I play poker, and I do Vegas maybe once every 12-18 months. The poker tournaments in NH are pretty much low-level affairs (most $50 or less) and when I go to Vegas I leave the ATM card and any other cash generating plastic at home. I have X amount of cash per day, and once I go through that, I'm done.
Fortunately, I'm good enough at the poker it pays for itself. Vegas, meh. I don't go expecting to win. Nobody should.
Same thing with the lottery. Only when the Powerball/Megabucks hits the $200 M range will I buy ONE ticket. I remember seeing somewhere that something like 1/2 of all lottery millionaires are bankrupt within two years.
Oh, and as far as "joining the middle class", DUmmies: "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." -Thomas Jefferson