Better to be lucky than good
It was Gambling Awareness Week in Nova Scotia, an important time to remind sports gamblers to not bet on the Cleveland Browns — not even when they’re playing the New York Jets — because you’re throwing money away.
D-Man, a local sports observer/ gambling hobbyist who shall remain anonymous because he doesn’t like the government to know how much money he may or may not be taking from them, has a simple motto: never bet what you can’t afford to lose.
D-Man nailed one of the all
-
betting that all four of the games played on one particular night (April 17, to be exact) would go into overtime. Boom!
It was only the third time in
playoffs, and the first since 1985, turning his $2 outlay into more than $360 in cash and keeping the fridge full and the cable TV on for another month. D-Man also told me that one other Pictou County resident he knows made the same bets that night, too.
People have won much larger
(I hear things while out and about the local neighbourhoods) but it was the most spectacular ticket won by someone I know personally. It’s not really about the
- sioner Gary Bettman once said with his usual amount of sincerity — it’s about the win, that glowing of pride when overcoming such long odds.
OK, I lied, just like Gary did: it’s really about the money (for the most part).
Most people lose when they gamble, of course, and those
been known to throw their weekly paycheques into the one-armed bandits, but a little recreational wager never hurt anyone.
As long as you keep D-Man’s motto in mind, you will be OK: never bet what you can’t afford to lose. Other random thoughts
(some non-sports)
will eliminate the Boston Red Sox
playoffs real soon. The Patriots are on the downward spiral and the Bruins are about to launch the rebuild, so all is looking bad in Boston.
greats of his generation. He didn’t have what most people think of as a ‘great singing voice’ but he reached listeners — a lot of his songs felt like he was talking right to you, having a conversation. Petty was true to himself and did his own thing, his way. Didn’t seem to worry about popularity, what was fashionable, or being liked by the critics.
- giving like they do in U.S., where it might be a bigger holiday than Christmas. Certainly we are grateful for the gravy and turkey, it’s just that in the past few centuries, we’ve just gotten used to having those things and consider the greatest blessing of Thanksgiving to be the day off from work, not to mention football.
about their opening night pounding of the Winnipeg Jets. This is not the time to begin making outlandish prognostications (I’m thinking at least four 30-goal scorers this year…) and it’s far too premature to start dreaming (the dynasty’s on the way).