I guess I have lost track of the number of ways a person can make a wager; and that’s just the legal ones. In the regular casinos, there must be at least half a dozen ways. Then there are the horse and dog tracks. You can legally make wagers on, I guess, any sport. You can even bet on the outcome of elections. There isn’t a day goes by that I am encouraged to make bets over the internet.

I don’t have any part in it. There is one thing I keep in mind at all times. The odds are always against me.

If you go into the casinos in Vegas, you will see big lavish surroundings. They are expensive, you know. They are paid for by people not like me. The lavish surroundings are expensive. They are air conditioned and well lit, which costs money. Each table takes up space and requires someone to operate it. Besides them, there are people that monitor the area, probably one for every 3 or 4 tables.

The places generally have at least a camera on every table which is likely monitored from who knows where. I would suspect most casinos are kept spotlessly clean. Someone goes around making sure it is kept that way 24 hours a day, you know. Someone pays for that. It is not paid for by the casinos. If it were, they’d go broke. Those that pay are the ones sitting at the tables buying the chips and dropping the tokens in the machines.

It is true, some people who enter those casinos come out with more than they come in with. It is true and they have it down to a science. They can tell you on that day how many will win and how many will lose. They know how much the house will win and and how much they will lose. They also know the winnings will exceed the losses.

Well, I guess there is one situation in which the casinos lose. If no one goes in and makes bets, the casino will close down and declare bankruptcy. I don’t just know this from theory but observation. One of the casinos that originally opened in Tunica, name Splash, closed up and went away. The customers stopped going in there. They went to the big ones that are still there.

Now let me see, one of the casinos implied with their ads that if you went there and gambled, you could, you might somehow become a Hollywood movie star. They actually showed pictures of a woman lying on a bed and clicking her ruby red heels. I wonder were they got that idea. I don’t know if the advertising worked, but they did have a bunch of visitors dropping off their earning for which they worked so hard.

Invariably, every year near the end of basketball season, the places I worked had pools. Every year, that is before I retired, they asked me to take part in it. I never did. I told them I worked to hard to throw my money away on such things. They never let it go at that. They generally tried for about five minutes to talk me into it.

I have no idea why, but it is something the alcoholics share with gamblers. They never want to do it alone. They always encourage others to join them. I never made a dollar off the pools, but then I never lost a dollar either. I made more than one person angry with me over it.

Before you make that bet, you might remember, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” Proverbs 21:20. Even if you are a staunch atheist, you must admit the proverb is rock solid true. (actually, the Bible has a bunch of truth in it, aside of the religion. For instance, a society will be better when it does not allow robbery and murder.)

Hence, invariably the world of gambling consists of fools and those wanting to take advantage of their foolishness.

Even so, the world would not be as it is today without those willing to risk what they have. Even the farmer gambles. Large advances in technology only took place by those willing to take risks. You know them and their invention, Edison and his light, Bell and his phone, Marconi and his radio, for a few.

Certainly for this reason, I cannot completely put down risk takers. It just is, when you put that bet on 23 on the roulette table, you pretty much know you may as well toss that money in the trash. When you buy that lottery ticket, you know you’ve seen the last of that little bit. You are joining the world of fools that keep giving your hard earned money to those who make their living off of fools.