Signals

One day, as they were considering what to do that spring, they decided to visit a casino. Neither had ever been to a casino before. They had rarely gone anywhere, having spent their lives working and raising a family. So, they thought, why not? Off they went. Neither knew anything about gambling, casino games
, slot machines, or greatest Slot. For the first few days, they had a great time. They went sightseeing, enjoyed the fine dining, the shows, and even played a little here and there. The wife didn’t like it much, though, so they had decided to go back home earlier than they had planned. On the last night, the man went to play a slot machine one last time. He put in a few coins, pulled the handle, and won a $250,000 jackpot. Wow! He and his wife were overjoyed. They planned to spend the money on their children, buy them each a house, invest some money for their expected grandchildren’s education, and so on. They packed up and went home with all that money.

About two years went by. Then one day the local news-paper reported that the man had been arrested for trying to rob the local bank, where he and his family had banked all their lives. Not only was this a stupid act, since everyone in the town knew these people, especially at the bank, but as the investigation proceeded, it revealed that this man was

far from the pillar of the community he had pretended to be. Much to the surprise of everyone, particularly his wife and children, he was in debt to several casinos for over $2 million. It seems that shortly after he won that $250,000 jackpot, he had started to play slots regularly. He apparently hid these trips from his wife by claiming to have taken a part-time job in the travel business, which required him to do some destination traveling. He went back to that same casino. His initial success was reinforced again when he was lucky the second time and won another $50,000. From this point on, he convinced himself that he was a great gambler, and that this would be the easiest money he would ever make for himself and his family.

To be continued…