Different people and their meeting with slot machines – Part 1

“Got out at the wrong stop.” The consequences of meeting the slot machines
My name is Nikolai, I’m 26 years old, and I’m a total loser.

I used to be a cheerful and cheerful person, a soul of company, girls loved me, friends respected me. My mother brought me up as a kind and decent man, never let anyone down, everyone believed and trusted me. While studying at the institute, had no money, worked as a system administrator in the department, received 1500 rubles. This money was enough for everything. I had enough money for food, new clothes and even for trips to bars and cinemas. I had a girlfriend, lived with her for 2 years. In general, normal life of an ordinary student, everything is stable in the future…

It all started with the fact that one day my stomach twisted in the trolley bus and had to run out not at his stop and look for the toilet, then there were slot machines everywhere. I went out of the toilet and decided to 50 r. to try what it is (before that only on the wraps in childhood lotto played). 50, another 50, and another 50, and 150 should be played… I lost all my salary – 1500 rubles. Then I had to borrow, but not to live to the next one, but to win back…

All this was in 2004, I had a job, money, but all went to the machines, the excitement was overwhelming. A girlfriend left me, I haven’t dated anyone for more than 4 years, best years and without a girlfriend. Women became uninteresting, friends all turned their backs on me because I started drinking with grief and borrowing money all the time. I returned everything, but much later. Debts were piling up, I had to borrow from some people, give them back to others, interest was piling up. For 3 years I had a nightmare, got drunk in the evening, worked with a hangover in the afternoon, borrowed money in the evening, lost, drunk, lost business trips, borrowed, lost, rebooked, lost and borrowed again… And so on and so forth.

Started to let people down, my mother switched to heart pills now she needs 100000 for surgery or she will not live to a deep old age on pills. In winter they buried her grandparents (her parents), her hands are taken away at times… In general, her health, I have finally endured with my life. Although I tried to hide everything, but it leaked one way or another.

As a result, I got on credit for 35,000 rubles. Credit card, constantly took off of her everything I’ve put before to play. At that time I did not go anywhere anymore, I almost stopped laughing and smiling.

In 2007, from 01.07 all the machines in Udmurtia were closed. There was nowhere to play. By December 2007 I had about 20,000 debts left, which I could pay back in 3 months without playing. Life began to get better, old joys and hobbies returned. But in December 2008 I accidentally came across online poker, and it was doubled in strength. In February, I was fired from my job because “I got too nervous and stopped fitting in”. I didn’t leave home for a month, I played, borrowed, played again.

In mid-March 2008 my comrade called me to work in Ekaterinburg, where I worked until mid-July. In Ekaterinburg the slot machines are not closed yet; the result was the loss of the entire June salary and the inability to pay the rent. When I came back to Udmurtia, I didn’t get a job and for 13 days now I’ve been doing nothing but playing poker.

Due to constant delays the bank asked to pay them all 35000 until August 1, 2008. I have no place to get this money. My mother asked my aunt for 30000r and added a pension of 5000r. She gave me the money and went to live in a summer cottage (she lives there all summer). And I lost all that money in 5 days. My aunt works at school, and the money was collected from the children on tickets to the Crimea. Tomorrow my mother comes from the summer cottage to take a loan at the savings bank for 30000 to give it to my aunt.

In general, I do not know how to tell her all this, and her heart, I’m afraid, will not stand. And after that, everyone will just turn their back on me. My total debt is 14,4500. I’m not working, I turned my phone off, everybody’s looking for me, because all the deadlines have passed with all the creditors…

“The one-armed man takes away the wil”

A friend of mine looks at the last page before reading a book, and if the novel has a good ending, she reads it. If players had known scientifically that there was no happy ending in this fairy tale, maybe it would have saved many people. It’s not without reason that the main thing in the gambling business is to lure people to the casino.

