Rum and Gambling

As I sip my rum at the bar I see these... these... well, Americans. They came all the way over here to enjoy the cool beach, drink some nice cheap rum... but, most importantly, they came to gamble the night away. Sure, this could be a vacation but I have not seen so many old ladies playing on the slot machines or men trying to woo these girls to sleep with them. Glistening lights fill the rooftops, ladies in miniskirts dancing around customers and tables left to right looking as magnificent as a Victoria ’s Secret supermodel. Men are bedecked in Giorgio Armani suits and women are wearing something designed by Vera Wang and her ilk. Alcohol flows from glass to lips of the sharply dressed spectators of players, while these waitresses in miniskirts and high heels keep dancing as they transport drink after drink. Flashing lights catch one corner of my eye: I can see the slot machine in my periphery announcing “Jackpot: 1,254,153” and it keeps climbing slowly. Then in the middle of this orgy of gorgeous women, alcohol, lights, and suited men, there is a craps table with people surrounding it tightly all around. At one end stands a man with countless stacks of chips, who just keeps on winning and winning as he is surrounded by a growing throng of beautiful women trying to flirt their way into his pants and his money. It looks like an normal casino movie scene (except it happens in Vegas a lot more). The man keeps playing, winning ever again and again. However, some of us might see what comes to the end of this. He places one last bet, a bet of hubris and his ultimate doom. Going with the crowd he puts himself all in and says he will row a six. The dice strike against the padded part of the further wall and tumble. As the dice lay there the man turns white and cannot believe it. People start leaving the table, the women leave his side. He stands there, staring through the tears in his eyes at the snake-eyes on the table, his fortune and money lost in that one toss. Oh, the simple beauties in life... greed abounds.

Gambling of any kind is illegal. Yes that includes having your company buddies betting on a March Madness pool. Ridiculous? I haven’t even started yet. The beauty of all this is how they say “gambling” can destroy lives and leave people without money and damage their friends and family. Hmmm, that’s odd... I seem to recognize that from, well... just about any other addiction that I can think of. I will focus more on a drug that is very lethal, very problematic, very damaging, very addicting -- you get the point, this drug just plain-out sucks. That drug, might you believe, is legal? It’s alcohol. Yes, the ongoing battle with alcohol. Personally, I don’t have a problem with it; there’s nothing quite like a glass of rum to take the edge off. However, for a drug that is legal and supposedly somewhat safer than other drugs -- because logic would state that it is LEGAL -- then would one be absurd in assuming that it kills or damages lives less then gambling? Yeah, well, if you have not caught on with my sarcasm yet, you must’ve already fallen asleep or succumbed to the delerium tremens. In fact, I will let your mind explore. When is the last time you have heard of a hit-and-run because of gambling? How about liver failure or liver cancer because of gambling? Yes, there are a few psychological problems which can be exacerbated by gambling but so too do these inhibiting neuroses exist within alcohol and even tobacco use. Yet they both are perfectly legal.

Want me to give you an example of irony? The American government prohibits gambling yet they leave one of the biggest gambling meccas of them all open for us to wager everyday. Don’t know what it is? Well I will give you a clue: there is a bald man on television a lot that screams his head out on CNN about how all these problems blah blah blah. I am talking about Wall Street. All these companies who are wagered upon every single freaking day in hopes that eventually you might reap some extra money for your gamble. Yeah I am talking about that channels where they have that annoying ticker on the bottom with sub names of companies either red or green, or going up and down in money. Wall Street has destroyed the millions of people’s lives here in America ; thousands are jobless and will eventually end up homeless.

Doesn’t that sound like a swell thing to do? Yeah, and it’s perfectly legal. Yet it is still the same thing in essence as betting on Seabiscuit to win the Kentucky Derby. You really have no idea if you’re going to win or not. People argue that you can make it big on Wall Street. Yeah, like Warren Buffet, or even Keynes. However, that is just as ridiculous as saying there will be flying cars in our lifetime. Sure, there are many wealthy millionaires and billionaires. However, the majority of them started their own businesses. Rarely does one have but fleeting success playing around shuffling money between market bets. Playing in the stock exchange is way trickier and way more daring.

Few have succeeded. But if you look at the annual poker tournament on that wonderful sports network, ESPN, you see people go in who can afford to go in and still come out with a lot of money. The winner takes a few million dollars for his patience of staying in long enough to outlast his competitors a few days, and they get this cool little diamond-encrusted bracelet. See, now that’s something to brag about.

I myself am not a gambler but when I see an injustice like this and opportunity for the government to cash in on some desperately-needed cash, then by jolly golly I will talk about it. People might complain Sin City won’t be the same or the Native Americans will get screwed over. But let’s be perfectly honest: where will you still go for a casino? Both those places. Also, it’s Sin City ! Anybody forget that “What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas”?

This actually plays right in to my next point. How does the federal government justify a ban... I don’t know, but did they forget that Las Vegas and Atlantic City are both part of the United States ? Do these places simply not exist in their eyes? What is it, moral reconstruction in the slot machines? Or did it get sold off to Mexico when we weren’t watching the TV? I would have noticed. If the government wishes to take a moralistic stance, it should be following all the rules all the time and forcing these places to adhere to the same standards that the other states are. If we are suffering, then all of them should have to suffer.

　
Gambling is just something we need, just like alcohol or even cigarettes, to blind us momentarily to our daily struggle with everyday life. I see it in every person’s eye that I saw in the casino that night and morning. It is just one of those human needs, kind of like how we need food, sleep or sex from time to time. It’s not bad; it’s what makes us human. Everybody has gambled at some point in their life. It could have been something stupid like, “Should I take that last shot of tequila?” when you are close enough to getting drunk but don’t want to be drunk. However, if you take the shot you will probably manage to get drunk. We gamble with our health and with our lives every time we go out in public.

But it is 5: 45 in the morning now. I am kinda drunk as I leave the Hotel La Concha and I have a thirteen-block walk to get to my nice apartment in front of the beach. The sun is starting to rise from the sea, a beautiful morning to end my entertaining night. However, I see a cloud blocking my oh-so-faithful sunlight. Well damn... there goes a beautiful morning.

Submitted 8/31/09

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