i am not immune to gambling. i like it in some ways. i like the risk involved. as vices go, this is a very interesting one. heroin, cocaine, alcohol. all of them involve highs and lows. but when you study the available information, and you make a choice, and hand over your money and wait, staring or listening to the decision as it unfolds, there is no sense of anticipation like it in this world. nothing can give you that sense of gratification. the routine, the job, the family, the debt, it all goes away. if nothing else, it nurtures a sense of identity: I made a decision, i took a risk, and I WAS RIGHT.
unfortunately, gambling is an institution that is laughed at by the higher echelons of society. they gamble too, but they can afford to lose. gambling is the greatest and the worst of all vices. homes are lost. jobs are lost. families are lost. these places should be torn down. they are slaughterhouses, they are houses of torture.
something fatally flawed exists, not in our brains, but in how society interacts and manipulates our brains. the allure of the win. the material world bombarding us with messages. if nothing else, it proves we are not rational decision makers.
january is statistically the worst for the working man’s finances. but this is an all year round thing. relentlessly tugging at the poor, to part with their cash on a long shot, and they leave these places empty handed into the unforgiving light.