Don't Be A Gambler - Story 03 - "AUSSIE FLASH STORIES" Book by Daniel Gutiérrez Híjar

 

He lost five grand in the time it took for a footy match to finish. He grabbed his head, sinking into a silence that seemed destined to end with a long, tortured scream, but the scream never came.

Instead, from that bowed head rose a strangely optimistic face.

I’ve still got four thousand left. I’m putting it all on this random team from some unknown league in some unknown country. Their win pays eight to one.

I pointed out that the payout was that high clearly because they weren’t the favourites.

And you think I don’t know that? Bookies use numbers to mess with our heads. But I’ve seen plenty of Davids take down their Goliaths. It happened in the Bible, and it’s still happening today. If you want to win big, you’ve got to take big risks. Triumph lives in the risk.

I reminded him he’d just lost five grand seconds ago on another team that was paying five to one; also not the favourite, and they’d lost too.

Yeah, but a good punter keeps faith in his gut. The weak ones, the false gamblers, they pack it in right before the next bet, the one that brings redemption and glory.

Without hesitation, he lodged the bet. He handed over his remaining four thousand; everything sitting in his bank account.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to convince him to split it into four bets of a grand each. That way, at least, he’d have more chances to win something.

To win peanuts?, he cut in. No bloody way, he added firmly. You’ve got to take risks big time. How do you reckon mining blokes make their money? They pour heaps of cash into the riskiest projects, because those are the ones that pay off for real. That’s why I see myself as a bit of a mining entrepreneur too.

When the match ended, Keiran became the proud owner of thirty-two grand, tax free.

That bold example turned me into a gambler. I don’t have any money of my own, only what the banks offer me through countless, unsolicited credit cards. I keep losing, but I’m still waiting for my David, with the perseverance once praised by Keiran, now a mining entrepreneur.