I was sucked by 3 piggies
Gambling has always been a sucker’s game, but I can’t believe I got sucked out of a 100 bucks by three cartoon pigs on a slot machine. Although, the pigs were very adorable.
We are lured into gambling by the chance of winning and getting something for nothing. Of course, the odds and the gods must be on your side. It helps if the gods are on your side, but the odds are always in the house’s favor.
In a casino the easiest way to gamble is the slot machine, a mindless game, where all you do is press a button and look at a screen. If you get the winning combination on the screen, a meter adds credits to your score. Casinos don’t want you to think about money, so everything is in chips or credits.
Slot machines have come a long way since they were invented by Charles Fey in San Francisco around 1900. Slots were all mechanical then, you’d drop a nickel in a slot, pull the handle, three reels would spin, and once the reels stopped , if you got the winning symbols, you hit a jackpot and money would come out the bottom.
The piggy slot machine I played was over 10 feet tall, and the screen is almost as large. These three pigs are animated in stunning colors, red, yellow and blue. You can touch and tickle them, they oink, oink, and giggle. Their eyes roll as if they are happy you were handling them. They get fatter and fatter the more money you put in, until one or more of them explodes all over the screen. You win credits and the pigs oink oink …
You never know when a pig will explode, no matter how fat they get. So you are lured into putting more and more money in the machine, anticipating a big jackpot. Needless to say, I put $100 in the machine, never got a pig to explode, and lost it all.
Did I tell you the pigs were adorable?
Future Leaders of America hosted by Rob Bonta
Where Aug. 4, California Attorney General Rob Bonta visited Future Leaders of America at their Youth Leadership Conference.
Annually, the group hosts a conference to help program participants on California’s Central Coast gain critical skills for self-advocacy, learn about higher education and goal setting.
Bonta met with FLA Staff, toured the campsite, and spoke to 135 Latinx youth. During the visit, he spoke about his immigration experience and how his family imparted the value of public service. His parents exposed him at a young age to the concepts of justice and fairness through their involvement in social justice movements such as the United Farm Workers movement.
“One of the things I care about the most is talking to young people and talking to folks who want to lead and change our world… You are the leaders of tomorrow, that’s true, but you are also the leaders of today,” Bonta told the gathering.
The visit was part of ongoing efforts by the Attorney General’s Office of Community Awareness, Response, and Engagement (CARE) to directly engage with communities and community organizations across the state and help ensure the inclusion of diverse perspectives in the California Department of Justice’s work.
