Repent ye of weak moral fiber who would seek riches that come not from labor in the fields or by sweat of the brow.
I thought of saying something like that to the people standing in the Powerball line waiting to buy a lottery ticket at the local gas station the other day in the hope that maybe a few of them would step aside and shorten my wait. Waiting in line for a chance to win Bruce Rauner- and Donald Trump-type money is a task for flunkies and beneath the dignity of someone about to win enough cash to buy a private island, multiple sports cars, several houses and have enough left over to run for governor or president of the United States.
Gambling is evil! I remember when people said such stuff and meant it. Now it’s a way of life.
We all wait for these moments where in an instant, for a wager of $2, we can join the ranks of people who snicker at the working masses relying on pensions, 401(k) funds or Social Security for financial support in their old age.
As I waited for my turn in line, I imagined myself donating to charities, sharing my good fortune with relatives and friends, and investing in all sorts of good works for the downtrodden. Perhaps I would allow some poor family to spend a few days in my winter homes in Las Vegas, Hawaii and southern Italy.
Does anyone even think about how odd this all is anymore? I mean, there are millions of us standing in lines like the one I was in, waiting to plunk down their money on the largest gaming operation in the history of mankind. There has been nothing like it. Not in ancient Rome or Greece or even the Bible.
When I was a child, there were TV shows that poked fun at people who played the numbers game. The numbers game was an illegal lottery often based on the occurrence of unpredictable numbers in the results of horse races and operated by criminal elements.
It was a sucker bet. And it preyed on the ignorant who figured that with just a little bit of luck they could win enough money to pay that month’s rent or buy some Christmas presents for the kids or a new dress for the wife.
There were a lot of people back in the Great Depression who believed in the American Dream, as it was called, but there were at least as many who dreamed of hitting it big in the numbers games because The Dream was for other people who could afford to think about college, or opening their own business.
The country is so much different now. We have so much stuff, all of us, that even the richest people couldn’t imagine.
We have cars that can navigate to our destination or allow us to speak to people in foreign countries, while driving.
All of us, it seems, are playing the stock market. That was a rich man’s game once upon a time. There are some who would contend that it’s not gambling, but those of us who have seen our 401(k) funds bounce around because someone gets nervous in China, or some prime minister in Greece gets uppity, know what it means to roll the dice with everything you’ve got on the line. Only, it sure seems like the guy playing craps is having a lot more fun than those of us invested in money market accounts.
No matter how uncertain the future, no matter how hard we save to put away a few bucks from each paycheck, we always seem to have plenty of money to gamble.
Billions of dollars are wagered at sports fantasy websites.
Billions more are bet each week on the outcomes of sports competitions, often illegally.
An entire city, Las Vegas, was basically built on the losses of all the people who thought they could win some money playing a slot machine or by sitting at a blackjack table.
The amount of money people have spent on gambling in this nation is actually beyond comprehension.
I remember, soon after the Illinois State Lottery was launched back in the 1980s, I compared the chance of winning the Lotto to grabbing a dollar bill from the window of a moving car.
A close friend of mine, an accountant who was the stereotype of that profession when it came to his personal finances, told me he was going to buy a ticket anyway when the prize reached $20 million.
“Why?” I asked in astonishment.
“Because someone has to win,” he said. “Why not me?”
The reward, a pile of money so high it would take years to count it, was worth the risk.
This country was founded by Puritans, people who frowned on gambling and frivolity, yet left the Old World behind in the belief they could find something better. The odds of them making it safely across the ocean, let alone surviving a winter in the New World, were probably no worse than those the rest of us faced standing in line for the Powerball tickets. All they wanted was to worship God the way they chose without fear of being tortured, executed and having their property taken away.
What is it that we are all praying for as we stand before the Powerball machines?
Financial security, certainly, not only for us but all the people we love. That feeling, experienced by a very small percentage in our society, that no economic calamity will trouble our lives again; that no supervisor will ever be able to demean us; that from now until the day we die, we alone will decide what we want to do and when. Yes, that’s all part of it.
But that wasn’t really what most people were expecting. That wasn’t the reason they were really standing in lines.
It was fun. Fun talking about silly things like the expensive toys we would buy. Fun dreaming of the good works we could do. Fun just thinking about that moment when the numbers would be read and one by one they would magically appear on your ticket.
That’s the stuff that makes people come back to the poker table after a bad beat. The sensation people seek when they pull the arm on that slot machine time and again. It’s the joy of betting the 20-to-1 shot at the racetrack and watching your horse hitting the stretch with a lead.
It’s forgetting your problems for a minute and living in a world of fantasy. It’s not thinking about any of the stuff that darkens our souls 99.9 percent of the time, every day.
By the time you read this, it is likely that someone, some group, or perhaps several people, will have won the Powerball prize, the largest amount of money ever awarded in a game of chance in the history of the world.
Pieces of paper that just minutes earlier represented the hopes of millions will be crumpled, torn into pieces and tossed into the garbage. And the rest of us will go back to our daily lives, wondering, forever wondering, what it might have been like if we had won that magical prize.
Playing the lottery is sort of like those stories about genies in bottles, or the fairy tales about little men who could weave straw into gold, only it’s not make-believe. Someone really wins. And they don’t have to pan for gold in mountain streams, dig holes in the earth for oil, or invent the electric light or some newfangled computer gadget.
The lottery is a chance to live out every fantasy you ever had and some the average guy couldn’t even imagine. And just playing the game, just putting up $2, gives you the right to think about what they could mean.
Is that really evil? Does it undermine the moral fabric of the nation? Is there any lasting negative impact on those of us who did not win?
Well, I suppose if you emptied out your savings account to buy tickets, or invested your entire paycheck, it might have. And there’s no doubt some people did that.
There are also some people who send every penny to the preacher they see on TV, who tells them their reward will be in heaven, and others who will hand over their life savings to some fast-talking financial investor who is going to get them a 10 percent return on their money, “guaranteed.”
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I don’t think you can stop people from wasting their money, or gambling, and those who believe they can — they have no understanding of human nature.
People want to believe in the impossible dream. And the amazing thing is that the lottery makes every dream seem possible, even only for a few hours.
I just want you to know one thing: If I won the lottery, I would never, ever spend the money running for public office.
