Gambling With Disaster

26 Gambling With Disaster Allan is a chef in a restaurant. He earns a good salary, taking home more than $1, 000 a week. However, his life has become difficult. Why? All his problems can be traced to his gambling addiction. Every Saturday, as soon as he receives his paycheque, Allan immediately cashes it and drives across the river to the casino. He stays there and gambles it away in just a few hours. In the beginning, he promised himself that he would take only one or two hundred dollars with him. When he lost it, he would go home. " It's just a form of entertainment, " he told himself. But once he started gambling, he could not stop. He would sit there for hours without noticing the time going by. Sometimes he won, but most often he lost. The more he lost, the more he bet. Although he was a smart man and he knew the odds were always stacked against players in casino games, he could not seem to control his urges. Soon, he was spending his entire pay at the casino.

One night, when he came home late from the casino, there was a note on the table from his wife. “ I can't take this anymore, " she had written. " I can't bear to see you fall so far down from where you used to be. You no longer spend time with your children. We rarely talk, except to argue about money. " Two months had passed since Allan's wife moved away with their two young children. He hadn't paid the rent for two months. Then, after another late night at the casino, he came home to find his apartment locked. On the door, he found a legal note requiring him to vacate the apartment immediately, as he had not paid the rent. He stood in the street, alone and friendless, with no place to stay for the night. For the first time, it truly hit him how awful his life had become. Where would he sleep? Hot tears began to roll down his face and he cried like a baby.