Lucky for me, I lived in Louisiana with rivers and Indian reservations galore, at any place in the state whether I was at home or school I was never more than an hour away from a casino in any direction.
I pictured the glistening lights, the Las Vegas style water falls. But the first sight of the game room told me this wasn’t Oceans 11 and I wouldn’t be running into Brad or George any time soon.
Breaking through the wall of smoke made my lungs pause a little completely unused to the atmosphere. I kept my money safely in my purse and decided to watch for a little while.
Nothing happens in small numbers here. As people lay down paychecks at a time, I couldn’t help but feel pity for the thousands here who spend every last dollar they had waiting for the dice to land on black 13. I wondered about whether there families know or have tried to stop them. Or if they were a few tables down losing even more money.
To many people the casino is a way to free money, but if it was casinos would have gone bankrupt and wouldn’t be multiplying by the hour. And it always seems that no matter how much you win, the gambler in us won’t allow stopping after a big hand. In the typical words of a casino goer “I was up by ____ much, then I lost it.” They go in with such hope that they will walk out richer than they walked in. And the reasons they are trying to make money are all noble. Maybe a child needs braces, or the rent check is due. Those lights are mesmorizing. My friend Matt told me on this first trip that they constructed the casinos so that getting into them was easy but leaving was a bit more difficult. It was like a maze trying to leave, which I guess casino owners figured might ensure a few extra dollars each night. Now the race track ... that's a whole nother story.
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