![\"Oasis_casino_in_the_Dunes_1990_PICT0001_(3)\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2016\/02\/Oasis_casino_in_the_Dunes_1990_PICT0001_3-300x205.jpg\")
I was brought up very strictly in a Christian home. We didn\u2019t go to movies. We didn\u2019t go to dances. We didn\u2019t smoke or drink. Heck, we weren\u2019t even allowed to play cards because they were linked with gambling.<\/p>\nI was brought up very strictly in a Christian home. We didn\u2019t go to movies. We didn\u2019t go to dances. We didn\u2019t smoke or drink. Heck, we weren\u2019t even allowed to play cards because they were linked with gambling.<\/p>\n
Then some years ago I visited Detroit and my host took me out to lunch.<\/p>\n
Bob pulled up in his two seater Jaguar. Sixty-ish. Gold rings and necklace. Open neck shirt. Collar length white hair.<\/p>\n
\u201ci\u2019m Bob. Where do you want to go to lunch Father?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know. Someplace local.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll take you to the casino.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we went along I said to Bob, \u201cI\u2019ve got a confession.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s that Father?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a casino virgin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never been to a casino.\u201d So I told Bob about my strict Protestant upbringing. He was amused.<\/p>\n
At the casino Bob taught me how to play craps. We wondered around and he explained the different games.<\/p>\n
Then we had lunch.<\/p>\n
Over lunch I quizzed Bob about casinos and gambling.<\/p>\n
He told me he could afford to gamble \u00a0because he was rich. He admitted that he usually lost, and explained, \u201cYou see, you\u2019re not allowed to cheat, but the casino owners? They don\u2019t exactly cheat, but every game is stacked in their favor. Maybe just a bit, but its true. The house always wins. You have to understand that every detail of a casino is carefully designed to first get you in the door and then to keep you there until they have taken as much of your money as possible. That\u2019s how casinos work. That\u2019s their business. They\u2019re very good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So I asked him whether he felt it was a good business to be in.<\/p>\n
Bob was a good Catholic and at that point he looked a bit ashamed. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you what. It\u2019s a dirty business. You know back there at the crap tables? I was playing for entertainment. Did you see those young black fellas? They were playing for their rent money. They shouldn\u2019t be there. Let me tell you something else. You wanna hear what\u2019s really dirty?\u201d<\/p>\n
I was spellbound. \u201cTell me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you see all those old people playing the slots?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSure\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, the casino owners run busses out to the local rest homes. These are mostly retired auto workers. They\u2019re not rich people. The casino owners give them a free bus pass, a free night in the hotel, some meal vouchers and ten dollars worth of free chips. It\u2019s like bait. There\u2019s grandpa and grandma sitting in their rest home. They don\u2019t have much money. Maybe they haven\u2019t had a vacation for twenty years because they\u2019ve saved and worked to put their no good kids through college. Then they get a free bus pass to the glitzy casino and think they\u2019ll take a little vacation. Then they get here and get addicted to gambling. Pretty soon they\u2019ve gambled away all the money they had saved for retirement and some of them end up homeless or they have to go to state run rest homes\u2026and you know what they\u2019re like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bob fell silent.<\/p>\n
Me too.<\/p>\n
Finally he \u00a0said in a half whisper, \u201cHere\u2019s these guys who are already filthy, obscenely rich. I\u2019m rich, but let me tell you, these guys are very rich. They\u2019re not only rich. They\u2019re corrupt. They\u2019re mostly gangsters and the mob. These animals who are already so rich are devising clever plans to get poor old people into their casino so they can get as much of their money as possible before they die.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely not good.\u201d said Bob. \u201cFurthermore, these casinos? They\u2019re full of strip clubs, drugs, prostitution. You name it. You got it. All supplied by the gangsters who run the casinos.\u201d<\/p>\n
True story.<\/p>\n
Congratulations America!<\/p>\n
I know! Let\u2019s elect a casino owner to be our next President!<\/p>\n
Image Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was brought up very strictly in a Christian home. We didn\u2019t go to movies. We didn\u2019t go to dances. We didn\u2019t smoke or drink. Heck, we weren\u2019t even allowed to play cards because they were linked with gambling. Then some years ago I visited Detroit and my host took me out to lunch. Bob […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":21435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n