Although I had concluded at the finish of yesterday's post that my wife was not coming home that day, she very much surprised me by showing up around 8:30 p.m. Her arrival spared me from a full descent into 'the usual depravity' that I shall not here deign to illustrate.
My younger brother was not yet home when she showed up, but both of her sons were present. She engaged with them, and was soon speedily busy cooking a supper.
Note that not a word from her was directed to me. She is wroth with me over the latest developments arising from her gambling relapse quite early this month that put this month's mortgage payment in jeopardy. In fact, I threatened that if I was going to have to approach my younger brother about covering for the shortfall, then I was going to tell him all manner of secrets and offer him full ownership of the house for $1 come July.
He and I are partners in the house's ownership, but it is only my name on the actual title.
Anyway, I had no intention of becoming enmeshed with my brother last evening once he was home from wherever he was drinking, so without a word to anyone ─ nor any of my wife's supper ─ by maybe 9:15 p.m. I was into bed.
I had earplug and bandana blindfold in place because I had left the bedside lamp on by my wife's side of the bed. And I said "earplug" in the singular because I only applied one plug, and that one into my right ear ─ my left ear is already plugged with hydrogen peroxide and / or a suspected Eustachian tube infection arising from a relatively weak self-diagnosed rhinovirus that I have been subject to for better than the past week.
I don't know when my wife finally came to bed, but I was still awake. I do not easily fall asleep.
But when I did get to sleep, I was awake enough again to be checking the time around 1:00 a.m.; and despite not feeling at all restored, I rose so that I could put some further work into the post that I ought to be able to finally finish and publish tomorrow at one of my six hosted websites.
Within a half hour of my rising, my wife emerged from our bedroom to use the bathroom, and I felt that before she made her return to bed I absolutely had to draw her attention to something I discovered relating to her continued gambling despite the fact that she has signed on to the provincial Voluntary Self Exclusion Program,
It was to be a revelation to her, and I am unsure that she fully believed me that what I found out applied to all forms of gambling in the province, whether casino or lottery tickets.
I thereafter researched more, and then compiled an E-mail that I sent off to both of her sleeping sons. This was the message:
This is from the BC Lottery Corporation (BCLC) website:
If I win a casino jackpot while self-excluded will I receive my prize?
You are not eligible to win while in the Voluntary Self-Exclusion program, in accordance with the Rules and Regulations. So if you gamble, win a major prize and are identified as self-excluded, BCLC will not pay the prize.
I showed this to your mother, but I am unsure if it sunk in.
I’ve been researching this, and it seems that many people have signed agreements under BCLC’s VSE (Voluntary Self Exclusion) Program, but have entered casinos and spent large amounts of cash only to be deprived of subsequent prizes.
Everyone is thrilled to take a gambler’s money, but neither a casino nor the BC Lottery Corporation will pay out to anyone who wins a pretty big prize and then has to show ID to collect it.
This withholding of large winnings is referred to as the “jackpot disentitlement” rule.
Here is another BCLC statement: “anyone who is self–excluded is ineligible for jackpots.” That’s from here.
And here are some quotes from a 91-page .pdf titled BCLC’S VOLUNTARY SELF-EXCLUSION PROGRAM FROM THE PERSPECTIVES AND EXPERIENCES OF PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS.
The first quote helps explain why your mother can still get into the casino:
“...It appears that casinos have a difficult time detecting agreement violators, as nearly all (97 per cent) of those who had tried to re-enter the casino said they had successfully entered on at least one occasion. In fact, five individuals reported that they could re-enter the casino every time they tried, while nearly one-third (29 per cent) reported that they could successfully re-enter the casino approximately half of the times they tried. Still, nearly half (46 per cent) of the participants said that they had been detected by security staff at least one time in the past six months. The typical response to their violation was for the staff to remind them of their agreement, remind them that they are ineligible to win the jackpot, and escort them out of the facility.”
“In contrast, those who had not attempted to violate their agreement while excluded felt strongly about their decision to abstain from gambling and were committed to keeping a promise to themselves about not entering a casino or bingo hall. Jackpot ineligibility was also a commonly reported reason for not attempting to re-enter the casino, as was the desire to keep a promise to another person, fear of embarrassing oneself if caught by security, fear of losing money, and fear of getting caught. A large minority also reported fearing loss of self-control if they re-entered the casino, or feared the potential consequences (e.g. a fine or a charge of trespassing). It was somewhat surprising to find that only 60% of participants reported that the jackpot rule deterred them from re-entering the casino. This may be because participants felt that they could still gamble and win small amounts, as the jackpot ineligibility only applies to prizes where the participant would need to show identification in order to make their claim.”
