[Mb-civic] The Gambling Addict - William Raspberry - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

The Gambling Addict

By William Raspberry
Monday, August 29, 2005; Page A15

"Come on, George. Let's leave this casino and go to bed. It's obviously 
not your night."

"Not now, honey. I think my strategy is starting to work. I haven't 
nailed the big one yet, but I've hit a few cherries, and that says to me 
the machine is starting to understand that I'm not going anywhere. You 
just wait -- my system is going to pay off."

"George, tell me you're not still listening to those friends of yours 
who sold you on this silly system. Most of them have never even been 
near a casino, let alone won any money in one. How can you fall for 
their crazy ideas?"

"Crazy? What's crazy about ending the tyranny of these evil slot 
machines? Do you have any idea what these machines have been doing to 
Americans and their families? Can you imagine what havoc and financial 
ruin they'll spread if we just let them go on spinning their seductive 
dreams? We've got to stop them, and I say now is the time and I'm the 
man to do it."

"But George, you've already lost 1,800 and more in this casino alone, 
not to mention the 223 you dropped down at the Taliban. We'll never 
recoup those losses. Why don't we just go to bed?"

"And dishonor the dollars we lost so far? I think we owe them something 
-- to finish the task that took their lives. Surely you're not asking me 
to cut and run now and abandon all those who put their faith in me. 
Don't you see I've got to stay the course? Not just for me but for the 
world."

"You're starting to sound like those neocon pals of yours. All we had to 
do, they said, was make a killing here at the Baghdad Bullion -- 'shock 
and awe,' they put it -- and the casino would cave. And not only that 
but the other casinos, seeing our power, would cave, too. They even 
claimed to have figured out a way that we wouldn't have to use our own 
money to do it. Well, George, it didn't work. The casino seems more 
dangerous than it ever was, and it is now attracting a bunch of really 
bad guys from all over the world."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/28/AR2005082801074.html
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