Gambling for the sheer joy of it


I was talking to a good friend of mine yesterday, and he told me about a friend of his who had recently won a bunch of money playing the lottery, I think it was about half-a-million bucks or something. And this wasn't just a fluke, this person had been playing for years, and had invested a lot of time, and money. And at age 84, he won big. Real big!

So I asked what his friend was going to do with the money, which looking back now I realize was a silly question for me to ask. But in my defense, I'm not a gambling man. To me, it was just a story about a man suddenly getting a ton of bucks. But now that I've had time to ponder it, I think that I understand. He's going to do nothing with the money, and will probably just go on playing the lottery, because he enjoys it.

I have to admit to being kinda embarrassed that I missed this, but like I say, I've never been a gambling man. My excuse is the same thing that most people like me say, that I can't afford it, but that's not really true - I've known people who can barely afford to feed and clothe themselves and still have money for gambling. It brings joy into their life the same way that a cheeseburger does for me.

Now calm down there if you've jumped to the wrong conclusion already. Just because something doesn't appeal to me personally doesn't mean that I have an objection to it, or want to stop other people from enjoying it. In a long life I've known people who have derived pleasure from what I consider the strangest things, like eating sushi, or sitting in a stadium watching other people play a game. But I know that it brings them joy, which is wonderful. And I'm hoping that people will cut me some slack with the things that bring me joy, like collecting old photos of Phoenix.

The fact that I'm not a gambling man has helped me to not get in trouble financially, but really to me it's just math. I've played Blackjack, but my math skills are so poor that I have to take off my shoes to count up to 21 (21?), and I wouldn't consider for an instant sitting at a table in Las Vegas having people stare at me because they could tell I couldn't count.

I've always been surrounded by people who love to gamble, and are good at math. Usually I'll overhear someone talking about point spreads, or odds, and stuff like that which might as well be advanced astrophysics to me. I just smile and hope that they don't ask me to help choose a winner. And I know that whatever the outcome is for them, gambling has added some sparkle to their life.

Image at the top of this post: Billboard advertising Las Vegas in the 1960s, Black Canyon Highway and Thomas Road, Phoenix, Arizona.
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