DailySusan Humor Blog

CAN’T WIN FOR LOSING

But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.
-- 1 Corinthians 8:9

On vacation, we stopped at a restaurant in Reno. I was 10. While my parents weren’t looking, I slipped a quarter into a slot machine.

PING! PING! PING!

Lights flashed! Music sounded! Quarters spilled! Heads turned!

Was I mad when my parents pried open my grubby little hands and gave the coins back so we wouldn’t get thrown in the clink.

But the gambling bug didn’t get me. Why not? I didn’t have access to more gambling -- not ‘til years later, when I went to Omaha’s Ak-Sar-Ben horseracing track.

Fumbling with my racing form, I approached the window, and said I wanted $2 to-win tickets on, uh . . . I looked at my form . . . uh, Numbers 4 and 12.

I MEAN NUMBERS 5 and 13! I SAID IT WRONG! GIVE ME NUMBERS 5 and 13!

Noooooo, she couldn’t. She’d already produced the tickets. You dummy.

BUT NUMBER 4 CAME IN . . . AT 45-TO-1 ODDS!!! I won a fistful of cash!

But the gambling bug didn’t get me that day, either. How I won was too embarrassing. So I did that rare thing: quit while I was ahead. Even though I was 2-for-2 with gambling ‘’success,’’ I knew that for someone to win money, someone else has to lose it. I didn’t like that.

Years passed. My life filled with other things. As a reporter, I saw how gambling steals from the poor and gives to the rich, keeps people from productive work and service, and brings a lot of harm to society.

My friend Andy’s dad was a professional gambler. He witnessed beatings and drunken people. His dad died penniless, his family splintered . . . and now he can’t even stand the sight of a deck of cards.

My brother Danny worked in Las Vegas. The busiest days were Thanksgiving and Christmas. Everybody acted lonely. They talked to themselves. The casinos got people drunk so they’d lose more money. When Danny worked in the casino cage, people came back repeatedly to cash checks, acting desperate. He could tell they were spending money earmarked for necessities. He, too, wants no part of gambling now.

So obviously, I’m against the big gambling proposals on the November ballot here in Nebraska. Even though I’m one of the people who could handle it responsibly, I still see it as despicable and wrong.

I see the faces of people, especially children, instead of cherries and lemons on those slots. I see how much it would hurt Nebraska’s economy, human service agencies, and families. Nobody wins, with gambling. We all lose.

Nevada is spending millions on this. But I’m not scared. All we have to do is pray, and we’ll keep casinos and slots out of our fair state.

I know it’ll work . . . because prayer once kept ME out of a casino.

See, after the casino boats started up in Iowa, across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, crime and bankruptcy raged. I vowed never to set foot in them.

Then one day, my husband told me a ‘’must-attend’’ business event was scheduled there.

Noooooo!

I prayed I’d get sick or it’d get canceled. I procrastinated ‘til the very last minute. But we HAD to go. And then we were in the car, and over the river, and almost there.

AND INEXPLICABLY, WE GOT LOST!

My husband NEVER gets lost! But that night, we wandered up access roads and down country lanes. The longer this went on, the better I felt.

It reminded me that, when you pray, you don’t just roll the dice and hope He hears. Life with God is not a game of chance. He hears. He really does.

I smiled. Isn’t He fun?

Finally, I said, ‘’Look, Lord, we really HAVE to go. Nevvvver mind.’’

Presto! We found it. We hurried in, smiled politely, and left. Nothing hurt.

So I’m praying hard, and hope you will, too, about Nov. 2:

Oh, Lord, help us tell the gambling casinos to . . . get lost!

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TODAY BEGINS A ONE-WEEK SERIES ON GAMBLING. PLEASE CIRCULATE THESE STORIES TO VOTERS IN NEBRASKA AND OTHER STATES THAT HAVE GAMBLING ITEMS ON THE NOV. 2 BALLOT. THANK YOU!

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Praise report: It is with awe that we can rejoice over the turnaround made by the 23-year-old pregnant young lady we prayed for this past Thursday on DailySusan. She CANCELLED her abortion appointment for today. Thank You, Father, for using us to save Your favorite thing, a brand new life! What made the difference: prayer, a miraculous ‘’coincidence,’’ and the loving intervention of an older friend from her church, a mentor, the "mother" this young woman felt she never had. The ‘’coincidence’’ is that a prayer warrior, Chris, had been praying that God would bring BABIES into the young woman’s path before the abortion. Lo and behold, her coworker popped in to work the next day with HER new baby. The young woman held the baby, and the rest is history. We thank You and praise You, Lord, and seek Your help and blessing on her and this baby. Reward her faith in You! (Jeremiah 29:11)