It has been quite some time when we went out to gamble! Oh what fun it is to gamble just a bit! I am the finance guru whenever we go to gamble simply because I somehow can restrict myself without getting too greedy or without wanting to try to win whatever we lost over and over again. So I decide to hold the purse strings which my DH reluctantly agrees J We start off with a budget for what he gets per day, and what I get for the entire trip (I love to have some fun but not too much coz I know how much I do sweat to earn that li’l paltry that I do earn!). Sometimes if the DH did end up losing it all very soon in the day and I have some winnings or if I haven’t spent it all I do share it with him. He is a poker dude as I would like to introduce…he not only loves poker but he is also good at it! I do watch poker stars on TV with him sometimes and jokingly ask when he is going to join that group! Well, all is well until of course he decides to do it for life! Keeping my fingers crossed that he doesn’t come up with such a decision….Not that I would want to restrict his interest or his way but it is just that as an Indian, we are more focused on providing for family and our extended families consisting of both our parents and our siblings and their families. Also, according to our whims and fancies somehow we Indians cannot simply go on with the flow like a river does..Neither would most Indian men raised in India. My DH though, has an ultimatum, to spend up to his 50th year with us and I have told him if he is good until then, he can then go on to be a poker player for the rest of his life, provided his kids would let him lead that life as well!
Usually I know the drill – we’ve been to Atlantic city a couple of times and to Las Vegas once; my DH ended up losing all his quota and also lost a bit borrowed from me – so I am bracing myself for a whole weekend, in fact two entire days and two half days of arguments, and fights and what not about how much to lose and when to call it quits at the casinos. DH had a very long, tiresome, and taxing week so I decide to let him have fun. I agree to be the designated driver throughout the trip and promise not to bother him while he is at play. Also, I do not have the holidays that he has and with my office working on Good Friday I do a remote login from the hotel on Friday as hubby ends up at the casino! Somehow, I do not envy him; I am happy he got some comp time on Thursday afternoon so he can drive up to my work place early and we start off on Thursday early afternoon, end up in AC around 7.30pm and head off to the casinos. I call it quits around 9.30pm, come back to the hotel with hubby and he leaves me at the lobby and goes back…..I try to spend some time watching TV but decide to get to bed early, wake up early, finish off work early so can start having fun at the casino…Somehow, kept tossing and turning and then ended up sleeping…Tick, tock, tick, tock….Around five’ish in the morning hubby returns with a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig smile saying he won a huge pot at the end and is so thrilled to start the next day…I am half asleep and half awake, but still end up pocketing the majority of his winnings (I know for certain that I have to hold on to some of it ‘coz he is bound to lose it all the next day!) Friday at the poker table he ends up losing so we go out for lunch at a famous Chinese cuisine near one of the casinos, take a small walk on boardwalk and then I head back to hotel to continue my work and he heads back to the casino…I finish work early and pack up our bags..I want to leave on Saturday as one of my friends has invited me over for lunch on Easter. Not sure how hubby is gonna react to starting for home the next day…I meet my DH at the casino, walk for a while again on boardwalk, and then I gamble a while. My usual play areas are slots and roulette and in both I end up losing around a total of 95 bucks. I tell myself this is more than what I should have lost and want to save the next five bucks that is also part of my budget. I go to check on my DH who is winning and doesn’t want to get up from the table. I sit with him for a while and then request that he drops me back at the hotel as I do not want to loiter alone in AC in the night. The same drill as yesterday and hubby leaves me at the lobby…returns back around 5:00am the next day and tells me that he lost whatever he had but that he is happy as he now knows that you cannot win every hand, every day at a poker table. I tell him about our friends invite and we decide to head back the next day.
Overall, our daily budgets + our expenses for car, food, lodging = DH’s winning on Thursday night which means- a totally happy me! One of us had the luck this time and our costs or expenses = our winnings.
This indeed ended up as one of our best gambling trips ever! So what do you expect from AC? Nothing. You may end up emptying your pockets or end up winning a little. In the end, what matters is your ability to call it quits when it is time to and when you haven't burned a large hole in your pocket!
