You bet! Confessions of cop who likes gambling
Once a cop, always a cop. I realised this after having hung my boots in the police. Trained in employing ways and means to check gambling, ranging from bookies’ bets that involved high stakes to the lowly street gambler, I had put my foot down till the time, hold your breath, I got afflicted with the itch.
I’ll come to my ‘falling’ later but before that let me tell you that the policemen find it auspicious to begin their new year by registering gambling cases. If you go by the first information reports (FIRs) registered on January 1 of any year, you’ll discover that at least a dozen cases are under, what they call, Tera-Teen-Sadsath (Section 13 of Act 3 of 1967, The Public Gambling Act).
If a station house officer fails to register such gambling cases at the onset of the new year, he is invariably going to have to face frowns from his seniors at meetings on crimes. I was no exception to this tradition. I wouldn’t even mind the non-registration of other cases of trivial nature in preference to the ones under the head, gambling.
Contrary to my dyed-in-the-wool deportment, my wife goes light and easy on small-time gambling in card games whether it’s bridge, rummy or teen patti. In February, we were in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Our one-day-round-trip had Genting Highlands in the loop. I thought the place sounded salubriously nestled in nature. So it was but with an exception. It had one of the world’s most frequented casinos.
My wife was excited to visit it, while I had to eat a humble pie, and be through its gates, since there was no other mustsee on that hilltop. The very idea of being in a casino made me feel like the biggest criminal in the world. Add to this the insult I had to gulp down, when they asked me to remove my hat. My wife stood seemed to enjoy the proceedings, while I had my best of disgusting glances to share with her.
A complete turnaround from my rigid stance came in Las Vegas this June. Sawan, our son, cautioned me saying, “Don’t you carry your police-like disposition in Vegas dad; they have all their routes to your hotel room, pool, gym, dining and lobby through the casino!” Having reached our hotel, MGM Grand, we found Sawan was right. We had no choice but to sit in the casino since during that hour of the day one couldn’t venture out.
Suddenly, we heard a magical sound. A male voice amid trumpets and drum beats announced, “Jackpot! You are the winner!” The tinkling of coins did not stop for long. It stirred the gambler in me and I grabbed the nearest slot machine. My wife watched amazed, and amused. I didn’t leave the machine till it 3am, having lost a couple of hundred dollars. We spent most part of our stay in Vegas in casinos.
Back in Seattle, we cosied up to Sawan’s friend, Arvin, on purpose. Arvin’s father, wing commander Gurinder Sukhija, had retired from the Indian Air Force and settled down in Seattle. Both his wife and he would often visit casinos. All four of us made umpteen trips to a nearby place called Snoqualmie only to satisfy our newly acquired itch, to gamble.
THE TINKLING OF COINS DID NOT STOP FOR LONG. IT STIRRED THE GAMBLER IN ME AND I GRABBED THE NEAREST SLOT MACHINE