5 No-Limit or $3/$6 or $5/$10 Limit or even an Omaha or Omaha Hi-Lo game and take money from (or donate to) the other players at the table. I don't know where you play that the casinos only have those table games where it's your hand versus the dealers hand, but most of Indiana's casinos have a real poker room.

All the casinos I've gone to in the UK have real poker. Smaller ones (such as Grosvenor casino in Bristol) generally just have half a dozen or so over a weekend, but the larger ones have two or three tournaments every day. Compared to other casino games live poker is relatively cheap even if you're a complete no hoper, and when you add free drinks and snacks to the mix it's a bloody good value evening's entertainment.

Unfortunately, only the non-alcoholic drinks are free in Indiana. I think it has something to do with their gaming laws, but can't say for sure. However, they aren't outrageous in price. Just set aside $5 for each drink and you'll have the drink and tip covered with ease. The casino is pretty lenient about letting you pull $5 from your stack to cover your drink even in no-limit games. Oh, and take a big bad beat and most of the players at the Hollywood will buy you a drink with what used to be your money. I took one a month back and at least got a Crown Royale out of it. Pocket 8s with a pair of twos and one over card (a Queen) on the table. Hit the third 8 on the river boating my hand and making it the third nuts. Son of a gun had pocket Qs and took some serious cash off of me. He had been slow playing so I didn't put him on more than 2 pair or a set of 2s. But whatcha gonna do? Only two hands (pockets 2s or pocket Qs) could beat me...

Normally it's only non alcoholic drinks free in the UK (although this is due to cost over any law I know of), but you'll often find a casino giving away a few pints of beer as a promotion. I'll avoid starting any tales of my bad beats or I'll be here all night! As with war, it's better to be lucky than good.

I'll definitely take lucky any day. Worst beat in terms of money I ever had was a flopped flush with an openended straight flush that the guy who called me had the Ace in the suit and got lucky to get one of the 5 cards on the river that gave him the flush and didn't give me the straight flush. Cost me $600, but I was laready up $1100 that night, so I called it a night and walked away with $500 profit (off a $300 buyin). Best bad beat I ever gave out was a flopped straight, turned flush, rivered straight flush that also gave my opponent Qs full. He was pissed. I had him the whole way over his 2 pair, but the paired Q on the river made him think he had it with the boat (hey, only the straight flush could beat him). Took $450 off him. I ducked out after that hand as he was getting a bit drunk and I didn't feel like watching an altercation occur.