Winning is easy

You walk around the casino slot aisles looking for that one special machine. How about this one? No, not this one. How about that one? No, not that one either. Still you know that somewhere in this casino, your machine is waiting for you. You feel it is your day to win a BIG one.

Now you see a machine that calls to you, "Come here, my love, let me take you into the sky. Play me now and you'll see where the two of us can go." Ah, yes, this is the one, this is the one. This is the one that will give me the BIG win, bigger than any win ever.

You sit down and put a hundred dollar bill into the machine. The credits ting-ting-ting into place. You are ready for your try at some big fat cash. It is you and this machine and the dream of winning the biggest jackpot you ever won in your whole life.

The first three credits are played. The reels spin and stop. The symbols line up perfectly and you've just won some money on the very first spin. Not a lot of money but enough to make you want to spin and spin and spin those reels over and over and over again.

On the fifth spin, you win again, a little more than the last win. You are ahead on this machine already. In the belly of that machine is the golden egg you have been dreaming about for years of slot play.

A woman stops behind you. "Excuse me," she says. "Are you going to stay at that machine for a while?"

"Yes," you say. "I just started." You think to yourself, this is my machine; no one gets it until I win a big one. This is my machine. My machine.

You play another six spins and win a small amount. You can just feel that something good is going to happen at this machine. You can feel it in your gut. Today is your day. This machine called to you and you answered the call. You are here now, yes, here right now, this minute, and this now is your time.

You spin and spin those reels. Nothing happens. The machine has gone cold on you. You go into a bit of a dip. You are now only ahead a few dollars.

You start to wonder if the luck you knew you were going to have was merely an illusion of hope -- an illusion you now realize you have had many times in your casino slot sessions in the past.

No, no! This is your day. It has to be.

You look at the machine. You can almost hear it singing to you, "Have some patience. Your time is coming. Your time is coming."

You keep playing. For an hour you stay close to even -- a little ahead at times; a little behind at times. You start to doubt yourself again. You ask yourself: Am I just deluded?

But you don't quit. At one-hour and ten minutes of play, the reels are spinning and then -- bing! bing! bing! The symbols -- those symbols of the BIG win -- line up straight across the face of the machine. Now the bells and whistles and energetic music of the machine plays out loudly. Everyone knows that a big win has just taken place in the casino -- your BIG win!

You clap your hands together several times. Then you bring them to your mouth. You scream out loud, "Oh, yeah!" You clap your hands some more.

Other slot players come over and congratulate you on your good fortune. "Way to go!" one says. "Oooohhh, I knew that machine was going to get hot!" says the lady who had stopped by before to enquire if you intended to play the machine for awhile.

Other players just stand behind you discussing how much you are going to win. "It's a large amount even after taxes," they all nod in agreement. The thought throughout the crowd can be summed up in just one word, "Wow!"

The slot attendant comes over to congratulate you and try to wheedle a tip from you. Then the casino suits come over, all of them smiling white tooth smiles.

Everyone in the crowd is now smiling. They are all standing near where the lightning of luck struck down the casino's edge on a slot machine.

A half hour later, you are standing near the same machine, holding a six-foot long check with the amount you won, with two smiling casino suits on each end of the check, as the photographer snaps pictures of you. You are a little tired and it shows in the picture the casino publishes a few days later. You look a little distracted. One of your friends said, "Man, you look really out of it in that picture."

But you got to take home more money than most people make in a decade of work. You have been fantasizing what you would do with that much money. Should you tell your boss to jump off a cliff? You've never liked him anyway and now you can walk right out the door.

Do you give money to all the relatives -- many of which you haven't heard from in years -- who have now told you their sob stories? And what about those investment guys who have been calling explaining how they can take your money and triple it in a single year?

You'll make all those hard decisions tomorrow.

But today you are just going to think about how easy it was to win!