Sup fellow degens, 

Usually, when I sit down to write this letter to you, my blood pressure is already spiking.

I'm watching the charts and the bloodbath looks like a crime scene, dodging liquidation emails, and listening to Discord mods shill the next to-the-moon token. 

But today is different. I'm feeling reflective and feeling nostalgic. 

Maybe it's the bear market grinding my soul to the dust.

Either way, I took some time in between meetings and found r/gambling subreddit that I used to read a few years prior. The thread that I found was: "How did you get into gambling?”

A simple question. Yet, soul-crushing. 

I was expecting stories about Vegas benders, discovering blackjack at 11, and high school exuberance. 

What I found was much darker: we were groomed by those who love us the most, our families. 

Fathers. Grandmas. Uncles. Video games. Christmas stockings. 

We weren't born degenerates. We also didn't just become it. We were carefully moulded, one scratch-off at a time. 

After reading over 50 comments, the pattern became clear: we were not born degenerates. We just ended up as Pavlov’s dog. 

For some it all started with simple quarters and scratch-offs, or bingo dabbers. 

Here are some real stories from the subreddit: 

"I blame opening packs of Pokémon and Magic The Gathering as a kid in the 90s as my gateway into gambling. Nothing beat that feeling of finally getting that card you had been chasing after opening so many packs..." 

This one hit me hard. Before EA created loot boxes and made us shoot our way through it, Wizards of the Coast were already conditioning us. The psychological manipulation is identical: 

You're buying a randomized card hoping for that holographic Charizard.

The dopamine hit when you finally pulled it? That's exactly you're chasing now when you hit the 1000x win on a slot. 

The pack never changes, just the wrapper.

What do you become when your dad makes you pull the slot machine and rewards you for the win? 

"I was about 8 or 9 my dad started having me scratch half the lottery tickets he bought for 'good luck.' He'd throw me 5 bucks or so if it won some money.”

Their dad outsourced the manual labor of scratching cards to a child and threw them crumbs when it paid off. The child (probably) thought:

“I'm the good luck charm making my dad win. Daddy is proud of me" 

“Let me use my good luck for myself," they added later. 

And a degen was born. 

"My grandfather took me to the racetrack at 2. Placed my first bet ($2 show) at 5 and the rest is history from there…I'm 41 now and still bet every weekend on the horses worldwide.”

This guy placed his first bet when he was 5. He's 41 now. That's 36 years of well-formed concrete-slabbed addiction. 

His grandfather didn't just take him to the racetrack; he created a lifelong customer for the gambling industry. The worst part, this was considered bonding. 

If you asked this person what their love language is, they probably would say “quality time." 

"5ish... our NaNa fucking had us local cousins over for the weekend often where we played board games like pokeno and we played with her fucking change... she gave me all my fucking addictions... board games... gambling... candy and snacks…”

The thing about grandmas is that they are mostly unassuming. But the energy in this comment shows that Nana’s house was fun! 

But at what cost? 

Nana wasn't just a sweet old lady. She was a drug dealer. 

Pokeno with real change at age 5. Candy. Snacks. The full sensory package. Their grandma was Ivan Pavlov, linking gambling with comfort, family, and sugar. 

That is not an accident. That's inactive conditioning.

Bro, I will tell you: it was nana's fucking house. 

"Saw an advertisement of an online casino, and played $10 once a week on roulette. I lost for 3 weeks but every time they were really nice 10 minutes. Then at the 4th week I hit a 700 multiplier with a $3 bet on a number and got $2000. I got so excited and thought I could pull that out again and ended up losing all of my earnings in 2 days. After that I started depositing my own money but on bigger amounts (not the initial $10). I was playing $100-$200 daily until I ran out of money and then started taking loans. Until today I still haven't paid them back. But I still gamble."

This person had no childhood conditioning. No grandma or scratch-offs. Just an ad and $10. 

I always said that the worst thing that can happen to you is that you win quickly at slots.

The feeling is so good that it fries receptors in your brain. It convinces you that you're special, you're above the variance. And that lucky lightning can strike the same spot twice but 99% of people are not suited to go the full distance.

Then all of a sudden, the debts are still pending. 

But just maybe the next one will hit…

It can't. 

This person ended their comment with: "Wouldn't recommend if you don't have auto control.”

Bro, no one has auto control after a 700x win. That's the point. The win is the trap. 

The trading card companies, the lottery commissions, the video game developers, the racetracks, the online casinos have spent billions perfecting the science of addiction.

Your only way to have a chance at winning over is to never start or to go full hardcore mode making gambling your entire lifestyle.

What should you do?

Choose now or be on a crossroads forever:

And if you can't walk away just yet, at least stop blaming yourself. Maybe, you were also dragged here as a child. 

TL;DR: Reddit's r/gambling asked "How did you get into gambling?" The answers are a trip.

Stay degen,

Dima