And just another misled post by vegaslover. So pardon my "insults" as I guide you.
1. The difference between when I played professionally vs. my recreational play today is simple. As a pro--and aside from the fact that I filed as a pro for 11 years--I used a $171,600 bankroll and played nearly every week, making the drive from Az. to all over Nevada and having specific win & loss goals while playing a specific strategy. Today, even though we've spent most of retirement in Rv parks throughout Nevada, I play an average of an hour every 2 weeks, with a $5000 or less bankroll and most of the time I have no goals and play with no specific strategy while playing far lower denomination-wise. As you can see from the posted pictures here, I've continued to do quite well--which wasn't really expected.The luck that allowed me to win $984,000 during my career and post so many big-hit pictures in my GT column for the nearly 8 years I wrote their most popular and read column ever, seems to have stayed with me....so far.
2. Please read with some type of comprehension instead of bias. You'll look better. You say you visit LV twice a year. There's no way you're responding to every offer you get, so you're not being reeled in like alan, arci, and most regular players are. Therefore, you don't "count". You have to ignore most of them. Some people just cannot--they think they're getting something "free" when all they're really doing is being played by the casinos. In my case, even though I get more offers than I use and I live closeby all of the casinos sending the offers, I'm able to choose not to go to them unless they fit my once-every-two-weeks (if that) play schedule. In essence, I control the casinos, while most regular slot club users are controlled very closely by them. The offers don't make my palms sweat like they once did when I was a failed AP, they don't make my heart race when opening and reading them, I don't get all giddy like Alan does as he runs on here to boast about how Rincon or Ceasars is "giving away" cash and multiple points to him, and I only go to any casino advertising such an offer if it fits my visit to that part of the area up here on the day I pre-chose to play. And as you've seen, I've done pretty well doing it this way, and I have zero need to make up winning like arci, who very curiously has never posted a picture of ANY of his supposed "wins" because, as I've said, he is lying about it. I also find it refreshing how Alan has no problem announcing, at least on another forum I just read, that he so far has lost $4200 ytd that includes all the many thousands in sacred slot club fluff, while blabbing incessantly about how many "points" he's scored on his Total Rewards card. His favorite line seems to be "I need a Royal". My friend, that is NOT gonna help you. You need someone to talk to about your problem.
3. I don't carry a weapon any more. That was tied into when I carried a large roll of cash to gamble.
4. The point about Brazil is, as you suspected, it's 3rd world through & through. Sao Paolo has a higher murder rate than Chicago. Rio's slums make the worst part of Philly seem like Heaven on Earth. Copa Cabana beach has turned into a bed of filth and harrassment by the local low lifes. The best part of the country is the jungle, even though it's filled with dangerous reptiles, carnivorous fish in the river, and trillions of miserable insects. On & on.
5. Yes, right now I am one of the main posters here, I play in casinos an hour every two weeks on average, AND I use a player's card. Yet I do not, as arci & Alan do, spend nearly every waking hour posting on a multitude of forums so they can think they're forcing their gambling opinions on a bunch of unknowns. as mentioned above, I certainly am not addicted to the slot card like Alan is, as depicted time and again by all his boasting of all the fabulous cash, gifts, free play, etc. etc. etc. he gets "for free" from the casinos out of the kindness of their hearts because he's a "loyal" customer, and once-every-two-weeks when there's even a casino at our RV park right now is a far cry from someone who either can't wait to run off to the casino every week for 6-7 hours of frenzied play just to get away from the home situation, and someone who eats, sleeps, and drinks casino gambling action in the form of craps, video poker, live poker, and is a gambling forum-junkie whenever he can't be in a casino or opening all the mailed-in offers.
You are not addicted to gambling if you use a slot club card. Just as I am not. But say a prayer for all the others.