Rolling the Dice

Rolling the Dice
By Brian Tracy

Gambling is perhaps the most perfect example of the desire to get
something for nothing. The whole idea behind gambling is there is some fast, easy way to get money that you have not earned. Proponents of legalized gambling declare that it is an innocent form of entertainment.
But gamblers always lose eventually. It is only a matter of time. The
billion-dollar casinos and gambling resorts have not been built with
"losses."

Indian Casinos
According to economist Alan Meister in his new "Indian Gaming Industry
Report," the nation's 405 Indian casinos generated about nineteen
billion dollars in revenues last year, up from zero a few years ago. In
other estimates, these tribes and casinos contributed more than $800
million in 2004 to various politicians, making them the biggest and most
powerful political lobbying group in the world.

Gambling Destroys the Gambler
The main objective to gambling is not that most people are losing money that could be better spent on their families. The worst aspect of the "gambling bug" is it destroys the gambler's capacity to deal with
reality. According to psychologists, when gamblers win, they consider it
to be a matter of personal skill. When they lose, however, they define the situation not as "losing" but "almost winning." They create a
fantasy world around gambling and attempt to live in it.

Gambling with Corruption
Gambling corrupts the soul and makes the gambler negative, distrustful, and angry. Continued losing undermines his self-esteem and destroys his self-respect. For every gambling loss, there is an opponent, as in poker, or a dealer/croupier, as in black jack or roulette, who wins. The loser is always being defeated by someone visible and real. As a result, he ends up feeling frustrated and bitter. He feels like a loser.

Gambling Corrupts
The act of gambling opens up the mind to every other possibility of
getting something for nothing, and like a syphilis spirochete, the
gambling idea soon lodges in the brain, causing a form of insanity,
destroying both the person and his or her family.

To Hell and Back
A reporter for National Review wrote recently, "I have been to hell and returned. It is a place called Las Vegas in the Nevada desert." He went on to write about the casinos filled with working men and women,
grim-faced, betting and losing their rent money, money that could be
better spent on their children. Anyone who has walked through a casino has noticed the strained faces and lack of joy among the people for whom the loss of their hard-earned money is only a matter of time.

Action Exercise
It is not possible to outlaw gambling. But like an addictive narcotic,
the only way you can avoid its destructive effects is to avoid it
altogether. You can recognize that it is an attempt to get something for
nothing, which is inherently wrong. Worse, it weakens your moral immune system and makes you susceptible to other temptations to get something for nothing.