Realm of Darkness
November 25, 2022
Young folks aim to get rich while rich folks aspire to be young. Interestingly, a blatant contradiction seems to work against both of these deep desires. A puzzling choice made by the youth and the wealthy alike throughout the centuries renders young people broke and makes rich people grow old. The terrible curse that has trapped humankind since the inception of currency and locked away millions of individuals who could otherwise have potential to greatly benefit human society is continuing to strangle countless citizens of the world today, all of whom are willingly submitting to its horrendous practices. Said activity is the most notoriously unstable method of income to have scraped a wallet: gambling.
Gambling of any sort, comparable to other extremely addictive activities, traps users in endless cycles of victories and defeats, frequently blooming the activity from a hobby into a habit, from which it transgresses into an irresistible urge. The main issue with gambling lies not in its tremendous potential for loss of capital, which does indeed come as a secondary concern, but rather its role as an enormous drain hole for an addict’s time, energy, and patience, the most priceless values any human can possess.
Twentieth century psychologist Sigmund Freud once wrote, “Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone.” Gambling precisely accomplishes the very path from which Freud warns us to not follow. The derivation of all one’s joys, sorrows, pleasures, tortures, and vicissitudes overall from but one activity in which success is achieved largely through fate is ironically a gamble within itself. By choosing to place a bet, an individual not only surrenders themself to the workings of luck, but also runs the risk of succumbing to irreversible addiction.
Although gambling as a whole contains a diverse array of addictive events, the following observations will largely revolve around casinos, or large organized brick-and-mortar gambling venues containing slot machines and tables frequently found in large numbers in places such as Las Vegas(US), Macau(China), Monaco, and other infamous hotspots scattered around the globe. Casinos are meticulously designed in a way such that no other type building would seem remotely similar. Most casinos have little to no daylight access to prevent long haul gamblers from realizing the time they have wasted. Similarly, clocks are never found around the largest and most successful casinos in order to prevent users from limiting their time spent. Additionally, floor layouts are designed in a way such that casinos are very easy to enter and more difficult to leave. In Las Vegas, multiple hotels owned casinos with only one moving walkway expediting entrance and none moving to the exit. Once in the casino, navigation signs, if existent, tend to point only toward restaurants and shops in order for hosts to squeeze extra profit from the gamblers, rather than the exit, leaving the maze of slot machines and tables tediously difficult to leave. Interestingly, the sidewalks lining the Las Vegas Strip weave in and out of indoor casinos, representing the diversion of public traffic and attention to these engines of horror.
Addiction quite frequently accompanies feelings of dread and loneliness. These qualities are evident from the countless drug addicts around the world attempting to convince passers-by or friends to “try” their fatal remedy. In addition to trying to gain customers, these people are also curing their feeling of isolation in their suffering. Casino owners understand that the gamblers are less willing to pursue their addiction if alone. Thus, slot machines are often oriented in clusters or pods such that each slot machine user enjoys the privacy of their own game while simultaneously feeling a sense of company with fellow gamblers suffering the activity’s terrible effects.
If operated effectively, gambling corporations are poised to rake in among the highest profit margins of any industry. In a nutshell, they accumulate the mere cost of rent, electricity, and simple operations in exchange for thousands of people’s souls. The institution of gambling in various forms has existed for enough time for the masses to realize that its continuation shall no longer be tolerated and it ought to be completely and totally dismantled, with possible exceptions for Native American tribes.