What? You Thought Casinos Were Good?

I read this article on SFGate, Tough Odds for Gambling Addicts knowing that I wasn't really going to learn too much that was new.

Casinos exist because they make money, lots of it, off of chumps and addicts. They are not in existence to lose money and make everyone a winner. Casinos are designed, lighted and created for the sole purpose of extracting as much of your money as possible before you break free and get away.

One bit of info in the article was new and kind of a shocker.

At the root of that growth is Indian gaming, which has exploded in California from a limited-game $1.4 billion business in 2000 to a $7.7 billion behemoth today that draws more than 10 million gamblers a year - and has eclipsed Las Vegas' $6.5 billion annual take to become the premier gambling region of America.

California now does more gambling business than Las Vegas (at least above the board legal gambling) and that's both eye-opening and really depressing.

I understand why gambling is addictive, its the lure of easy money, its the natural human tendency to pave over bad experiences and remember the good ones (i.e. you forget losing money and only remember winning even if you lost ten times what you won), its flashing lights and bells and whistles and mayhem. The instant you set foot in a casino, you are on their turf and they control literally everything in order to coerce you to lose your money faster.

I gamble when I go to casinos, not too much but some. And I almost invariably lose whatever money I take. The trick is to not take very much money or just avoid the casinos altogether.

Initial Reactions to the Vick "Apology" Statement

Meh.

There was no contrition, there was nothing even resembling any emotion. He invoked God and that he found Jesus which scores points with the Bible crowd. He apologized to everyone a couple of times without appearing to feel sorry for anyone but himself.

His lawyer warmed up the room and warmed over the facts of the case by misrepresenting them, as lawyers are paid to do. He called it an incident and an event when this dog fighting ring was a pattern of cruelty and gambling and deeply reprehensible violence.

Vick said he would take full responsibility for his actions but entered a plea deal that protects his potential future in the NFL. You can't accept responsibility and then weasel out from under the most onerous charges against you, it just doesn't work that way. Make no mistake, Michael Vick helped kill sub-standard dogs, he bankrolled an illegal gambling operation and crossed statelines transporting dogs for fighting purposes. His plea deal conveniently omits all of those grisly details and that is, most definitely, NOT taking full responsibility for his actions.

He referred to his pending jail time and football suspension as "downtime" which indicates to me that he really doesn't think this is a big deal at all. Its just a longer off-season than usual.

I didn't see any remorse, I saw a prideful man forced to speak about his actions and he looked more like an ant under a magnifying glass, squirming and deeply uncomfortable. I hope that feeling of discomfort lasts for the rest of his life.

The one bit from his statement that I did appreciate was when he spoke about letting down all of the kids that may have looked up to him as a role model. And to use him as an example of poor judgment.

Overall, the statement was limp, fake and demonstrative of his lack of remorse rather than any realization of just how disgusting his actions and his person are to me and every other dog lover around the world.