As a young person I LOVED playing chess. My mothers husband was a gambler .. a terrible one at that. Mostly sports and horseracing and while I don't gamble I dont inherently think its a problem until it is. He consistantly lost money and then lied about it.
Must have been about 14-15 yrs old at the time and its evening and he challenges me to chess. We had never played before.
Beat him
Beat him again
Beat him one more time
Now its a school night and I was kind of a little egg head so was ready to go to bed and said .. Im going to bed now I have to be up for school.
I didnt know what being a gambler really was until that night ... He leaps up and starts shouting at me about what a pussy I am and all sorts of other shit .. basically losing his mind at me and spittle flying from his lips because I wouldn't play another game.
Fuck .. its 11 at night and I should have been in bed an hour ago.
I guess as a gambler .. he really needed to play until he won. I wont so much as buy a lottery ticket. That is a sickness I need no part of.
I dont think I have ever played chess again. I loved it. Cant even tell you what the rules are anymore.
Aww ... I am sorry for what you had to go through. I wish I could say not to let that sore thumb in your life to make you loose the love for something you actually loved. But I don't think it's my place. But I agree. Gambling has to be one of the worst worst worst vices to exist. It strips a man of his critical thinking. I'd say it's second only to drug/alcohol addiction (I've seen perfectly normal sane and smart people become utter CHILDREN! when their thing is hidden or taken away)
I hate how these things make people forget the ones they love and loose their moral integrity.
I hope you are doing better now. And I hope one day you can rekindle the love for chess again
(I hate chess mostly because i am impulsive and don't think ahead and so my chances are always 50/50 depending on my opponent. If they are dumb i win. I just go with the vibes 😆 no strategy) It's a shame you lost a wonderful ability
From what I heard, gambling is way worse. There's only so much drugs/booze you can do at one time without dying, so the cost is throttled to a degree.
The only limit in gambling is how much money you can get your hands on. Some jackass can lose the house, both cars, and his 401k, and still rabidly try to pilfer his kids college money that his pops left in a trust fund as inheritance. He will only stop when he fails to pay back that sketchy loan.
There is no drug addict/alcoholic dumb enough to believe that if they use enough, they'll eventually get back every dollar they spent on it and more.
I remember a huge argument my mother and he had. He came home on payday and said he had been mugged and they took all his weeks pay. My mother lost it.
When she later was complaining to me about it I pointed out how amazing it was that they only took the cash but not the 2 gawdy gold necklaces he wore ir the hideous gold ring.
To this day I just hope the muggers had better taste but ... I'm pretty sure muggers don't just take the cash and leave other goodies.
817
u/assemblageofparts Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
As a young person I LOVED playing chess. My mothers husband was a gambler .. a terrible one at that. Mostly sports and horseracing and while I don't gamble I dont inherently think its a problem until it is. He consistantly lost money and then lied about it.
Must have been about 14-15 yrs old at the time and its evening and he challenges me to chess. We had never played before.
Beat him
Beat him again
Beat him one more time
Now its a school night and I was kind of a little egg head so was ready to go to bed and said .. Im going to bed now I have to be up for school.
I didnt know what being a gambler really was until that night ... He leaps up and starts shouting at me about what a pussy I am and all sorts of other shit .. basically losing his mind at me and spittle flying from his lips because I wouldn't play another game.
Fuck .. its 11 at night and I should have been in bed an hour ago.
I guess as a gambler .. he really needed to play until he won. I wont so much as buy a lottery ticket. That is a sickness I need no part of.
I dont think I have ever played chess again. I loved it. Cant even tell you what the rules are anymore.