hope noun [C or U] something good that you want to happen in the future, or a confident feeling about what will happen in the future.

suffering noun [C or U] when you experience physical or mental pain.

Got an early morning 'wake up' call from Jrn on Tuesday morning to go to Genting with her and a few friends. As I am not a keen gambler, I always find going to Genting's casino a "boring" experience. There are only 2 places that I like to go to at Genting: Theme Park to get the adrenaline rush and Arena of Stars to watch nice shows.

It was an interesting experience to just observe. Faces lit with hope but later with gloom; people who are surprised with their 'unexpected' good luck had a glow on their face when they head to the cashier to exchange the chips for real $$. Jrn won a little and gave me RM10 to bet on Roulette, I bet it all in one go and .... (drum roll please) I lost, hehe. I don't have much luck for these kind of 'side' income :p

Anyway, it's thrilling to see how willing people are to throw RM 1000 on the table to 'try their luck'. And some really don't have that much luck as I observed. Someone I know was there on that day and lost RM8000. She lost RM 6000 the previous day. She ain't a millionaire I can tell you for sure. I don't know how many months she needs to save to get back that amount of money. Hope ---> Suffering.

I am so glad my father disallowed me to gamble when I was young although I did miss out a lot on socialising with my relatives during CNY gambling sessions. But as my luck in that area isn't that good (told by many Feng shui master I went to see :p), I'm sure that has saved me from losing a lot of money, hehe. My father detests gambling so much because my grandfather gambled away all his $$ and my father had to work at a young age to pay for his school fees.

Casino is a good place to contemplate on hope, sufferings and greed. I wouldn't make a stereotypical comment that everyone gambling at casino is greedy. Some just want to get some thrill with the prospect of winning some money. Some are just uncles/ aunties / tourists who want to have some fun trying out their luck. Some are gambling out of desperation. But what ALL of them have in common hope that they will get back a lot with "little" effort and risk-taking. And the best part is, after hearing lots of stories, people who win usually contributed a lot to Uncle Lim's fund before they get some 'returns' back. What's the point of contributing about RM50, 000 in the long run to get RM 10, 000. Well, may be those aunties/ uncles who contribute to the fund to the growth of the Genting group every week can tell me. Hmm...

Anyway, how can one be sure of one's 'luck'? Some won big bucks and some lost big time but they were ALL confident that they would win at the end of the day. A few thousand ringgits gone in a few flips of cards. For those rich uncles wearing Rolex and those aunties that came with gold bangles and LV bags, probably they would just consider it a 'bad luck day'. But what about those who are not that rich? They wild end up with more 'suffering' after the thrill . Probably their children will have to suffer paying off their debts too.

May they be relieved of their mental sufferings and from their greed that will add more sufferings to their burden.