THE TRUTH ABOUT GAMBLING WITH ED DICHO AND AMOS DICHO

About the Book

Man is not a born gambler but when he experiences playing the slot machines he acquires a fascination for the element chance. With all the advertising we’re to believe that it’s ok for the lottery to rob us blind because so much of the money is going to good causes like education. Gambling is neither an immoral nor a noble exercise it is motivated by both a desire to win big and foolishness. “During my career as a gambler I began to notice that people would win and two hours later lose it all.” There are three kinds of machines – good, bad, and indifferent. The good will give you some money back, the bad will hardly pay, the indifferent are the ones that malfunctioned and you are out of luck, no money. Studies generally consider a person a problem gambler if they report at least five problems associated with gambling. Those problems range from lying about gambling and having to steal, having to borrow money, losing jobs, dumping your kid at the entrance to a casino so you can play the slots, and being unable to cut down or stop gambling. A recent report from the state task force of compulsive gambling estimates New Mexico has anywhere from 90,000 to 108,000 problem gamblers, compulsive gamblers that is. I do go to the casino at times and without a doubt it is questionable whether many of the gamblers I see playing the slots should be there at all. Compulsive gambling is like any other addiction (drinking or smoking). It is arrested only by total abstinence and cannot be cured. Compulsive gamblers live in a fantasy world that tells them the big wish is around the corner and they will be set for life, all debts will be paid, and life will be good again. As we see today, when they don’t win there are disastrous effects and heartbreak that are caused by compulsive gambling every day.

About the Author

Lino Mondragon was born and raised in Questa, New Mexico. At the age of 18, he joined the Navy and served two years during World War II. He was stationed on the USS New Orleans, a CA-32 heavy cruiser vessel in the South Pacific. It was while on that ship he got his first taste of gambling. There were high stakes games such as dice and poker games played often. On returning from the war some of the popular gambling spots were the Hoffman Bar in Taos, the 4 Roses Bar in Questa and the Simon’s Bar in Red River. At the time it was illegal to gamble, these activities were overlooked because the sheriff was on the payroll. On returning, he went to barber school in Salt Lake City, Utah. Then in 1950 he moved to Taos and became a fulltime barber. He met and fell in love with Stella who became his wife in 1952. There were married 50 years. From this union they have three daughters and three sons, 12 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and 1 great-great grandchild. His interests are oil painting, fishing and gardening. The reason he decided to write and illustrate this book was he observed the profits casinos were making and how many people were suffering from the effects of gambling. When he retired in 1987 he had worked as a professional barber for 37 years. Lino and Stella would go to the casino once a week where she would gamble more than him. He always made sure his bills were paid before they went gambling. He did this because he had noticed some of his friends had lost their spouses, homes, cars and was deeply in debt. What he wants to accomplish by means of his caricatures is to warn people to be careful with their casino spending. Ed Dicho and Amos Dicho are translations of “I have said” and “what we have said”. People should play if they like but responsibly and avoiding addiction to the game.