People always say gamblers are trash, that they ruin their own lives and hurt others, and that they deserve no sympathy. They have seen too many gamblers driven by greed to do whatever it takes, and so they assume that everyone who falls into this trap is the same. But they don’t know that gambling makes no distinctions. Whether you’re a business owner worth tens of millions, a glamorous celebrity, or a mathematician skilled at calculation, once you get hooked, you can’t escape becoming a compulsive gambler. The wretched life you look down on today may be a calamity you simply haven’t experienced yourself.
I often wonder: What would my life have been like if I’d never started gambling? The money I lost could have bought a spacious home and given my wife and child a carefree life. But life has no what-ifs. It’s like a ship without a captain, sailing into a sea of gambling with no shore in sight. The harder you struggle, the faster you sink.
I once dared to hope that it was all just a dream. When I woke up, I could turn it into an uplifting story about a nobody making it big, transform myself into the chosen one, and reach the pinnacle of life. But reality is cold. More than a decade has flown by in the blink of an eye, like a lifetime ago. Now I’m just a gambler who can barely manage to stay alive.
I’m not writing this to win sympathy, nor to excuse my sins. I just want to urge those still standing at the gambling table, and myself, still refusing to see reason:
Turn back while there’s still time. The sea of gambling has no end. The sooner you stop, the sooner you reach shore.
The book is beautiful! Did the author personally experience it?