As I blogged I went and watched football tonight at a local shop not far from my house. I meet my mate Keith there and we enjoy a few hours out of our houses away from the girls and I am sure they feel the same way too.
The guy who owns the little shop that is like a convenience store is a young Thai guy called Tong (Flag) and he is really a good guy. I have known him for a good 18 months now and his wife, son and mother in law live in a little closed off area at the back of the shop. They don’t have a toilet of bathroom there but straight across the road is a toilet block that has all these facilities.
It isn’t a fantastic situation but he gets by which a lot of Thai people do. He is generous in ways that aren’t good for his business. He has plenty of mates that come to watch football and have a drink and I am not sure if they are reaching into their pockets very often to chip in and help pay for the alcohol being drunk. Tong likes a drink or 4 and will often be well on his way on the weekends when I head home.
The biggest problem he has like so many people across the world is he gambles. He bets on the illegal football markets that run rampant in Thailand.
I used to be one of those pathetic losers at the local pub punting on every animal that had legs and sports as well. It took a long time to wise up that gambling is a no-win situation. If it was easy all of us mugs would be rich and happy. From when I was 18 until I was 30 I gambled away a heap on money I don’t want to try and even camp. There were times when I would be paid on a Thursday afternoon and by Sunday I would be $1,000 dollars lighter and still wanting to gamble the rest of my paycheck to get the money back I lost. I finally stopped gambling after having a really big loss. I didn’t go and get help from any of the services offered back home I just quit and at the same time I stopped drinking as well. I wish I had done it many years before but you live and learn the hard way.
Anyway back to Tong. Tong invests too much, he is betting with loan sharks money as they are a dime in a dozen here and offer money at extortionate rates to their victims. There has been many a night where he is long in the face when a team he has backed goes down. Tonight this was the case too.
The game finished and Keith and I got up and paid our bill. Tong was fairly drunk and I could tell he wasn’t real happy. He said he had just lost 40,000 baht on Arsenal and Manchester City. Arsenal was a big surprise in only drawing against Birmingham City but that is football. Manchester City had a hard game away from home to Everton who are playing very good football. There are many players injured and missing on African Cup duties so it isn’t a good time to be betting even if you follow the football down to a tee.
So Tong with his long face and smelly breath then flipped his apron back a little to reveal the butt of a gun he had stuffed in his pants. He then said in Thai that he was going to shoot himself in the head and also did the action. I replied to him in Thai that this was speaking very bad as most Thais believe you say things like this they will happen. I spoke to him for a minute and he told me he owed 70,000 baht to these asshole loan sharks that are most of the time backed by the men in brown of Thailand as they are getting a small monthly fee to help retrieve any money from bad debtors. I have only been told this but many people have said this to be true. A lot of the people lending the money are of Indian decent and sadly like so many people across the world are taking advantage of suckers who don’t know any better.
Tong repeated about shooting himself and his mother in law looked on. I again told him to stop talking stupid and asked him why he gambled so much and he replied like any gambler across the world would have “I don’t know.” I could tell he was really down and told him in Thai I was going to take his gun home with me for the night and I will take it back to him tomorrow. He agreed and we walked out to the back part of his shop where I took possession of it and brought it home with me.
It is now next to mine and I do feel better knowing he doesn’t have it in his frame of mind. Many Thai people kill themselves when the chips are down. I actually just read an article in the paper yesterday about the rising suicide rate of people under 25 here in Thailand yesterday. The problem with gambling is it’s like a disease. I don’t care what anyone says gambling is a losers sport. Sure you have wins and they are the ones that you hold in your memory but all the losses are put away in a memory vault and forgotten.
The sad part is not many can kick the habit, no matter how many times they swear they will. Maybe a week or a month goes by and then it’s straight back to where they were before. So tomorrow I will gibe Tong his gun back and I will also have a chat to him when he is sober and express my disappointment in his actions tonight. I hope that the day never comes that he does do as he said as life is way too precious to end over a stupid thing like gambling, the problem here is the people who are owed the money don’t play around here and they hound the victim till they crack and the person does something silly from the stress they were under.
