'I will win once and repay everyone...' - The silent trap of those ensnared in gambling
He sits stubbornly at the gambling table. Red eyes. Shaking hands. Wife crying. Children calling. But his face is indifferent like someone unrelated.
Outsiders often say: 'Indifferent.' 'Cruel.' 'Surely they no longer love anyone.'
But if you look deep, you will see something even more dangerous than indifference: a person still capable of love, but loving in a distorted and blurred way that is destructive. In his mind, there is no present.
Only one haunting mantra repeats: 'Just need to win one game... I will repay everything.'
Gambling addicts are not unaware of their mistakes. They are just living in a dream of redemption. They see themselves losing, see themselves being terrible, but they believe that just a little more effort, one more game, one more round, they will make a comeback, they will correct their mistakes, they will repay.
They do not live in reality.
They live in an illusion of the future where they become heroes. And that dream paralyzes their emotions. Not because they do not care. But because their minds are in another world: where a victory will erase all mistakes.
Many of them even believe they have experience. 'I know how to play.' 'I'm not as foolish as others.' 'I used to recover before.' 'It's just that lately the timing hasn't been right.'
They do not think they are lucky; they think they are skilled. They do not see they are risking; they see they are playing a strategy.
They drape themselves in the cloak of an experienced person, and from then on, they shut out all advice as if it were an interference in a reasonable plan.
This confidence does not awaken them, but binds them deeper. Because once they believe they are controlling the game, they will not stop, even though reality is in ruins.
They tell themselves: 'I am doing the right thing, even if in the wrong way.' 'Enduring hardship now is fine, as long as I can repay tenfold later.' 'I am not abandoning anyone; I am trying to save everyone.'
But in reality, they are not gambling with money. They are gambling with the trust of loved ones, with their children's childhood, and with their own humanity. The scariest thing is that they do not see how terrifying they are.
The cycle devours them.
Lose, then self-blame.
Self-blame then not daring to face it.
If they don't dare to face it, they shut off their emotions.
Shutting off emotions then causing more harm.
Causing harm only makes them need to gamble more to compensate.
Every time they fail to recover, they sink deeper.
And at some point, they no longer feel the pain of those around them, including their own. They think that playing one more time is hope, but in reality, it's a deeper plunge into the pit of despair.
In the Dhammapada, the Buddha teaches: 'The foolish do evil while thinking it is good, like pouring oil into the fire, their sins only multiply.'
Gambling addicts are often not cruel people. But when they believe in something wrong as if it were right, they become harmful... without realizing it.
Why are they indifferent?
Because they believe what they are doing is to 'salvage'.
Because they think they can fix everything with a great victory.
Because they forget: there are things lost... that cannot be redeemed with money.
If you are next to someone like that, please don't think they have no heart. They do. But that heart is imprisoned in a jail of misguided hope.
They do not need another blow to their self-esteem. They need a look that is understanding, calm, and compassionate, so they can see they are lost.
With each game they think they are recovering, they are actually losing pieces of their own relationships.
No one needs them to win.
People just need them to be awake.
Because there are things... that cannot be redeemed with money.
And ultimately, the outcome of gambling does not escape the law of cause and effect.
If you have taken the wrong path, no matter how beautiful the dream is, it cannot lead back to the right place.
The dream of 'repaying with a victory' sounds noble, but when sown from ambition, deceit, evading responsibility, and hurting others..., the fruit can only lead to loss, harm, and collapse.
No one harvests peace from a path that erodes trust.
No one saves loved ones by burning their future to maintain their own illusions.
If they can awaken, the first thing to let go of is not the gambling table, but the dream of redemption through a path deviating from the Way.
Only then can one truly return to the present where their spouse, children, and parents are waiting. Not to be repaid.
But just need... one person to be awake.
It's not that they don't love.
They are lost in a dream of repaying with an impossible victory!
(Credits: Đàm Thị Như Quỳnh)