I've been reading Bob Dancer's columns, which have been increasingly focusing on his accumulating infirmities, surgeries, etc. and how they are making it difficult for him to play, be present for drawings, etc. Why on earth does he need to play? Didn't he write a book some thirty-odd years ago about how he made a million bucks playing video poker? Does he still need to earn money, or can he just not reconcile himself to a life of retirement and ease with his wife, who he takes pains to tell us, is not his intellectual equal (really, the disparaging stuff he says about her...jeez)?
All the gambling gurus from the great VP heydays kept playing until they keeled over or are still at it long past retire-to-Florida-and-play-golf age. And it seems like they died lonely. I got off the AP bandwagon many years ago; it was for a while my sole source of income, and a good income, at that, but...it was an empty existence. I created nothing; I contributed nothing. All I did was intercept a tiny fraction of the money that was headed from players' pockets to the casinos. Whee. Teaching third grade was FAR more fulfilling, even though I earned less than half as much (but at least THAT job had benefits).
Gambling is fun, and/or a decent profession, but...it's not a life. And it's brutally difficult to quit, even long past the time when you should have.
