A History Of Gambling, My Perspective

I thought that everyone gambled.

I used to think that every family bet the ponies. I thought this for a long time. I thought that everyone had family picnics at Belmont Racetrack. I thought everyone's family got together once a month to play poker until 4AM. I thought that everyone's Grandmother fell asleep at the baccarrat table. I even thought that everyone's Godmother sat at a slot machine for 18 hours straight.

Leisurely, and not so leisurely, gambling runs on both sides of my family. And for those that know me, the sides of my family couldn't be more different. My Mom's side, affluent Catholic Filipinos. My Father's side working class, 1/2 Russian Jew, 1/2 Catholic Italians. All of them gamble. Even beyond my blood family, the people I grew up with, all gamblers. Now, no one gambled away their kids toys and missed rent, everyone was/is reasonably responsible. But while other families saved their pennies for vacations and fancy cars, my family likes to enjoy themselves at the track, at the casino, and at the neighborhood poker game. I wouldn't trade a single one of them for a more "financially responsible" person. In fact there is something about the whole business that makes me proud.

My Grandfather on my Father's side, Grandpa Joe, was a fan of the horses. He passed this on to my Dad and my Uncle Alan. My Grandmother on my Father's side also bet the horses, and she played alot of cards. Oh, and don't forget about their love of "their numbers." You know the lottery can be considered the "poor man's tax" and the Paciulli's have paid more than their share. My Uncle Alan, who passed away about a year ago, spent every Saturday at the track and after he retired he spent most of his free time at the local video store playing Quick Draw. He never married, never had kids. At first glance you may think that he lived a less than full life... But I think he lived a fuller life than most people because he lived his life on his own terms. He did his thing. He made good friends doing it. My parents have his ashes in an Urn with a Iron Horse on it. I think he would love that. Growing up my Dad use to take Keith and I to breakfast on Sunday. Lucky enough the diner was right night to the OTB. I was told to wait outside with Keith and hold his hand while my Dad went inside. My Dad didn't want us exposed to "that element." Like waiting outside the OTB on Queens Blvd in December wasn't "exposing us to that element." We never had to wait long, and we got hot chocolate afterwards. That was awesome.

My Mother's side may not be at the track, but they are definitely at the casino. My Lola would sit there knitting while playing baccarrat. Sometimes she would fall asleep at the table, they would just deal her back in when she woke up. And forget about the hours of Mahjong they would all play. Hours, upon hours, upon hours. I can hear the clicking of the tiles as they all reached in and mixed them up. My Titas and Titos still play mahjong and go to the casino, but no one can replace my Lola sitting their knitting and betting thousands of pesos.

And like I said earlier, all of the people that I grew up around had similar fancies. They ran football betting tickets. (I thought everyone was concerned with "the spread.") They sat for hours at shot machines. We had family picnics at the track, vacations at Atlantic City, and poker nights until 4AM.

If I look at my own generation now, the passion for gambling is still going strong. My brother is a VIP host at Harrah's Casino in Chicago. He likes his numbers and does ok with the scratch tickets. Derek enjoys a weekly poker game. And I just sent Derek with $40 to OTB to place my Kentucky Derby bet. (My brother and I both called my Dad within 20 minutes of each other to ask for betting advice.) Every year at XMAS we trade Lottery Scratch offs and sit around the tree with lucky pennies. We even have made our own friends that own racing horses and work at Belmont. And let's not forget about our yearly visit to Las Vegas.

Now I know that everyone doesn't gamble. But I doubt we are alone. When my Uncle Alan died my Dad had decided to keep his ashes, but take a little bit of his remains and sprinkle them at Belmont Park. As my Dad was talking to the funeral director my Dad mentioned taking some to spread somewhere. The director said, "yeah, alot of people do that. The two places that people usually spread the ashes are in the ocean and at the TRACK." Swear to god, my Dad didn't mention a word about the track. Think about that the next time you take a deep breath at Belmont. (Maybe they should incorporate that into their ads, "..2 destination for spreading ashes.")

Some people would take their family's history of gambling as a bad thing. Not me. I like that my family isn't vanilla. Who wants a boring white bread "no risk" family? Not me. The best part is that even though my family likes to gamble, no one ever really wins. We kinda break even. I guess we are lucky enough in love, family, and friends to win the big one. But that doesn't mean we are going to stop trying.

(Wish me luck, I got a $10 exacta box on Brother Derek and AP Warrior, plus $20 on AP Warrior to win. How can I not??)