40 Comments
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Cami Fateh's avatar

Today’s letter made me want to go back to the MGM in Northern Virginia that I loved so much in college

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

Putting it on my list, Cami - I just figured out how to play craps, and it's my dream to go to a casino every state

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Gabrielle Scelzo's avatar

I'm gonna skip Thanksgiving w my family to go play blackjack at Atlantic City now

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Emily Sundberg's avatar

Girl you won’t like it

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Gabrielle Scelzo's avatar

True, I'm a Vegas girl

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

Atlantic City is admittedly pretty scary, and I don't really think Gaby would like it. But because it's so close to the water, you'll sometimes see seagulls flying through the casino. Which is the peak of life and I do think she would like

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Emily Sundberg's avatar

I saw some birds in LaGuardia airport last week

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

I love inside birds

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Gabrielle Scelzo's avatar

But I'm still taking the chiefs tomorrow

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

You gotta go with your heart, babe

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

Does anyone want to bet on if this article made my mom worry about how much I love gambling? "Yes" is starting off at -180

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Emily Sundberg's avatar

does she sub

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

You bet ;)

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Emily Sundberg's avatar

Ok so does anyone gamble or what

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Elisabeth Donnelly's avatar

I made my 20 on Kalshi into 200 thanks to Zohran and calling the Cannes winner but have been ever so slowly losing it thanks to dumb bets on like “the mayoral race spread” but I really, really regret not betting on the Nobel prize for literature because everyone was at about 10% but all of a sudden the eventual winner surged to 20 … money was left on the table. I also think these markets are ripe for messing with when it comes to relatively niche things.

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Emily Sundberg's avatar

How often do you use Kalshi

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

I hear you Elizabeth, a lot of that stuff seems pretty dubious. Did you see this guy who just listed all the Polymarket props he was predicted to mention at the end of his earnings call? It's my dream to game the system like that some day. https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/01/coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrong-trolls-the-prediction-markets/

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

Yes

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Delanie's avatar

"betting apps have led to a scourge of young men placing money on same-game parlays that would be better spent on Natty Lite or Adderall," great stuff

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

Thanks Delanie - I do believe that somewhere out there is a platonic balance of the three, but who knows if our young men will ever find it

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Tatayana's avatar

Really refreshing to read this on gambling with all the discourse surrounding it lately. Lucky Number Slevin is one of my favorite films for anyone who loves diving into that world. I think the most important part of this letter was when Jack said “It’s about that moment when the dice are in the air, when you’re suspended between two outcomes. That is why we do it.” Beautifully said.

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Tatayana's avatar

I think you’ll enjoy it, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu really keep you fighting about who you love more. I also love a long con, let me know if you end up watching I’d love to hear your thoughts. Also, my friends and I make fun of Rounders and still randomly quote it.

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

Nice, I will watch those. California Split is also a banger

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

Thanks Tatayana, was trying to bring some fresh air to a topic that seems to only exist on piped-in oxygen

I've never seen Lucky Number Slevin, but I'll check it out. I usually find gambling films to be pretty bad because it doesn't seem like the screenwriters ever actually understand it. Rounders is my least favorite. I like Hardball the best because it taught me what a spread was when Keanu celebrates after the Bulls only lose by 4

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Ruci's avatar

This was beautiful. Thank you Jack. Like my father before me, I'm a Bills fan first and a Packers fan second. Jordan Love famously does well during Toyotathon and Jared Goof will be sacked by Micah Parsons at least once. I cannot wait for tomorrow.

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

Thank you, Ruci. The Toyotathon angle is an extremely hot tip that I am only just learning about, and makes me feel even more confident. Those passing numbers are wild. If I worked at Toyota, I'd make it year-round, and ride those low prices all the way to the bank #GoPackGo

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Patrick's avatar

Thanks for the picks, Jack – I don’t think I can go against the Texas kid playing in Cowboys stadium for the first time though

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Emily Sundberg's avatar

When he’s done driving to Maine I’ll get him in the comments

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

Patrick, I got to Maine, and I can tell you that I'm grateful at least one of us is coming out on top tomorrow

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Kevin Caballes's avatar

Not on the infatuation list but I've had a much easier time getting reservations at TATIANA, Managed to grab three separate 7pm reservations the past month.

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Emily Sundberg's avatar

How was it? i still haven't been!!!

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Tanay Kothari's avatar

I think you can tell a lot about a person based on whether they typically bet on their favorite teams to win (ride-or-die, maybe a bit driven by emotion) or lose (hedging their way through life). Unfortunately I'm in the first category AND my favorite teams are all terrible.

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

This is exactly right - life is too short to always take the Thunder. And loving bad teams is why they invented taking the points

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rb's avatar

betting culture, props, ridiculous parlays all that crap is so insane and stupid these days. real heads if they’re not at a casino cherish the old traditions of using a bookie or using bovada to bet on some tuesday night middle tennessee state football nobody cares about

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

Real heads boycotted Bovada after they took three months to pay out my Packers/Biden parlay in 2020 bc Trump wouldn't concede

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rb's avatar

exquisite

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Tanay Kothari's avatar

Jack, we need to know what your most degenerate / random sports bet of all time was. In 2019 I figured out that the Latvian betting website I definitely wasn’t using had all baseball prop bets involving rookies priced the same, because they didn’t consider any minor league stats. So I did about ten hours of research to win something like $35.

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

Really good question - i mentioned this in another comment, but before I gave up parlays, I took the Packers over 26.5 points in a random October game, and Biden to win the 2020 election, and when Bovada refused to pay it out until Trump conceded, I wrote them a 900 word email about election norms in America and how the peaceful transfer of power is supposed to work in this country

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Dennis's avatar

Love to gamble, but my rule is only in person. Tried Kalshi once and ended up spending 3+ hours of screentime checking the app and making bets. On the bright side I did end up getting out up $25, but could feel the addiction starting..

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Jack Mankiewicz's avatar

This is an extremely solid rule that I would recommend to anyone who loves gambling too much lol. I had to resort to it for poker because playing online feels too much like a video game and it makes me play irresponsibly. But on the flipside I feel like every time I go play in a casino, I get my soul absolutely destroyed by Australian pros wearing dreamcatcher earrings(this has happened more than once). There's a possibility I might just be bad at poker

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