It's A Gamble

2-1 says you read this article

I have to confess that I am not really a gambler. It's years since I've done the pools and hardly ever had a bet on a horse and never once on the dogs. I did a few weeks ago spend a £1 on the Lottery but still don't know to this day why. I'm not interested in playing fruit machines. The remarkable thing is, although I have had it explained to me several times how they work, I still don't understand what it all means. I once put 2/6d in a machine where you had to pull the handle before it worked so you know it was along time ago. This 2/6d which is of course 12 l/2p in today's money gave me six goes and inside five minutes I had lost my money and I stood there asking myself what pleasure did I get out of that.

The trouble with gambling is that there is no certainty about it. There is a very remote chance you might win but there again you might lose. You really don't know where you are. Who the heck wants to ask the delectable Miss Jones out to dinner if she tells you, 'Well call and see me tomorrow night there's a 5% chance I will come and a 95% chance I won't. I know what I would tell her.

Now if we are talking Insurance that's more like it; now you are talking about certainties. I took out a Policy years ago for a term of 10 years; it was a lovely Policy, full of certainties. If I died during the 10 years my Wife would get £10,000 for sure. If I didn't die I would lose what I had paid in, about £1000;, that was for sure as well. You won't believe this but at the end of the 10 years I was still alive and believe you me that was a certainty as well and just to prove it I'm still around today. There's nothing more certain than that.

Writing this article isn't a gamble. I know for a certainty you will enjoy reading it. I sense that when I write I am writing to an appreciative reader, a person of some intellect, a person of some standing, someone like myself who spends most of his or her day nearly completely sober! Yes I find I have some affinity with my reader. On the other hand it could be you are reading this because you can't find anything better to do, you are just passing away the time waiting for 'Home and Away' to come on. No I won't have that you can't fool me, I know my dear reader that you recognise literary talent when you see it, in fact I'm so sure of my facts I'm prepared to bet on it, or would that be taking a bit of a gamble.

Les Lawrence