With a clear opinion on gambling // Week 203

Since I was a child my father taught me that games of chance were not good, and that it was always more what was lost than what was won, he said that on one occasion he attended a town fair where there were some gentlemen who played a game of chance, like the one where you put the ball under some containers and people bet to find out where the ball is, well on that occasion my father lost in that game the money he had taken to the fair and from that moment he never bet on any game of chance.

To prevent me from falling into those vices, he would tell me his story and would not even let me play cards, in that sense I think he was exaggerating a little, but the only thing he did was to prevent me from wanting to gamble. Eventually he became a little flexible and allowed me to play with my friends but without betting anything. It’s a lesson I learned without it happening to me personally.

Through the years I have learned from the experience of others that gambling is a vice that does not allow you to see what you are losing, but also gives you that adrenaline to keep believing that at some point you will get lucky and recover what you have lost. My husband and I have worked on several occasions with men addicted to games of chance, such as horse racing or sports parley, people who are capable of spending half of their biweekly salary on gambling, men who have not been able to maintain a marriage for this reason and who are happy when luck smiles on them once, but do not take into account all that they have lost.

So it is clear that I am against gambling, without something happening directly to me, I have seen how gambling has made hard working people lose their family and only care about winning once in a while. I have yet to see any of them earn a living without having to work honestly, but I have seen them lose in vice what they have earned with their work.