Chapter 16 from The Spotted Ball, A True Story by Larry Cohen c 2025
“Scratching the ground like a mole”
To speak of the State-sponsored “scratch off” tickets, we should go back to the time they were first introduced into the State lineup of gambling games. Incidentally, it should be noted that I try not to use the more euphemistic-sounding word that the gambling industry likes to use, that is, “gaming”, replacing the more sinister word, “gambling”. To me, it’s gambling, regardless of how the activity is framed. However, I do use the word game or gaming when it has become part of the vernacular or is in common usage.
A local pharmacist who owned his own business was one of the first places that I remember that sold the “new” scratch-off tickets. He told me that “there is no faster way to suck money out of a community than to sell these things,” pointing to the new roll of tickets that he had on the counter. I had no interest in these tickets and never even bought a single one. A close friend of mine said he would never buy one of “those things” because he “didn’t want to look like a mole scratching at the ground”. The fact is that these tickets are really just like a slot machine, giving the player one “pull at the machine” under the guise of giving him many chances to win. Here again, we can have the aforementioned “operant conditioning” when one never knows if there will be a reward or not. These scratch-off tickets, in my view, are the crack-cocaine of gambling. One ticket can lead to one’s complete and total downfall. They are that dangerous. Now, instead of the single roll of tickets that my friend the pharmacist had on his counter, players can choose from 30 or more games with prices up to and including $30 per ticket (and possibly more).
If one doubts the proof of the above and its drug-like addictiveness, I suggest one observe some of the buyers of these tickets and see how far they get before they begin “scratching the earth like a mole”…some may get as far as their vehicles, but many do not even get that far. To summarize, these scratch-off tickets are the equivalent of having a slot machine at every gas station, convenience store, and supermarket in the area. In effect, the state has put slot machines in literally everyone’s backyard. These tickets are insidious, nefarious, and dangerous. To think otherwise is to bury one’s head in the sand.
Since this writing is a true story, at times, I may ramble back to an earlier point that I may have forgotten or only just remembered by a trigger word or event. One event that comes to mind is the “Pick 3” numbers games the states run. No one would question the fact that those in the poorer areas play these games. One time, I hailed a cab to take me to Washington’s National (now Reagan) Airport. Just for fun, I asked the driver, “If he knew last night’s numbers?”. Bingo!
Of course he did! While only one cab driver does not make the rule, I admit, it does help make the case. The poor are the hardest hit by state-sponsored gambling.
To be continued…