“...The jackpot rule...requires gamblers to provide identification to claim jackpot wins, and will withhold the jackpot payout to currently self-excluded gamblers.”
So when a self excluded person gambles, they might as well just be destroying their money ─ lighting it on fire, or flushing it down the toilet. There is no possibility of walking away with any prize that requires ID to collect. That even applies to lottery tickets. If the win is big enough that the person would need to produce ID in order to collect winnings from the BCLC itself, then the prize would not be paid.
Only a pure idiot would still go gambling!
My wife exclaimed that the casino had told her that she could still purchase lottery tickets if she wanted. I did not contest that. I only said that she could freely buy them; but if she ever won a large payout that required her to povide her ID, then BCLC would withhold the payment ─ forever.
Some voluntarily self-excluded persons actually believe that the payout would only be withheld until such time that the Voluntary Self Exclusion contract they had signed had expired, but that is unfortunately not so. The payout would never be made to them.
I hope that I at least managed to provoke some never-before-realized thought within my wife if indeed she has experienced her gambling relapses because she believed that she could still actually receive any miraculous jackpot that she might win.
And if there was anything about this that she has not understood, then I hope her two sons study what I sent to them and that they thereafter will be able to impress upon her the full weight of anything she does not yet feel. Unlike me, they can communicate with her in her native Thai and make clearer what is afoot for her under the VSE Program if she continues to gamble.
After finishing the website work and doing that Voluntary Self Exlusion Program research, I was back to bed by around 4:15 a.m., I believe it was.
After finishing the website work and doing that Voluntary Self Exlusion Program research, I was back to bed by around 4:15 a.m., I believe it was.
Bu the way, when I rose this morning just after 1:00 a.m. and emerged from my bedroom, I was surprised to see that my brother's bedroom door was open. In other words, he had not come home last evening.
I expect that he stayed overnight at the home of his girlfriend Bev rather than bus home once he got plastered with her. He finally showed up this morning around 10:30 a.m. at earliest.
And instead of turning on T.V. while having his instant coffee as is his usual weekday wont, he evidently went back to bed.
His girlfriend Bev has a wicked smoker's cough that can kick in at any point overnight, so my brother's sleep suffers as a result.
We've had a little rain overnight. However, as I type these words at 11:28 a.m., there are large patches of blue sky out there, and sunny breaks.
My brother's morning absence has allowed me to get a huge jump start on this post, since I have not been tied up from 10:00 a.m. having to watch T.V. with him for the next three or so hours because I am the only one of us who is able to operate our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box that we use to find episodes of the wealth of T.V. series we follow.
oooooooooooooo
A darned good thing I got that early start on this post ─ I have never been alone to blog. My wife remained home until she finally left us around 7:30 p.m. or 8:00 p.m., and my brother had come home shortly after 3:00 p.m. and never again went out.
So on came the T.V. ever since.
It is now 9:23 p.m., and I have left my brother downstairs watching Atomic Blonde ─ I already watched it 1½ or so years back. I selected it just so I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything by abandoning him so that I could try and get this post over with.
At least my wife was speaking to me today ─ that was a good thing. But she left without a word. Not to me, anyway ─ only to her sons. So I don't know if she has gone until tomorrow or the day after; or if she simply went out for the evening and will be back later tonight.
I rarely know aught any more where concerns her doings.
I never got a chance today for a needed nap, nor did I get a chance to engage some exercise. But I did sit outside in the backyard late in the morning for possibly 44 minutes. Sometimes the clouds were a problem, and I was hardly ever comfortably warm even in my denim jacket, a shirt, and a tee-shirt beneath that. No bare feet, either. However, I kept my hands upon the metal of the lawn- or deckchair I was slouched low upon, so I ought to have benefitted from some grounding (earthing).
And even if my exposure to whatever Sun I had was inadequate for any colouring of my skin nor even vitamin D production, it likely helped stimulate the development or mobility of T cells.
I am going to try and leave my brother with a second movie after Atomic Blonde, for I just don't have it in me to sit up deep into the midnight hour.
I hope for a more productive day tomorrow ─ I certainly do not want to be missing out on some exercise! At the age of 70, layoffs result in fast deterioration.
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