Anyway that’s my rant.
Brunty
6 comments:
That's a sad story about Toni. Maybe he was asking for help when he told you about his plans.
I was surprised when I live in Sydney seemed like most pubs had pokie/slot machines in them. Get people drunk so they gamble, then they drink more to mourn their losses. Vicious cycle.
i think you are a brave man to talk freely about your old gambling problem, in spain, this is a big problem, and some women, go shopping, but stop in a bar and spend all the money at the slot machines, because in spain, bars are allowed to have this machines in bars, so they are spread everywhere.
at the end this women must lie husband about been robbed, or prostitute to have money for buy food, so sad so many families broken.
i am afraid your friend´s problem had a sad ending, if he can not pay his debts, i wish him good luck and hope he will be smarter in the future.
Gambling is such a serious problem in Thailand. Even back in America when Asians move there - they have serious issues with it. It's an addiction of the worst kind. For me - I'm addicted to fishing. I would fish rather than meet god if I had the chance. In psychology if you want to increase the odds that you'll get someone to repeat a behavior (like gambling) you put the system of rewards on a non-regular basis... that happens occasionally and inconsistently. If the reward (winning something in this case) is given almost randomly it increases the odds the behavior will continue - AND decreases the chance that you'll totally extinguish the behavior.
Some say once a gambler always a gambler.
I'm really happy you kicked it Jason as it's a bitch to get out of the mind.
Good luck with your friend...
hello, good story, gambling has broken many good people, terrible addiction, somemight say worse than any other.
just one other thing, what are you doing with a gun in thailand?
feel free to reply to me please
Hi Aaron. Tong was pretty drunk and also feeling sorry for losing a big amount of money for a Thai person. I wasn't sure if it was just teh alcohol talking so I thought it was easier to remove the danger from him. Gambling is a horrible thing. The governments of the world make so much money from it that it will never be stopped.
Albert I am not brave but just truthful now. I lied to myself and so many friends for years about my gambling problem. I knew I had a big problem but kept thinking that I would back a big winner one day as all us mug punters do. Gambling is a no win game, sooner or later you come out a big looser. I could write some huge stories about gambling binges that would shock most people but a problem gambler, no.
In Australia gambling is a huge problem and is wrecking families and destroying lives.
Vern. The gambling problem in Thailand is pretty insane when you think about how many people just cannot afford to gamble but do. They gamble on everything you can think of. I remember maybe 6 months ago watching men gambling on fighting fish. I have watched the cockfights at Chattuchuk market in Bangkok and watched the old ladies playing cards int eh village. The big money is spent on football. It is such a hard thing to follow football as there are just too many variables.
I remember saying 100's of times that this was the last time I was going to gamble. When I finally stopped I couldn't believe how easy it was to actually stop. I went back to training at my surf lifesaving club and swim training every morning and craft training every afternoon. I got healthy again and started living life. It was the best thing I have ever done in my life.
People saying having a baby is the best moment. And when my Ex fiance had my son Sam it was the proudest day but I may be criticised for saying this but giving up the punt and the drink is my proudest moment.
Sunsetter I got a gun as for a while I was getting really weird emails and threats about "writing about certain Thai people" I passed these onto policeman friends and they were sent off to Bangkok and I haven't heard anything back.
I just wanted it for a back-up measure. Thais here don't play around. They will use a deadly force without thinking of the serious concequinces it will bring them.
Also when you travel out of your area where you live things can happen. There are many stories about people being robbed and so forth so I like to put it in the car as a safety precaution. I hope I never use it other than at the gun club.
ahh ok cool, i understand, ive been reading your older blogs and couldnt find any reference points to see why you needed a gun, so i just asked, hope you dont mind.
been having a giggle reading your blogs mate, i have a little thing going in udon thani, house, missus etc, its going good, im in the uk working right now.
keep up the good work, nice vids and pics, great blog!
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