The Alexander City Outlook

We gamble all day long

Let’s talk about gambling.

Right now our state is engaged in one of the most emotional battles in recent memory over gambling. It’s become a universal fighting word, polarizing people on both – check that – many different sides of the white-hot issue.

This war of words started over whether electronic bingo machines are legal in Alabama, but when I hear people talking now, the subject has widened to include all aspects of gambling: betting on Black Jack, Super Bowl grids, casinos in general, weekends in Vegas, lotteries, losing money to other states, the moral issues of gambling, government corruption, the unofficial tax on the poor … and the list goes on and on.

Suddenly Alabama has become gambling crazy.

People are coming down hard on many different sides of the issue.

After lots of thought, I’ve realized that I’m against institutional gambling for a simple reason: I tend to lose. And so do most people.

I’ve got no problem with visiting a casino for entertainment. But I fear lots of people turn to gambling for the wrong reasons. You already know this, but even if a friend wins $10,000 in a casino, it’s a good bet that you won’t.

And “electronic bingo” in my mind is simply another name for a slot machine. Pay your money, take your chances. Most of the time you’ll lose. Sometimes you’ll win.

Should it be legal? I don’t know.

But I don’t see much difference between putting $500 in a slot machine and spending $500 on General Motors stock.

In the shower one morning, I had a bit of an epiphany.

It occurred to me that I gamble all day long, every day.

I gambled that the soapy shower floor wouldn’t make me slip, that the hot water would last until I got the shampoo out of my hair, that there was a dry towel hanging outside the shower door.

Driving on an icy road is a gamble.

Getting married was a gamble.

Having children is a huge gamble, akin to “going all in” in Texas hold ‘em.

Sending my children to college is a gamble – does anyone really know how he wants to spend the rest of his life before he’s 30?

But that’s nothing compared to the risky bet I made years ago when I bought into the PACT plan to pay for those educations. It looks like I’ll win that one by the skin of my teeth.

What about owning a business during The Great Recession? Or collecting enough money to make the payroll that 30 people are depending on?

Or pinning my hopes on The University of Alabama football team. (Good bet this year, not so much a few years back.)

Buying stock is nothing if not a gamble.

But so is buying a used car, or a lake house, or even buying dinner in a new restaurant.

When you get right down to it, all of life is a gamble.

We make educated guesses, often based on little more than a feeling, then we roll the dice and see what happens.

And I’m OK with that … I have to be.

It’s been said before, but the only sure bets in this life are death and taxes.