Rambling Gambling

the chinese new year season always brings families together, for the reunion dinner, to catch up and basically re-establish relationships within the family. yet there is almost always one inevitable event that will pop up somewhere: gambling. it never fails with chinese families. as long as there's a group of ppl, a mahjong table or a deck of cards, some wise guy will bring out the coins and the rounds will start. it seems we are always in the mood to gamble, whether during a wake (mahjong session at the void deck, totally oblivious to the ppl that needs to sleep!) or a reunion dinners (dinner table will be cleared and on come the decks of cards). i have always wondered what is the fasination with all the gambling. i dun gamble and i have never felt the so-called thrill of gambling. i dun get excited trying to get the most number of cards while not letting the total value exceed 21. nor do i get excited trying to out-pair a person while clearing my hands of the cards. to me, the only sure thing about gambling is losing the money. no matter how much a person wins during one session, he will end up losing one way or another during some other sessions.

it also fasinates me how ppl can spend some much time and effort scrutinising about their luck. whether it's good or bad, what they gotta do to make their luck be good again, blah, blah, blah. cant they jus simply not gamble and get the whole problem over with? spending so much time and effort, not to mention all the headaches, jus to win that few dollars is simply not worth it.