“A fool and his money are soon parted” — An old English proverb first attributed to Thomas Tusser in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, 1573
“There’s a sucker born every minute” — Often attributed to 19th century showman P.T. Barnum
I hear tell that the casino industry in the last year has made a remarkable recovery from its Covid pandemic-induced financial slump of 2020.
This is certainly good news for Wayland Union schools in the form of more revenue equals greater happiness.
I’ve always had a complicated relationship with the formerly illegal and formerly immoral sport of gambling. My position is best described as “Pro-Choice.”
I personally have avoided gambling throughout my life, except for the weekly office football pool that tended to increase my interest in the NFL. At best, I could win the prize of a little more than $200 in one week, so it was penny-ante stuff.
Thus, when the Gun Lake Casino came along, I had mixed emotions, but publicly supported the Gun Lake Tribe’s plans and efforts in the face of what appeared to be moral, but turned out to be economic objections. While at J-Ad Graphics, I wrote editorials in the Hastings Banner dissing the 23 Is Enough and “CasiNO” campaigns, correctly identifying them as being carefully and clandestinely promoted by competing economic interests, most interestingly by wealthy Grand Rapids businessman Peter Secchia.
However, I told tribal leaders I would never gamble inside their establishment. I supported their right to do business and it was up to customers to decide whether it should sink or swim.
Perhaps my position wasn’t well received. I spent a lot of time supporting and defending the casino, while the Grand Rapids Press (aka MLive.com) fought against it through it its connections with Secchia and the DeVoses. Editor Mike Lloyd was a very close friend with Dick DeVos, husband of Betsy.
Yet the casino has not spent a penny of its largesse on my independent on-line publication while advertising heavily with the GR Press, WOOD-TV and even the now defunct Penasee Globe. I am aware they’re likely to be nervous about my fiercely independent insistence and my publication is penny-ante.
“It’s a business decision.”
I think I’ve seen the results over the last 11-plus years. Some consider the Gun Lake Casino to be the best economic development ever for this area. And all that hooey about increased crime and traffic turned out to be just that, hooey.
But there’s a new game in town these days — on-line gambling, making it even easier to place your bets from the comfort of your own home. It’s another example of that theory that “If you make something easy for people to do, they’ll do it.”
But buyer beware.
My old fishing buddy finally took the plunge a little more than a week ago. After spending his life avoiding gambling, he broke down during the pre-Super Bowl hoopla and placed a small bet on the Los Angeles Rams and former Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford.
He told me he had won $280 by making the right call ahead of the big game. However, he won’t receive his winnings in cash. He’ll get a $280 credit next time he gambles on line at that web site.
Such is the tomfoolery of marketing and advertising, which merely takes advantage of and exploits our personal weaknesses while picking our pockets.
This scheme merely sucks the buyer into engaging in more gambling rather than reward the customer.
This all reminds me of an old Bonzo Dog Band song:
“Customer: Five weeks! But the sign on your business says ‘One hour dry cleaning.’
“Businessman: That’s just the name of the shop.”
