Not as much as you might think.....I play pretty small stakes (I think MM is a bit bigger than me) Culturally, my whole family do it. I love sport and it gives an added edge to any sporting event. Workwise - I worked for a big internet gambling company so know a bit Mathematically I enjoy simple probability and am quite analytical so like looking for patterns, data and finding 'value' as we'd say More recently, technology has meant that you can get much more fun for your buck, get reward points and bonuses and play around on something like Betfair with systems etc without risking much. I have taken out my initial amount I put in Betfair in 2006 and never put anything back in so I'm playing for free. It's a sort of geeks paradise as some geeks know! I love poker too and play a lot online. For me it's a true hobby that last year neted out at costing me about ?100 for hours of fun. One big night out. I never play roulette, the lottery or fruits - the probability soesn't work that's just giving money away