No Chance

Many years ago when one could still find a $2 blackjack table, I had an experience I want to share.

I bought my chips and played to see how long my $100 would last. Players often have interesting and sometimes entertaining conversations.

One of the players was physically there, but a reluctant participant.

I finally forced a bit of conversation and discovered that he had just gambled away his paycheck and was too frightened to go home.

In the direction our commonwealth is going, I can see this kind of personal catastrophe repeating endlessly in one form or other. The victims will be like the people seen in their cars outside a variety store, or drugstore, or gas station scratching cards; hoping that, maybe, maybe this time.

Those racks or spools of colorful little cards are clearly habituating.

How enticing will those promised temples of glamour be when only a 40-minute drive away?

Most of our legislators are politicians, not analytical thinkers. Their quality of thought has convinced them that games, not of chance, but with almost no chance at all, will cure the woes of today’s economy.

Much of that money will come from a family’s food and fuel budget.

Gambling is not a question of economics it’s a question of community-modulated morality.

T.F. Kelley lives in Norwood.