Gamble

I work in a card store. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that before. In said card store we sell cards (obviously), kitschy little knickknacks, and lotto. It’s not particularly challenging work, nor is it particularly rewarding, but it is fun and makes me money, so it can’t be all that bad.

Except for Lotto. I hate lotto.

I don’t really hate lotto. It’s not its fault. It’s the players that make it a menace I wouldn’t mind if it was just a few here or there, a ticket or two (I’d even take the stupid, overused jokes about ‘only wanting the winning one’). It’s the constant ones. The ones that spend hours and thousands on the supposed dollar and a dream. I can’t understand it. What makes them think that if they buy 500 dollars worth of paper and come away with a profit. What’s worse yet is that they are there for hours, buying entire books of this stuff (books being $250 to $1000) until they win. It makes me feel genuinely bad for them when they constantly lose so much that they sigh in defeat every time they ask for a new one or have to run out to get more money from the bank. At that point I don't care how much money you've got the potential to win. That's just plain sad. My coworkers sneer and say it serves them right, and I'm no better, really. I get frustrated. But I kind of wish I could tell them to get the fuck out of the store.

It may sound selfish, but f they're going to hit rock bottom, I'd rather not be witness to it.