Can gambling make money?

[Sasso]

----IMPORTANT EDIT AT THE BOTTOM FROM 2024----

Ahh the Oasis slot machines. Ask anyone playing in late 2016 and they'll tell you that the slots used to be great money for the first week or so, untill the odds were fixed and now it's a bit more even (I guess the house really does always win). Since then you might only go to play slots to see some sexy girls holding giant fruit. But can the slots really still be profitable? 

Experiment. Begin the week with $5000. I will spend half an hour every day for a whole week at the slot machines, each time betting $50, and record here where I get each day. If I run out of cash, the experiment ends early.

Day 1: Start:$5000
High:$7550
Low:$3650
End:$4300
Profit:-$700
Early start looked promising, with two 25x's close together, but lost half of it in the second half. Kept drifting between the high 3000's to 5000, then ran out of
time $700 in the hole.

Day 2: Start:$4300
High:$7550
Low:$1950
End:$6300
Profit: $2000
Had a hard time breaking out of the 3000's today after losing a grand fast. Things looked bleak when I hit an all time low of $1950 but managed to land triple lucky 7's, giving a sweet payout of $3750, followed by a x25 putting us at our best of $7750. Scary to think that if we hadn't gotten lucky when things looked bad the experiment might have met an untimely end.

Day 3: Start:$6300
High:$8650
Low:$6300
End:$6750
Profit:$450
Unexciting day today lads. Biggest payout was a measly X25 once, then everything else drifted between 6000 to 8000. Surprisingly never dropped below the starting kitty, and ended on a small profit, so can't complain today boys.

Day 4: Start:$6750
High:$8550
Low:$5750
End:$6500
Profit:-$250
Mixed bag today, no massive losses but did land x50's twice, which trickled out. Things hung around the 6000-8000 mark again, and did end up losing a bit by the end, but all in all today wasn't too bad.

Day 5: Start:$6500
High:$6500
Low:$2600
End:$2600
Profit:-$3900
If these numbers look bad, it's because they are. Today was a total mess, losing the most I've lost so far in the experiment and never making a profit. Three times I dropped between $3500-$4000 then claw my way back up with a lucky X25, but it would at most only put us back to our original $5000, which would loudly gurgle down the drain. Bad day.

Day 6: Start:$2600
High:$2600
Low:$0
End:$0
Profit:-$2600
So uhhh...Yeah....

Conclusion: Can gambling make money? The answer is a solid maybe. While we had some great streaks and made some impressive dough, when we started the downhill slope we rode it all the way to the bottom. The main thing about playing slots is that x2, x5, x10, and cherries are only there to make you break even. You only really profit from hitting anything 25x or above. The rest of the time is just a slow grind downwards.

If you want to make money playing slots, I have some advice.
First, know how much you're prepared to lose. Between one and two thousand is fair, but it's really up to you.
Second, quit while you're ahead. Day 3/4 saw us top out around the mid 8000's, which if I hadn't been playing to my own rules I would have walked away at.
Third, You're not guaranteed anything. If I hadn't hit a x75 in the second day, I might have lost it all straight at the start. But just because I got l lucky when things were heading south doesn't mean you will. It's totally possible you'll hit 3 x100's in a row. It's also possible you'll never get any payouts at all and lose everything in the first 20 minutes. Don't fall for gamblers logic, or you'll end up picking pennies off the sidewalk.

Thanks everyone for being interested in the journey. I'd love to repeat the experiment again if I come into some money, but who knows when that might be. Maybe if someone would be interested in financing another go around, but I'm not going to start begging for money through the forums.

EDIT FROM 2024: Because of the nature of this post it has started to attract alot of spam accounts that have posted links to external gambling websites. Please remember DO NOT CLICK THESE LINKS. Just report them as spam and move on. I know I don't post that much now but this thread was one of my favorites, but if it continues to attract spam I may remove it. It was posted in 2019, I'm okay to say its run its course. Stay safe online.