The Gambler
SO YOU don’t gamble?
Yeah, right. So, wasn’t it you I saw buying a lotto ticket the other day?
And who was that buying raffle tickets for the church fund-raiser last week? Not you?
And don’t you play bingo, too?
Do you rush for the store that offers big prizes if you buy goods worth a certain sum and fill out coupons to enter the competition? Is that gambling or not?
Thousands of people here still bet on the horses and there’s been no hue and cry that I can remember.
The betting shops pay (or should be paying) taxes and employ people and I don’t see church groups organising street protests demanding that they be shut down.
I haven’t heard about the police going after those Sunday gamecock fights that are so popular or the song bird contests where bets run into the thousands of dollars.
And what about the horse cart races on some highways where bets are placed?
Some people bet on anything and if they want to do so, it’s their money and their choice.
It will be an entirely different matter if they steal my or other people’s money to gamble on snail races, for example.
I do not buy lotto tickets but I’ve bought raffle tickets for church and other groups raising funds without any great expectation of winning anything.
I won a prize once at a dance I went to with friends while studying in London. (No, it wasn’t a prize for dancing but a cake or something like that on a raffle.)
I can’t recall winning anything else at a raffle.
I wonder if the punters are taking bets on the chances of heavy rains with the international 20/20 cricket tournament games around the corner here.
Fillies and other horses at the tracks are good enough attractions for me but I don’t bet on the horses.
The point is that there is a lot of gambling in this society and most people will not ignore a chance of getting some quick and easy money by betting.
During a visit to Atlantic City in New Jersey several years ago, I checked out the casinos but didn’t play the slot machines or the other games of chances offering a shot at easy money.
It was, however, fascinating to see so many old people sitting around passing the time and taking chances. A relative told me many Guyanese frequently take bus trips there for the fun and the gambling.
So I find it bemusing that there’s a hullabaloo because President Bharrat Jagdeo has said excluding Guyanese from gambling in the newly-opened Princess Casino at Providence on the East Bank Demerara is akin to discrimination.
I’m not going to get into the argument about why Guyanese were in the first place debarred from trying their hand at the slot machines, card games, roulette or whatever at the casino.
There were discussions with religious and other groups and a long debate about that before the decision was taken but I agree with those who argue that it infringes on the freedom of choice of Guyanese.
And it all looks more than a bit skewered considering the other widespread forms of gambling nobody bothers about.
For me, it boils down to the advice given by the old man in `The Gambler’, the Kenny Rogers’ country and western hit of 1978:
“You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away, know when to run
You never count your money, when you’re sittin’ at the table
There’ll be time enough for countin’, when the dealin’s done.”
All life’s a gamble and the thing is to know when to walk away and when to run.