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Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Fall/Section018/Anonymous Gambler

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Biography

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A nameless gambler was born and raised in North Carolina. He chose to keep his place of origin as well as his name anonymous; however, his gambling life began when he was a child. His mother provided him with an ample amount of spending money which she had gotten from her being a sporting woman. He often skipped school and spent time around gamblers who taught him everything they knew about gambling. Even though he would oftentimes be kicked out of places that he enjoyed going to for being too young, they eventually let him stick around which allowed him the opportunity to observe and learn. This marked the beginning of his addiction to taking advantage of people through gambling. Once he became an adult, he hosted games in a rented space which he earned money from. A lawyer coerced him into providing him with a share of his earnings by threatening to have him arrested for hosting a gambling site, but offered his protection from the law if he cooperated. This potentially hints at different cases of political corruption at the time considering the fact that the lawyer used his power in order to take advantage of him. Even though the gambling site would provide a good sum of money, he did not feel comfortable with having to pay someone every week as it was the only source of income that he had to live off of. On top of the money that he would have to pay the lawyer, the interviewee explained that he soon after lost $1,500 in one gambling session. One night, he urged a couple of guys to play for some money, but used his weighted dice instead so that he could try and manipulate their chances of winning. Even though the dice were different, it did not necessarily improve his chances of winning but made it harder to get perfect rolls. Luck had not been on his side that night and no matter how much he played, he could to seem to win anything. Gambling is so dangerous because once people win, there is a possibility that they will become greedy and want to win even more; however, if they lose, they may want to win back what they lost. This is why he regretted ever indulging in gambling.


Social Issues

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Gambling

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Gambling is often associated with a negative connotation and described to be something that is bad in terms of winning based off of another person’s loss, usually in the terms of money. Even though it is thought to be mainly involved with cards and dice, gambling can happen in any form of competition or event that has an uncertain outcome and does not even have to involve material gain. This is why gamling is thought to be something that is natural among humans. There is also the misconception that gambling is morally wrong, which also may not be the case. Even though someone may lose something from gambling, no one forces them to participate and the stakes do not even need to be significant. It is something that can simply be seen as some form of entertainment, which also makes it dangerous. Gambling can start out as something simple, but naturally, the more and more people win, the more and more people will want to test their luck, even with higher stakes. This can result in people going into debt and writing checks that they cannot cash. This is exactly what happened to the interviewee and why he wishes to never have partaken in gambling to the extent that he did growing up.

Political Corruption

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The other social issue prevalent in the interviewee’s story is the idea of political or governmental corruption. This is the idea that people in power take bribes, coerce, and even cooperate with other figures in power to gain something such as money or even more power. In the case of the interviewee, hosting a gambling site without a license or some sort of documentation was illegal and had been addressed by a lawyer. Even though it was illegal and he could be arrested for it, the lawyer proposed that the interviewee give him a portion of the money he earns from his gambling site every week in order to receive protection from the law, which he agreed to. Not only is the gambler getting away breaking the law, he is able to get away with it by giving no more than a lump sum of money. If people in power are able to get away with extorting citizens, there is nothing that disproves the idea that more serious instances of corruption had been going on at that time.


References

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Discussion at Annual Meeting, 6th January 1931: “Now the fact is that all of us, even those who disapprove strongly of gambling in material possessions, gamble freely in most other things. Happiness, for instance”. -Mr. W. Hope-Jones

The Future of American Honesty (by Herbert C. Pell): “Complaints are heard about dishonest politicians, as if it were not perfectly clear to the meanest intelligence that dishonest politics would be inconceivable in an honest nation.”


Bibliography

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  • Allen, Florence E. “Remedies against Dishonest or Inefficient Public Servants.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 169, no. 1 (1933): 172–83. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271623316900119.

This is a scholarly source because it cites any resources or references to other people and does not intend to bias the reader in any way. The main idea is to expose the inefficiency and corruption within the government as a result of incompetency and lack of integrity. It emphasizes that corruption and inefficiency are correlated and that if one can be eliminated, the other will follow. This connects to the interviewee because it builds off of the ideas explained in the previous source. Corruption is found in higher levels of government and the inefficiency of the lawyer that the interviewee had been threatened by was due to a lack of competence and integrity. Considering the interviewee had broken the law, he should have had to face the consequences of his crime rather than being exploited by a person in power, which makes what they did no better than the actions of the interviewee.

This is a popular source because it is a newspaper article and is intended to be viewed by the public. This article begins by explaining that gambling is a passion that is relatively natural in all humans and that the extent of gambling is only increased by either the overall enjoyment of the first time that someone gambles, or the environment that they learned gambling from. It continues on to tell stories about numerous gamblers in certain areas and overall highlights the addiction aspect of it. This connects to the interviewee because he also possessed a gambling addiction and it was due to the environment that he grew up in. He continued to gamble more and more and with his experience, he became more and more cocky, which eventually led to his shortcomings.

This is a scholarly source because it solely presents the information without influencing the reader’s opinion and cites the references used in the text. The main idea is that gambling in some contexts can be considered morally right or wrong depending on the parties involved and that no matter the context, as long as someone’s gain is based off of another person’s loss, anything can be considered gambling. This connects to the interviewee because it gives an idea as to why gambling is so addictive. Wins are defined by the other person’s loss and if you can influence the odds to be in your favor, it makes you a lot more willing to indulge.

This is a scholarly source because it was published by a University and intended to be read by other scholars. The main idea is that dishonesty is leading to corruption in a variety of areas including politics which reveals the dangers that reside in America’s future. This connects to the interviewee because he himself has witnessed governmental corruption. He was bribed and exploited by a lawyer that threatened to have him arrested for gambling in unless he gave the lawyer a share of his earnings each week. If governmental corruption can happen at such a local level, it is not unthinkable that it could occur in both state and federal governments as well.

  • Yip, Sarah W., Rani A. Desai, Marvin A. Steinberg, Loreen Rugle, Dana A. Cavallo, Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, and Marc N. Potenza. “Health/Functioning Characteristics, Gambling Behaviors, and Gambling-Related Motivations in Adolescents Stratified by Gambling Problem Severity: Findings from a High School Survey.” The American Journal on Addictions 20, no. 6 (2011): 495–508. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1521-0391.2011.00180.x.

This is a scholarly source because it has citations and multiple pages of information that include certain statistics, meaning it is not trying to bias the reader in any way. The main idea is that gambling has different levels of severity which are caused by a multitude of factors and seeks to promote solutions to reduce the amount of gambling done by adolescents. This connects to the individual in the interview because he has a gambling addiction and his entire life revolves around gambling so this journal would help us delve into the psyche of a gambler like him.

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