Gambling 101: How to WIN

While working with someone the other day, someone mentioned that he learned to gamble with his grandfather who taught him how to bet on cockfights at a young age. This brought on some flashbacks as I remember the “cockhunt”. There would be a rooster buried in sand up to its neck in a 5 gallon bucket and people would pay to take a swing at it while blindfolded. Winner takes the prize..

I never really thought of myself as much of a gambler. The only thing I’ve ever gambled with was my life and when you keep “getting away” with things, your mind tells you it’s OK and you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Growing up in Newark, NJ I lived down the block from a Social Club. From time to time I would get to peek in there and see man sitting around a table. At one point there was a pinball machine in there and when the door was open I would go in and play. It didn’t take long and by the second ball there was usually someone telling me that I had to leave after I finished the game. There were a few times when a gentleman would pull a roll of cash out of his pocket and dig for a dollar, “Here ya go kid, you can go now”. That was nice of them.

On the weekends , at the social club, card playing was the norm, usually involving alcohol as well, it would often get heated. Either someone was really excited about their hand and hitting the table hard, coupled by a massive grunt or the table would be shook up if not turned over in a fit of rage. In the lower side playing dice was the norm and bodegas everywhere often had people waiting to get their winning numbers called out. Off track betting (OTB) was and still is pretty popular. There’s no surprise that it’s conveniently located right by the liquor store.

That’s all normal. Everyone likes to win. Who can blame you? As a kid, we played bingo for candy. It didn’t take too long before I started stealing the change around the house to be able to get the candy to play. Raffles were always exciting! There would always be someone with a whole roll of raffles that they bought, just to win the bottle of Bourbon up there that they got drunk on and cussed everyone else out for his loss of the HUGE wide-screen TV.

In 4th grade, I caught a woopin’ with the belt when it was found out that I was stealing the change from around the house. A few years later, I got another woopin’ when I was caught stealing chrome wheel caps down the street. That didn’t work out.

Loser was a common label that I usually drank or used at for a long time afterwards. I hid it for a long long time. Noone knew how much I had charged on my card that day, multiple visits to the cash machine in order to fix my “needs”. Noone knew how much I would binge eat, binge drink, how many different people I was promiscuous with.. How much money I owed.. Noone was there when I was arrested or almost arrested or almost crashed into the median while going 80 in a blackout. Noone else was on the ledge seven stories up neither.

..Until the day the flood lights came on while hiding under the bleachers behind the high school. Daylight shone upon me and I was found out. GAME OVER.

The day I decided to STOP playing my money, playing my family, playing my friends, playing my health, playing numbers, playing women, playing my freedom and playing my life, I WON!

Looking back on my Gambling 101, I have to think twice now when someone asks me if I gamble. How about YOU? Do YOU gamble?

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