The Amateur Handicapper gets philosophical ...

The Amateur Handicapper has his eyes on the upcoming Cane Pace (Sept. 10) but has taken a break to read a fascinating book called Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling by David G. Schwartz.

Roll the Bones is epic (570 pages) and covers the history of gambling from the rolling of hucklebones in ancient Mesopotamia through wagering on the Internet in the 21st century.

Author and poker player James McManus (Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker) provides the introduction and includes a quote from one of America's greatest outside observers, Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote in Democracy in America: "Those living in the instability of a democracy have the constant image of chance before them, and, in the end, they come to like all those projects in which chance plays a part." Tocqueville said we were inclined to gamble "not only because of the promise of profit but because (we) like the emotion evoked."

This thought brings to mind an image for me of a Midwestern farmer, on his way home from church on Sunday in his buggy or his wagon, pulling up alongside his neighbor's buggy or wagon. And the irresistible urge that the meeting of the farmers would evoke in them to race down the lane to see who had the fastest colt, the fastest filly. And whenever and wherever there is a race, well, by golly, why not a little friendly (or otherwise) wager?

It's in our blood.

Schwartz includes an excerpt from India's ancient classic compilation of poetry, the Rig Veda, that today is known as the "Gambler's Hymn." Though the hymn is told from the point of view of a dice player, the obsession and despair it encompasses could easily be applied to a late Friday or Saturday night at Scioto Downs or the Meadowlands, the floor track side littered with losing tickets.

These dice nuts, born of a lofty tree in a windy spot, which dance on
this gambling ground, make me almost mad. These wakeful dice intoxicate
me like a draft of Soma from Mount Mujavant.

Never has she said an angry word to me, nor has she ever scolded me.
She has been so pleasing to me and my friends. With all this without
any fault of hers I have driven my devoted wife away because of a die
exceeding by one [unlucky throw]

My mother-in-law hates me; my wife pushes me away. In his defeat
the gambler finds none to pity him. No one has use for gamblers, like
an aged horse put up for sale.

Yea, many is the night I've traveled that lonely road home from the track, cursing neither the horses nor the drivers, but my own thrilling, dangerous obsession.