gambler

amber gambler

slang A driver who speeds through an intersection just before the traffic light is about to turn red. The middle (yellow) traffic signal is often referred to as being the color amber. Primarily heard in UK. If you keep being a reckless ambler gambler, you're going to get into a car accident soon enough!
See also: amber, gambler

tinhorn gambler

A cheap, small-stakes gambler who boasts and dresses ostentatiously to seem more successful or skilled than they really are. An allusion to the dice game "chuck-a-luck," which features a chute, called a "horn," from which the dice are dispensed. More high-class leather horns were often substituted with makeshift tin ones, and thus cheaper, lower-stakes gamblers were known for their tin horns. He always wears the same three-piece suit and slicks his hair back like he's the Great Gatsby when he comes in to play, but everyone knows he's just a tinhorn gambler who taps out after losing a couple hundred bucks.
See also: gambler
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

tinhorn gambler

An unsuccessful player. In the dice game of chuck-a-luck, backroom players tossed the dice not with their hand but out of a small metal handheld cage called the “horn” (more upscale games used leather horns). Hence, the “tin horn” noun that became the “tinhorn” adjective when applied to nickel-dime gamblers. “Tinhorn” sounds as though it might also refer to a musical instrument, and composer Frank Loesser took advantage of that sound-alike association with “Fugue for Tinhorns” in his musical Guys & Dolls.
See also: gambler
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • amber gambler
  • gamblers
  • stuck in traffic
  • tie traffic up
  • tie up traffic
  • give someone/something the green light
  • give (one) the green light
  • give somebody/get the green light
  • get the green light
  • green light, get/give the
References in periodicals archive
The IRS does not, however, explain how wagering transactions are aggregated, if at all, if one spouse is a recreational gambler and the other is a professional gambler.
Because the court held that the taxpayer was a casual gambler in 2012 and 2013, his wagering gains were included in his gross income for each year, and he was allowed an itemized deduction each year for his wagering losses to the extent of the gains included in that year's gross income.
About 3 to 7% of our population can be classified as problem gamblers, and 1 to 3% meet criteria for gambling addiction.
Gamblers in Ceredigion were the country's lowest losers with players being out of pocket by PS168.
Understanding & Treating the Pathological Gambler. NYC, NY: Wiley & Sons.
Understanding and Treating the Pathological Gambler. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Most of the Internet gamblers 78.6% (n = 22) had reached the age for legal gambling (i.e., 18 years), but 21.4% (n = 6) were underage.
Tepperman wants to build a grounded theory approach to understanding (and treating) problem gamblers by examining their social networks and the influence of spouses.
"Unless gamblers are aware that these transactions are treated differently from normal everyday purchases, they will be losing money hand over fist as the top rate of interest stacks up," said Richard Brown, chief executive of Moneynet.co.uk.
Studies show casinos don't necessarily create new problem gamblers, Hynes said.
For example, one study found that 32% of pathological gamblers and 36% of problem gamblers had been arrested, compared with 4.5% of those who had never gambled.
She said: "Individuals don't wake up and say: 'I'm going to be a compulsive gambler when I grow up.
At this point, Jonny Magic becomes a standard-issue gambler's-success story; which is to say, it becomes boring and trite.
But Gambler's Anonymous UK blasted the casino bosses who placed the add and insisted Gamblers Anonymous had nothing to do with it.
The findings are published in "Profile of the American Casino Gambler: Harrah's Survey 2003," a study of U.S.