Mocha-momma and I were in Prior Lake on Saturday doing a job for the entertainment company that we work part-time for. She did face-painting and I ran a kid's game for a neighborhood block party. After the job we stopped at Mystic Lake Casino and ate at the buffet. We've been there a few times, but only to eat, we're not gamblers. (ok, so we lost $5.00 on the slots) It's absolutely amazing the number of people who are in there mindlessly staring at the machines and pushing buttons, all in the hope that they'll strike it rich.
I wonder how many of them could be legitimately diagnosed with a clinical gambling problem. I don't believe in 'vices as disease' diagnoses. Mocha-momma made a remark re: a number of the pictures we saw scattered about of people who won big money---i.e. they had lifesize pictures of "Joe Doe" who won $10, 432 on the slots; but, the picture doesn't say whether Joe spent $20,864 in the place prior to winning back half his losses.
I guess I could be diagnosed with a few disorders nowadays: blogolism and 'buffet over-eating disorder,' or B.O.D. for short. I'm kind of wondering about this newest craze in disorders---restless leg syndrome, I may have that. Sometimes at night I get this crazy urge to dance in bed and the legs just start twitching. One disorder I'm constantly having to fight off is "wearing black socks with shorts as you grow older disorder," or wbswsaygod.
Seriously, I'm fortunate so far at this age in my life not to be diagnosed with anything, other than some bad eyesight. I'll be ok as long as any other disorders to hit me don't affect the area from about my waist to the very tops of my thighs; stay away from there and I'll be a happy man for a long time still to come.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Years ago I was into gambling, and was pretty lucky at it. I didn't say good, I said lucky. One day a guy I worked with won $5000 on a scratch off. He immediately quit his job and headed of the the casino determined to become a professional gambler.
With in two weeks he was back begging for his job back.
A couple weeks later I won $2500 on a scratch off and made a five year vow to not step into a casino for fear that the same thing would happen to me.
15 years later, I've been to the casino maybe 3 times, and I find it a depressing place. The 'entertainment' is designed to trap you in and keep you disconnected from those around, probably so you don't see the look of dispair on young couples dropping their last dime into a slot machine, wondering how they are going to pay the rent.
I keep thinking about a poster I saw a few years back: An old woman dropping quarters into a slot machine with a caption that read: "Don't spend your golden years hooked up to a machine."
Besides, everyone knows that the real money is in the Powerball.
Post a Comment