Those of us who gamble know the ups and downs of gambling and if we're lucky enough, we don't have the need to chase lost money on bad bets.
I was thinking about my dad's gambling problem and who knows, maybe it wasn't a problem for him. For all I know, his gambling at the ponies could easily have occurred after his children were already gone from the nest.
My mom played bingo regularly and for her it was a little more than a pastime. After the children were all grown, she enjoyed playing bingo at least a few times per week. Once, she won what they call a black out for $50,000.00. It was a once in a lifetime accomplishment but she was sure it could happen again. Before she managed to spend the $50,000 back, I strongly encouraged her to spend several thousand dollars on making her home more comfortable for her and dad. She did as I asked, with me pulling in favors from friends, we had luxurious carpet installed, new siding and maybe even added a window a/c unit or two. Mom and dad lived frugally and the 6 children didn't expect any inheritance but I wanted to make sure that mom and dad had a nice house to live in in their remaining days and they did, despite their penchant for gambling.
The next story isn't quite so nice as it involves one of our local gamblers and pool players. We'll just call him a name I made up, "Robert". Well Robert had a job in the insurance industry and made well over a hundred thousand dollars a year back in the 70's and 80's. He was successful in his industry and could be quite persuasive when he wanted to. Another pool player who tried his hand at selling insurance with Robert, said he could hypnotize his customers with his eyes and talk. The bottom line was Robert made very good money.
Those of you who recognize "Robert", please don't divulge his real name.
Robert regularly gambled at pool and was a pretty good pool player but he just didn't know how to keep winning. Usually, he managed somehow to lose everything he had won plus more and that was on a good day. Robert's family suffered and we all took turns taking a piece of Robert's big paycheck. Sometimes there would be arguments about who was going to play Robert that day. Robert was always a great score, although he would cheat at pool on a regular basis. Most of us would turn a blind eye to him stealing a ball here and there or we would look the other way when he committed a marginal foul.
Robert would often gamble for multiple days, non-stop, playing like a man possessed. Sometimes he would stay in the poolroom for two and three days without taking a shower and although he was a professional in the insurance industry, on the second and especially the third day, he stunk like a bum. Still, people would jockey for who would get to play him next. We all knew that if he stayed, he was going to lose and he always stayed, so most of us figured, "Well someone's gonna get his money and it might as well be me." We really didn't have any mercy on this guy. He was a sucker and we were thieves. Sure every now and then he would beat us out of some dough but that just kept him coming back for more and we all knew it. We didn't have any reservation taking his money and offering him games that he thought he had a chance at winning, even though we knew his gambling was causing hardship to his family. One day after Robert was in the pool room on the second day, his very good looking wife came in with their 3 year old son on her hip. Robert was playing $30 one pocket and losing. He probably had lost a thousand or two over those three days and the wife was steaming. I remember the table the two guys were playing on and when Robert's wife came in they were in the middle of the game. The wife came in the pool room screaming at Robert. I don't remember the actual words but they weren't from a calm, cool and collected woman. She placed the child in the middle of the pool table, balls scattering everywhere, Robert sheepishly looking at the other guy with a "What can I do look on his face?" and she screamed, "Well, now you can take care of him!" or something to that effect. Robert's family life was chaotic to say the least but the family struggled to stay together.
There were other times when Robert's gambling caused problems far too many to mention. The losses repeated themselves year after year, month after month, week after week for over two decades. Who knows how much money he lost and how much his family suffered? Eventually ,they divorced and Robert found another wife several years later. Robert was successful, well at least he knew how to make money. His only problem was keeping it. His new wife was a very nice woman and took to raising Robert's son who was by now 18 years of age. Robert hadn't kicked the habit of gambling and was worse off 20 years. This time, Robert, his new wife and young son were in the pool room watching Robert lose his last $500. When the last $50 disappeared from his pocket, he looked at his relatively new wife and asked her for the $200 that she kept hidden from him. The obedient wife gave him the $200 and Robert kept gambling and losing. Finally the $200 was gone. Robert was certain he could outrun the nuts and tried borrowing money from other member of the pool community. By now, Robert's reputation for slow-paying old debts was well known and Robert couldn't get any additional money whether it was from the fact that everyone knew he was in a game he couldn't win or the fact that they might not get paid back.
The icing on the cake was when he looked at his 18 year old son who worked at McDonalds and had just gotten paid and said, "You got that $64.00?" His son had just gotten his week's pay and had just cashed his check and had the $64 in his pocket. The son wailed, "DAD, that is all the money I have in the world. I WORKED HARD FOR THAT MONEY!" Robert bellowed, "GIVE IT TO ME" and his son did. Robert lost that money just as fast as the rest of the money. The look on his son's face and that of his new wife's face was something that turned my stomach and made me sick inside, knowing that I was a part of the people in the pool room that regularly took money from that family. No, that day, it wasn't me gambling with Robert but it could have been me just as well as it could have been anyone of the rest of us. The pool rooms I grew up in were a treacherous place and only the strong and smart survived. I think many of us justified that because Robert made a lot of money and he was a sucker, we should just take him for what we could and I don't believe a lot of thought was ever given to how his family suffered. Thankfully, after about over 25 years of losing, that was the last day that Robert ever gambled at pool. It's been quite a few years now but I hear life has improved for him and his "new" family and maybe this time the gambling addiction won't resurface.
JoeyA