In America, this industry has a huge scope. What palaces, in the full sense of the word, are built in Las Vegas. Everything is expensive, everything sparkles, everything calls to at least come in and see. People are coming here in crowds from all over the world. The industry offers a vacation – people come here to rest, families, with children. Yeah, relax, have some fun. Here are the best boutiques of the most fashionable designers in the world, restaurants with cuisine of all countries, swimming pools, gyms, luxury hotel rooms – just come.

And one minute you walked into this shiny room and pressed the slot machine button. And you won! They say the first time 80 percent of players are lucky. You realize you can win more, and go, go, go. At some point, you lose, it makes you even more spurred to win back. And you find yourself a squirrel in a wheel – lose, win, etc. But it’s the casino that wins, and it’s always the casino.

In the casino, everything is built with subtle knowledge, human psyche. The casino has no clocks, no windows – time for you has stopped, there is no day or night – there is an endless game. To play the machine you change your money for tokens – it’s much easier to part with them. Only then do you realize that with the tokens left a lot of things that you could afford, but late – voracious machines. I’m not writing this as an observer, but as an active, unfortunately, player.

In an effort to “catch up and overtake America,” we have surpassed what we want…

Moscow is more than the state of Nevada: the casino on every corner, at every subway station, was no exception and Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, had to squeeze for the sparkling “Shangril”. But what a huge difference between casinos in Nevada and Moscow! I want to explain to the reader that in America, citizens carry their wages to the bank or home, not being tempted on the way. After all, gambling establishments only in the state of Nevada, and there are specially going to play with fate. Casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Leitacho are the palaces that attract visitors with beauty and comfort.

The casino is a subtle psychological trap for beginners and a drug with a constantly increasing dose for those who have already taken the bait.

Everything here has been thought out in detail. You come to have a good time, watch a performance or concerts at the best Belagio venues, have dinner in restaurants with French, Italian or Japanese cuisine, make shopping in luxury boutiques, etc. But few people will refuse to throw a dollar or two in the mouth of a “slot machine”, and went, if not afraid – but the newcomer is always lucky. Now instead of a dollar you hold five, instead of five – ten, and it seems to you that you are not far from the stand with pictures of the winners of the fortune in one evening.

I’m not writing this as bait thrower, I’m writing this as bait from the casino. Your attention is riveted on the screen of the car – waiting for a combination of numbers or pictures, the bravura music of winning or the ringing of coins jumping in the body of the car. You and the car are one and the same, and you seem to understand each other. What it’s like when you win $130,000 in one hour, there’s no limit to euphoria, and only the machine knows that you’re its prisoner, that you won’t give that win back today or tomorrow, along with your money intended for other purposes. Yes, I won it, but yes, I lost it on my next trip.

The casino invites you to send colorful ads and cards, gives you $800-1000 as a gift, just come, bring the money… to part with it… to the casino. A good player (I’m one of them) gets paid by the casino for staying in chic rooms, pays for the flight, but all this is an illusion that attracts you to this beautiful fairy tale often with a bad ending…

We have another thing. The money is huge, but where have you seen (except for a few casinos) beautiful interiors, high school workers? Mostly they are shield tents, densely stuffed with machine guns (armless bandits). But bandits with arms and legs, owners of establishments, do not care about the beauty of interiors and services to clients. It’s easier here – they go and leave the last one with a bottle of beer and a mat in the language of Muscovites and guests of the capital. Our people are not so clumsy, they justify the proverb “will give away the last shirt”, but, unfortunately, not for good purposes. How many ruined fates, homeless, left without a roof, and all because of the evenings spent at the machine gun. But someone is very happy with it, someone doesn’t care about broken up families. Yeah, there’s a lot of talk about drugs, their harmful effects, drug crime services being set up. But why does this drug, I can assure you, which has the same effect on people of different ages and social groups, not care about the state? I think the mystery is very easy to guess. Drug addiction puts the profits in his pocket, with the casino in the end, the state has a huge income, and the owners of these casinos most likely or the state people or those close to them.