The Future of Video Poker

[Carcounter]

Yep, don't see VP paytables getting better in the future. The Golden age of VP is over. Wish we could go back to the good old days when VP players had to figure out for themselves what was a good play. I understand that revenue from legalized gambling in NJ is meeting or exceeding expectations, but that will change once NY gets it act together. Our governor Phil Murphy will legalize anything he can tax. Weed will be first probably followed by prostitution. Years ago, a talk radio host in NY had a guy who did a great Mario Cuomo imitation call in on April fools day and propose making criminals get a New York license before they could rob anyone. So if you are walking down a street in Manhattan and a guy pulls a gun and demands your wallet, you calmly ask for his NY criminal license. If he produces it, you have to hand over your wallet. The guy did such a great job that people believed it and started calling the governors office to complain about it.

[billryan]

Why shouldn't criminal activity be taxed?

[FloridaPhil]

Weed will be first probably followed by prostitution.

Why not? It's legal in Nevada.

[FAA]

After a big endorphin high from my first hand pay level RF, I hope to destroy, discard or conveniently lose my player card. Got to kill demand.

[notes1]

after 50 consecutive years of paying SS taxes, 47 years of paying fed income tax and 42 years of paying property taxes, i decided to retire at the end of 2018. no more SS tax, but the others will continue. never went to a casino until i was in my fifties. waited until the house was paid off and had a solid retirement fund foundation.

when i go to the casino and see young people there, i just ask myself, 'why'? although i do not drink, the tampa casino charges $6 for a beer and about $8 for a mixed drink. add in the cost of gambling, even if it is limited, and i wonder if there is not some better/more cost effective place for them to get some entertainment. i know i am an old goat, but it just seems that some folks just do not believe in delayed gratification. i have seen this for decades in my job providing financial advice for both boomers and the younger adults. some cannot differentiate between needs and wants. if i want it, then i need it.

[olds442jetaway]

Best of luck in retirement Notes. Yes, unfortunately, most of the younger set want everything now. but don’t want to work for it. There are exceptions of course. I have been retired over 15 years. Many have no interest in home ownership and from everything to computers to makeup they just say whatever it costs it costs. If they can charge it they will.

[notes1]

those of us in the 'gambling' public are restricted where we can play by government. in most jurisdictions (outside nevada), gambling licenses are handed out to the highest bidder or those who will give the largest financial 'kick back' to the state, in return for a monopoly. not a real incentive to provide a good value to the consumer. imagine, if the 'drinking' public had to enjoy their entertainment, under the same state laws. the only place they could buy a 6 pack or go out for a drink, was a state licensed facility that was sold to the highest bidder. what would be the cost to that same 'drinking' public? there would be riots in the streets and a return to bathtub gin.

some states skip the 'middle man' altogether, just keep everything for themselves. i make periodic trips to NY. in nearly every bar, restaurant, coffee shop, in the western part of the state, there is some form of gambling. lotteries, a form of computer keno (quick draw) or casinos that are state owned.

gamblers are nothing more than another source of revenue for politicians anxious to buy votes.

[olds442jetaway]

By the way Notes, I didnt start gambling either until we paid off the house. We worked our butts off and I had a part time business as well. We both hated debt and had no kids at the time and were able to pay off the mortgage in 6 years. It is easy to Monday morning quarterback, but in hindsight, we could have done better by pounding the Jimmy Carter 18.25 percent bank CDs a little harder and locking them up for the max 5 years. The only legal gambling we had close by was Jai Alai and the dog track an hour plus away. I enjoyed both, but would have done better sticking with the CDs.

[FloridaPhil]

I sold my business in 2001. I played my first video poker game in 2002. Building a business was gambling enough for me. When I was young I didn't have time to sit in a casino. I do now.

I don't see many young people trying to beat the casino. They go there to be entertained, meet people and hang out. They are used to high resolution graphics and sound. The games they play have lots of action. They don't normally play video poker for long because there's not much going on.

I see lazy people of all ages. That's not a new development. If given the same opportunities, 10% of every population will become highly successful. 10% will end up with nothing. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Most people that I meet understand hard work and saving is the key to success. Whenever you see someone with money, someone somewhere worked for it.

There will always be people that tend toward excess. Anything you can think of that humans like doing, someone will do too much of it. Some people will cause themselves and others damage in the process. I have met some of those people. I don't blame casinos. If it wasn't gambling that caused them trouble, it would have been something else.

Delaying gratification was not something I was good at. I wanted nice things and I knew I had to work to get them. My dreams drove me to work harder. I had big dreams, so I had to work smarter as well. Fortunately, I had some great mentors that started me saving when I was young. I never missed the money. I'll be 72 on February 11th. When I die and people come to send me off, I want a sign at the church door that says "Don't feel sad for me, I never missed a thing".

[Carcounter]

I don't see a lot of young people playing VP at the Borgata. They are there for the clubs and the entertainment. Some of them do appear to be successful and affluent and spend money freely. Maybe they work on Wall St.See a lot of fast expensive cars going south on the Garden State Parkway on Friday afternoons. They don't come down during the week though and that will eventually lead to the closure of perhaps another 2 casinos. Looks like Resorts may have found a weekday niche with a lot of seniors. I just turned 67 and still run my engineering consulting business. No plan on retiring for a while as my wife watches the grandkids and can't go somewhere warm for the winter. It's not bad though because when the weather warms up, I take as much time off as I want. I understand that you have to start taking minimum withdrawals from your retirement account at 70 &1/2 years old, so will reevaluate then.Good luck in retirement notes.