On gambling

This past weekend was Viva Las Vegas Baby! But this post will be dedicated to a lesson learned about the thrill and lure of gambling away your money.

Chiraag, our dear, reckless and often drunk and stupid friend, was up $300! Amazing! But 30 minutes later, it's all gone. 20 minutes later, he's down $200. 10 minutes later, he's down another $100. 15 minutes later, it's time for dinner and he stops answering his phone. 5 minutes later, we find him and force him to play his last hand, which he loses. Kicking and screaming, we peel the boy away from the table and throw him into a cab. "The boy doesn't know when to stop!" we all said.

So on the way out to go back home after a very long weekend, I remember that I told Jeremy I'd put $20 on Black 9 or something like that. So we find a table and I put $20 down, lose $20. Crap. Ok, let's make it back! Put $10 down on black, lose $10. Crap. then $5, and yay! made another $5! so another $10, lose $10. Crap. "Katie, can I borrow $20?" Crap! "Katie, can I borrow more?" Lose another $10. CRAP! "We have to catch our flight! TIME TO GO!" "OK. Let's go!" and then thinking, "well that was not fun..."

LESSON LEARNED. I saw a glimpse of what Chiraag felt- a lose of control and a need to get it back. Gambling is very fun and thrilling, but it has some strange power to make you a nervous twit that is hoping for a big break that spends too much money. So here are my guidelines: you need to 1) set a hard limit and never borrow more, and 2) have fun. The second fun turns into panic is the second you stop.