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There is a story of two guys sitting in
a bar watching the eleven o’clock news. On the news was the tragic story of
a guy standing on a ledge ten stories up and threatening to jump. One of the
men in the bar turns to the other and says, "I’ll bet you twenty bucks he
don’t jump." The other one says, "you’re on." Well, after a few horrifying
moments the fellow on the tenth floor jumps to his death. The guy in the bar
who made the bet took out ten dollars and gave it to the other man. Whereby
the other man says, "I won’t take your money, you see, I saw the news at ten
and I already knew the outcome." The other guy says, "Yea, I saw it too, but
I didn’t think he would jump the second time."
We have all made stupid bets at one time or other in our lives. Whether for
money or for just the challenge, we all like to take a chance on beating the
odds. In my time I have seen bets made from "If I loose, I’ll wash your car"
to people putting their entire fortune on the line. The truth of the matter
is, if you stay at the table long enough you will loose everything,
including your dignity. When they make that statement "what happens in
Vegas, stays in Vegas" they are really saying "the money you bring to Vegas,
stays in Vegas. You, your troubles, your attitude and your mojo can go back
with you to wherever you came from.
When I was in the army, I woud get into some of the floating card games that
were around the barracks. Sometimes we played for match sticks.... now that
was my best game. I would wind up with every match in the place and the
smokers would have to come to me to get a light for their smokes. Then there
were the games where we played for money, moolah, cash. Woe was me when it
came to playing for cash. My luck was so bad, if I had come up with four of
a kind, someone else would have a royal flush. The only thing I ever won
playing for money was an Elgin watch. The fellow was trying to bluff on a
hand and put it up for his share of the pot. It had no band and after I won
the pot I found that the watch didn’t work. I still have that watch. I keep
it as a reminder never to play for money and keep the bet on very very
friendly terms.
Every once in a while I’ll buy a dollar lottery ticket. I really don’t
expect to win, but I love dreaming of all the things I would do if I won the
money. Then the reality of it hits and I see all these horror stories about
people who have won and what it does to their lives and somewhere deep
inside I am glad I haven’t won.
One thing is for sure. if I ever do win, I’ll be sending one of these blogs
from the great state of Hawaii and while my wife learns the hula and I check
out the local hardware for a weedeater.
I have a friend that will make a wager on football games. He will even call
me from time to time to get my opinion on what team he should lay down good
money to try to beat the odds. Of course I know that he knows that if I tell
him a team is going to win he bets the complete opposite, because he knows I
have the worst luck in the world and nine out of ten teams I pick will be a
sure loser. I’ll bet you if I put a wager on a one horse race I couldn’t win
place.
So if we know the house is always favored to win and we know if we stay at
the table long enough the house will have all our money, why do we still
wager. Why to we still need to play against the odds? Why do we always need
to go against the house and hope we come out a winner? I think it is because
we hear the stories of those who take that one in a million shot and win. We
somehow feel that if we can win that lottery jackpot we will handle
ourselves different. We will not go off the deep end and find ourselves
suddenly broke and have absolutely nothing to show for our winnings. We can
win a huge pile of money on Saturdays football games and tell ourselves that
we are not like those others who plow all of it plus more back into the next
round, we will walk away from it all and never bet again. It always winds up
the same, we always end up with less than we started with and only more
miserable because we wasted it all and couldn’t control ourselves. That is
when the coulda, shoulda, woulda theory comes into play.
One thing is for sure. I’ll bet you we will bet again because it is like a
fever in the brain. A fever that gives you the biggest high when you win and
the biggest low when you lose.
You say to yourself, "I can quit anytime I want" well I will wager that you
can’t.
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