Gambling and its consequences.

Never ever be addicted to gambling. It has been the downfall of many.

I am not talking about just a game of cards to while away the time and having fun with friends as we celebrate something. When it is merely for fun or having a good time with friends, our aim is not to win at all cost, so the stakes cannot and should not be high. It ought to be as low as possible so that winning or losing has no consequences.

Once, as a bachelor in a rented house shared with other singles, we sometimes found ourselves with nowhere to go, no programme to fulfill, no work to complete. At such times in the evening, we would gather at a table with a stack of cards to play twenty-one. The condition was that the biggest winner would have to foot the bill for that night's supper. With such a condition, the winner sometimes end up the loser when the total cost of the supper was more than the biggest winner's winning. It was a good condition as it ensured that there was no greed, nobody wanted to win big enough to be the biggest winner. The smaller winners were safe and the smaller losers could be the winner, the cost of their food more than what they lost. In that manner, we enjoyed our gambling without being greedy, without thinking of gambling as a way to get other people's money. And that was a good way to prevent addiction to gambling. Of course, there were people who considered that a waste of time and effort. For us, we reaped comradeship and joy without any fear of financial problems. We gambled without fear of loss, except the loss of an adrenaline surge.

However, it is the adrenaline surge which resulted from the fear of losing and the excitement of winning that attracted people to gambling. It was the same surge that cause those people to be addicted. And how many people have gambled and consistently win. It has always been when the gambler wins, he hopes to win even more just to find that his/her winning streak is bound to change. And when the gamble loses, he gambles on, with a loan from someone perhaps, to hope for the losing streak to change but before the change comes, his/her financial resources has run out. Thus, most of the time, gamblers lose.

Then, who wins? You see, gamblers need a place to gamble day after day. They have to pay for it. In mahjong, they pay by the game. Then again, the loser have to think of the interest on the loan he/she took. The winner become the big spender of the day, thus lessening his/her winnings. In the long run, the wise ones who give out loans, those who let their premises be used to get 'rental', and the food suppliers are the real winners while most of the gamblers lose.

The unfortunate thing is that there are people who are not financially sound among such gambling addicts. There are even house-wives among them. When they do not have sufficient money to try and recoup their loses, they borrow. And when they have no money to return the loans, and so as to not let the household members or the husband know, they have sometimes no alternative but to trade with what they have, their body.Yes, from the guy who give out such loans, I have personally heard about how such loans are settled when it is just not possible to do it with cash. Depending upon the amount owed it is either cheap thrills or prostitution. For such women, it is sometimes the easy way out. (This is from true stories that I know.)

For the gambling men, there is no such easy way out. Unless they meet with a gay perhaps, they have to find the hard cash to repay the loan. We have often read of the dilemma of such men when they have to run away to escape the wrath of the people they owe.

I have personally known of a Chinese physician who borrowed so much to support his folly that he had to run off in the middle of the night to a destination unknown even to his own relatives, leaving behind his house, car and all other belongings. Imagine how desperate he must have been!

As it can be seen, gambling is one of the worst vices humans can have. Therefore, it is important that children be taught about this and prevented from being too carried away by the adrenaline surge from gambling. Give them other activities instead. Gambling is certainly not an activity to be encouraged or allowed free reign, even during a festive season.