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Lisa's |
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Write:
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It cannot be argued that society, as a whole,
wants instant gratification. We
want it all, now. Down the road, or
even overnight, is too long to wait. And
why work for anything if it can be obtained effortlessly, doing no work at all.
Imagine acquiring the ability to indulge our every whim and desire by
doing virtually nothing; I can’t. But,
there’s where I differ from a certain segment of our population:
Gamblers. Every single day, there are numerous buses that depart
from New York, destined to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Last summer, there was a rock ‘n’ roll oldies show a few
friends and I wished to see at one of the casinos.
We decided to take the bus, which is a three or four hour ride from where
we live. The trip was fairly
comfortable, as there was a bathroom on board and a movie was shown to pass the
time. Almost like a grounded
airplane without the beverage cart. However,
I brought my own bagel with cream cheese and a cup of coffee to have for
breakfast. Words of advice: Do not drink any liquids whatsoever prior to traveling on a
bus for a long duration. If the bus
is traveling at 55mph, you’ll swear it’s going 95mph while in the bathroom.
Trust me on this. Anyway, upon exiting the bus, a representative from the
casino gave us each twenty-two dollars, I believe, as reimbursement for the bus
fare. They do this because they
realize most people will gamble this money as soon as they walk through the
pearly gates to their perception of heaven on earth.
I’m not a gambler; I walked through several casinos and did not bet
even one nickel. The “fever”
didn’t hit me upon seeing all the lights and hearing the ringing of the
machines. Whenever I saw coins
being purged from a machine, I wondered how many were fed by the starry-eyed
optimist in comparison to the amount being returned; a ten-coin payoff does not
constitute a win if the same person reaping the ten dropped fifty coins in the
slot. It saddened me to see people
taking cash out of the ATM in order to feed their frenzies.
I found it mind-boggling how much money they were willing to lose in
order to sustain the dream of a monster win. The big spenders are given free hotel rooms and fancy
meals; they are pampered with the red carpet treatment, merely for gambling at
the casino. However, they must
realize that given the amount of money they gamble, the accommodations have been
paid for above and beyond the actual monetary value. If the complimentary accommodations cost the casino one
thousand dollars, and the guest of honor gambles five thousand dollars, who’s
the winner? Do the math. One of my friends and I got lost trying to locate the
casino where we were to see the show. The
first fifteen minutes were spent frantically running around to get where we had
to be. Thankfully, our other two
friends reserved a table right in front of the stage and had our drinks waiting
for us. So, we saw the remainder of
the performance in style. And not one of us gambled at all during our entire stay!
We had a wonderful time in the casino without doing the sole activity
that so many come for on a regular basis. It’s
sort of like going to a seafood restaurant and ordering eggplant parmagiana. By the way, that’s exactly what we ate for dinner that
evening. There are no short cuts to getting what we want, nor is
there instant gratification without some type of consequence.
We must rely on ourselves to reap the rewards we long for; the only bet
I’ll make is that hard work and persistence will lead to the grand payoff.
In our lives, it is often said that we get back exactly what we put in. Except when it comes to slot machines.
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