I like how Bob Mercer accurately rephrases the Deadwood gambling report as losses for our visitors:
Deadwood’s gambling crowds in June lost $11,758,459.56 in slot machines and $1,376,396.02 on table games.
The losses were bigger than during the similar month last year, during the COVID-19 pandemic, or for June 2019, according to the latest numbers released from the South Dakota Commission on Gaming[Bob Mercer, “Deadwood’s June Gambling Action Was Strong,” KELO-TV, 2021.07.26].
I feel a new Tourism slogan coming on…Deadwood: Your Loss Is Our Gain! South Dakota Is for Losers! And for our hispanohablante high rollers, Dakota del Sur—¡Sea un Perdedor!
The house always wins, and South Dakota’s house doesn’t want to pay its taxes, so keep on rolling those dice, tourists!
There is a Tuesday night poker game locally here at one of the local bars. If you win, you have your bar tab covered. It’s a gentle calculus to choose the right balance between intoxication and victory. Don’t drink enough, you’re not really winning anything. Drink too much, and you’re not really winning anything. Find your window, manage your buzz, maintain a dogged determination, drink expensive booze, and you’re a real winner.
If all of the people that gambled in Deadwood decided one day to gamble on a small business person or entrepreneur instead, I could get on board with that.
People who gamble on slot machines, video poker, scratch tickets, lottery, bingo, and keno are choosing games with little chance of winning.
Most know it but do it any way.
A pertinent analogy are people in SD who use dangerous and highly illegal hard drugs because they’re the only chemical escape available.
Both these scenarios will wane when legal pot and statewide sports gambling are unveiled. IMHO
Well..I’ve always felt people gamble because they are bored with life….there is a thrill in winning and an adrenalin rush accompanied by guilt and remorse in losing. Its an addiction and it isn’t pretty.
Well Arlo, I don’t gamble, but one of my favorite artist’s Francis Bacon did, in his life, in his art, in everything, drinking, etc. It helped make his art, spectacular. It really always was a throw of the dice. If it didn’t work he just destroyed the canvas. life with him was a side issue, and it wasn’t pretty at all. However he made great art of the highest order.
well…great art and great artists seem to have their own motivation…they must exist and they must make art..I have several artist friends, all wonderful…one just passed away…Ted Vogel, a potter and USD grad..about 71 or 72…