Quote Originally Posted by chinamaniac View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Lurker1998 View Post

This is actually a very good and interesting point. I think that is right....he is not deriving any enjoyment from making people happy. He does enjoy gaining credibility with people. In fact,I think he derives secret joy in the fact that the truth is he is a sh*t eating scum, but through a few little tricks he is able to manipulate peoples' minds into believing he is an amazing person. At bottom, he is a manipulator and that is his thing. His joy comes from the successful manipulation. That manipulation takes many forms. Unfortunately, one of the sharpest and most pungent forms of manipulation he practices is the extreme pain infliction manipulation.
Do you think he feels any guilt when he scams people and is just addicted to it and that is all he knows? Like let's say NoNameplease shipped him 100,000. Do you think in the back of his mind he has any sort of "Fuck I just screwed them hard" but he knows he has to move onto the next thing.

Also if he wasn't a gambling addict he could potentially be retired right now.
Excellent and insightful question. I do not think he feels any guilt. Having known him personally, I would have thought he would feel guilt. However, once I read the Martha Stout book, it opened my eyes and made me all of a sudden realize that there are actually people out there incapable of feeling guilt. If you have not read that book, I strongly encourage you to read it. Having experienced Falcone -- once you read that book it is going to be eerie, but it is also going to help you understand the phenomenon that he is a lot better.

In terms of the gambling addiction point....how much money do you think he has blown on other people? There is no question he blows money on people and he loses money gambling (although in the gambling he has two bites at the apple because he can use his gambling losses to built up creds with potential victims). My take is that he loses more money seeding it into future victims than he does gambling (sometimes he actually does hit winners in the gambling -- although not on a net basis of course). However, it might be something worth investigating.......I have heard stories of his extravagant spending on people that easily tops any of the stories I have heard about his big bets. I really do not know any gambling addicts who steal money so they can give gifts to and impress strangers. That just does not fit the profile of gambling addicts I know. Most gambling addicts are too concerned about getting their jones to be spending valuable money on something that doesn't give them a high.

I do not think he has ever had retirement money at any one point. Sure he has swindled many millions of dollars from people, but that has been spread out over time and he has been using that swindled money to set up future scams.