Someone rudely barged into my Sunday sloth (in the middle of my watching “The Amazing Race”) and dumped a shocker on my shoulder: She had lost a bundle gambling in the casino and needed the funds to replace the money she had withdrawn from her joint bank account with her spouse. Reason: The mister was totally unaware of her gambling addiction and must never know that the amount temporarily disappeared from their savings. The bad news for me was that the unexpected visit was made because she hoped that I could bail her out of her monetary predicament.
To make a long story short, the woman left my house with a personal check from me bearing an amount that I could afford to lend, not the exact amount she needed to deposit in their joint savings. I felt proud of myself that I could rise to the occasion at a moment’s notice even if it meant sacrificing my own personal hard-earned savings to help someone in need.
Let me tell you about this person. This woman is abundantly blessed, not only financially but in terms of good health for herself and every member of her family. She seems to have her act together until the past few years when due to her gambling addiction (which she claims to have been a temporary indulgence when she got genuinely bored), her world seems to have fallen apart. Her life is materially comfortable and she has traveled to places I can only dream about, thanks to a spouse whose medical profession pays well and provides for the conveniences of above-average living. So I don’t get why she would risk her peace and security for a slot machine whose mission on earth is to defraud hard-working people of their money! Obviously, by squandering personal wealth in the casino, she can't seem to appreciate her bountiful blessings.
I know another woman who was a slotaholic once upon a time. She and her husband owned a few businesses, profits flowed and if that wasn't enough, she got hooked on slot machines. She won many jackpots, but instead of quitting while she was ahead, her winning streak only fueled her slot play obsession. I call it greed. After a few years of nonstop gambling, their family businesses crumbled. She should have stopped before the slots took over and ruined her life. Perhaps, she thought that eventually, all the money she lost would come back. Sadly, that didn't happen.
My wish for this woman (the one who interrupted my Sunday TAR viewing to borrow money) is to wake up from the anaesthesia of her gambling enchantment before the slots could control her life. Casino gambling should only provide temporary diversion from the pressures of life, and short-lived amusement for the stressed out soul, not become the center of someone’s universe. I hope she wakes up from the hypnotic hold of those programmed slot machines. The casinos are in business because they’re the perpetual big winners.
Let's never forget that money has energy. If spent with reckless abandon and used for wasteful consumption, it might stop flowing into our life. When money stops coming is certainly a time we would dread to see happen. Learning to be happy with just enough is not a bad thing. Being in constant greed mode is self-destruction waiting to happen.
