attack of the killer pokies

Last night, after eating free food with the yoof leaders (cheers for that) Brodie, Kat and I went to the casino. We were gonna meet Mandy and Adrian there but they didn't rock up in time. So I was wandering around the casino with 35 cents. And you can't do much at a casino with 35 cents but observe people who are quite literally wasting their money. It's so bizarre when you go to the casino and you have no intention to play. Everyone around you seems somewhat muted. It seems as though they're in some kind of slow motion or as though time is running slightly slower than usual. And like Kat said when we were there, 'It's Tuesday night. It's Tuesday night and there are so many people here.' Quite possibly the saddest thing (apart from finding out that swiping your library card in the coffee machines doesn't give you free coffee) was seeing an old guy - probably in his 60's dressed in a suit with his leg up against the pokie machine, looking thoroughly bored and disastisfied with his life, feeding coin after coin into the machine because there was nothing better than the feeble hope of perhaps winning big. It really got to me. I hope I don't ever get to a state where I'm mindlessly feeding coins into a machine...