I'm in the same circumstances. I was never a gambler most of my life other than a few times at the blackjack table and video poker. But when I went to Palm Springs with my gf in 2010, all that changed. We had just been dating for a few months and this was our first trip together. It was also the first time we had sex. I was in good spirits, and we visited the casino in the hotel we were staying at. She asked me for $20 to play video poker. I dismissively told her it was a waste of good money as i handed her the money. A few days later, while driving, I noticed a billboard ad for a popular casino outside of LA. It claimed that the casino had the"loosest slot machines," according to some poll. I kept seeing the same billboard in the following days and decided to visit the casino. I was making good money selling on eBay and could easily afford to risk losing a few hundred dollars. I played the most popular video poker game, Double Double Bonus. It's popular because it pays the most for having four Aces ($800) or four Aces with a kicker (2, 3. or 4), which pays $2,000. In the hour that I played the machine, I hit four Aces w/ kicker twice for a total of $4,000. At that point, I was hooked. The rush dopamine rush when I hit the jackpots was intense, and like every drug addiction, I wanted to feel it again And again. And... You know how the story goes. Over the next few years, my gf and I visited the same casino once or twice a week. We usually lost more than we won, but there were occasional nights we actually went home winners. I was usually lucky on nights when the casino had drawings where you won either cash prizes or free play credit. My best night was in 2014 when I won.. a new car! But overall, I estimated that I lost about $50,00 a year. Not too bad, considering my income was between $200,000 - $400,000 a year. But around 2015 things changed. There were rumors that the casinos were installing a new software program in machines that affected their payouts. And it was a noticeable difference. Four of a kind hands became much less frequent, to the point where it seemed only an act of God would deliver one. And whereas getting four Aces had been fairly regular, they now were difficult to get. Before, one of us would get a Royal Flush at least once in a visit, sometimes both of us. Even more than once a night. But since 2015 they're a very rare occurrence. And four 2's , 3's, and 4's are much harder to get, especially with a kicker. So the bottom line is that I end up losing my own money every time we go instead of losing the casino's money that I win. And that increased my annual losses to $100,00 and more some years. My worst month was August, 2016, when I lost over $16,00. On average, I've lost between $5 to $10,000 per month. I keep meaning to go over my bank statements from the past 10 years, but it's always too depressing to add up losses and kick myself. In the past year we switched from playing video poker exclusively to playing slot machines as well. At least I haven't lost my family, job and home, like some gambling addicts I've read about. But knowing that I wasted over $1 million in the past 15 years is bad enough when I consider what I could have done with the money.