The house always wins

The 3rd major pursuit onboard the ship is usually gambling. This trip has been a bit of an anomaly for that as the casino has been closed for most of the trip, only open for the last 2 nights. That really just meant that the easily entertained had to go harder and faster to piss away their dreams.

There is an assortment of games available aboard the cruise, blackjack table, roulette, craps, some novelty skill tester. You should expect to find these almost permanently surrounded by the hopefully just waiting to have their dreams crushed and then have another drink.

And then there’s the one armed bandit.

Or the couple of button card reader more accurately. The pokies are by far the most popular attraction at the casino with people staying glued to the screens for hours. They excitedly hurry into the casino look around eagerly for a free machine, park their zimmer frame in front of it and struggle to get up onto the stool. A waiter will bring them a drink to loosen their inhibitions and they will slide their cruise card into the machine. Like everything else on the boat you don’t use real money or tokens, you just charge it to the room. $20, $100, $1000, it all feels the same, just a slide of the card and then you’re back to watching spinning numbers and pressing some buttons, just waiting for your money to disappear.

Eventually the Casino will close for the night and these degenerates will have to retire to their room to dream of the jackpot they will surely get tomorrow night to make back the mortgage payment they just lost. The staff will welcome them back with a cheery smile and wish them luck as their eyes glaze over, at least until their credit runs out that is, then they might find themselves having an accident on some stairs.