\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0What a perfect combination, losing at the casinos and securing a payday loan to cover another payday loan in order to buy groceries!
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The practitioner of this financial schedule is a man I’ve known for about 30 years. His wife I’ve known for less time, and each one sat with me for a couple of hours, on different days, to justify why they feel that way. I state emphatically that I am neither their financial adviser nor confessor. They simply wanted someone to listen, not give advice.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 But we’ll get to the gambler and his spouse in a few paragraphs. Let’s start with some observations regarding games of chance.<\/p>\n
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 When I worked in the Midwest, several supermarkets (they’re usually called tea companies: Jewel Tea, A and P Tea Company, etc.) ran promotions to give a single letter in the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153CASH” with each purchase. Whoever was able to spell the entire word would win a sum of $1000, a whopping figure in those days, the mid 1960s.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 It seems that everyone in town made frequent trips to the stores, hoping to get the right combination. Trouble was, everybody who participated was able to spell \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ASH,” as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153C” was missing.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 At the paper I worked for, we considered writing a story on the phenomenon. We’d gotten letters and phone calls, some of them complaining of the deception: only a limited number of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153C’s,” and only a handful would claim the prize. Yet, the classified section of the Naperville Sun was busy running ads in which people offered to pay up to $200 to anyone who would provide the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153C.” Well, duh!
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Has anything changed?
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve been through the days of Ed McMahon’s offer to make all of us zillionaires. Publishers found dozens of ways to make things tempting. Though our chances of winning 20 mill didn’t depend on how many magazines we ordered, the wording was such that to the average person, the thinking was, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I’ve gotta buy a bunch of mags to improve my chances.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 One particularly creative semantic trick was to show only the words, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Art Trujillo is a $10,000,000 winner!” Good, I’ll be extra generous at church next Sunday. But on opening the envelope, we see the previously hidden words, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We hope to announce that . . .” So when we put them all together, the offer isn’t as tempting.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Years later, I stopped at a local fast-food outlet, where customers received a scratch card with each purchase. Many people broke their orders down into several parts: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I’ll have an ice cream cone. Here’s the money. Where’s my card? Now, I think I’ll have fries. Gimme my card.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 One elderly gentleman called me aside to show how close he had come to winning a hundred bucks. He needed to scratch off each square on the card and come up with three matches. All of his cards featured only double matches. But he kept playing because he was oh so-oo close.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 As for the casino-trekking buddy, one can only say that the odds of losing are great. How else can casinos make such claims of the megabucks they take in? The lottery, which in my very limited observation, is supported mainly by people who can’t afford it, justifies its existence by pointing out the millions that have gone toward scholarships.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The lengthy conversations I had with husband and wife yielded this information:
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 He said: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My wife got a job just the other day, so I felt lucky.” His monthly check is for only twice the amount he lost at the casino. He also explained, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I needed to take out a payday loan to cover the first one.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Soon, I hope, he’ll learn that the ease in which payday loans can be secured costs the borrower in other ways. Sometimes, a piddling $100 loan can double.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 She said: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I got this job and asked for the money to be deposited directly into my checking account. I’m furious that the chance we had to get ahead is no longer there because my husband lost the money.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Both of them are adamant about their position. Maybe I’d be more optimistic regarding both their financial future and their marriage if somehow the husband had been one of the rare ones to win big. But he didn’t.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 As one who’s never been bitten by the gambling bug, I can pontificate on the existence of people happy to take your money, and an army of people just as eager to part with it.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 But as sure as I am that there are few winners, there are many people who would disagree.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it many times before: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nobody’s forcing them to gamble, and besides it’s their business.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0What a perfect combination, losing at the casinos and securing a payday loan to cover another payday loan in order to buy groceries! \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The practitioner of this financial schedule is a man I’ve known for about 30 years. His wife I’ve known for less time, and each one sat with me for a couple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}