Paul,

You bring up some very good points that I will try to address.

"The big difference is that in gambling, one is trying to enhance ones riches "the easy way," not by working for it but by taking it from someone else."

If one is playing the "smart" games, it is a lot of work and practice to acquire the skills necessary to stay with or beat the house (or in the case of poker, the opposing players). If it were a chess tournament, would you feel the same way?

"Kerry, would you be proud to say to your parents, grandparents, or even a new acquaintance that when asked, your profession was that of a professional gambler? Would you choose that profession for your children?"

I'll answer the last part first. I would not choose that profession for me or my children because it is a very unstable way to make a living. Only a few people have both the skills, and the bankroll to weather the extremes of that profession. And one of my children is a recovered substance abuser. With the amount of alcohol flowing in casinos, it would not be wise to "live" in that environment.

I also wouldn't choose stock speculation, panning for gold, professional boxing, etc. I'm basically a conservative person. I would not be proud to say that I was spending non-disposable income that way. The money that I spend gambling is recreation money.

"I understand the morals of the current society; The "me first" syndrom, the two mom theory, the non-marriage living together even with children acceptance, the liberal justice system, the blame the other guy attitude without ever accepting personal responsibility, the "taking advantage of the system" thinking. etc."

Actually you would find that we are pretty close in our views on morality. And I think personal responsibility is the key to my feelings on gambling. I seldom go to movies, out to eat, to amusement parks, etc. I save that recreation money for trips to Las Vegas for my wife and me.

It gets us out of town and allows us to do something that demands concentration, thereby freeing our minds from our everyday problems and routine. We are nickel players, use our slot cards faithfully, play video poker almost entirely. We look for the games with the the higest player expection, redeem our slot points for cash or comps in order to lower the house edge. Basically, we're tightwads (except we try to be fair tippers). Sorry for the long post.

Kerry