That’s the irrational explanation for those who try to impose causality on random events–something that many gamblers excel at. Anyway, because of the looming threat of Hurricane Ivan, the state has closed Mississippi coast casinos. From the Sun Herald:
State regulators ordered the coast casinos shut to customers at noon Tuesday. Casino workers had until midnight to finish securing the properties and to seal the doors, said Gaming Commission spokeswoman Leigh Ann Wilkins.
At 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Ivan was centered about 405 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and about 450 miles south of Panama City Beach. It was moving north-northwest at 9 mph.
Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway, whose city is home to most of the glitzy gambling halls, said local officials must deal with not only some 55,000 residents but at least that number of gamblers and tourists on any given day.
Eleven of the 12 casinos are in Harrison County, the middle of the three coastal counties. Hancock County, which borders Louisiana, has one. There are no casinos in Jackson County, which borders Alabama.
Gamblers continued playing slots and table games shortly before the casinos closed.
Ed Bak of Fairfield, Ohio, dropped quarters into a slot machine at the President Casino and said he wasn’t concerned about Ivan ruining his vacation.
“I don’t worry about what’s going to happen tomorrow. We can’t control it anyway,” said Bak, who traveled to the Mississippi Gulf Coast this week on a bus tour with other Midwesterners.
“When you go somewhere, you take a chance,” Bak said. “That’s Mother Nature.”
When I worked in a casino, I used to while away the hours by imagining hypotheical scenarios, as kind of a mental game. In addition to figuring out several probably fool-proof schemes for robbing the casino (thankfully, larceny is not in my heart, and this was only a thought exercise never put into action), I used to try to imagine what magnitude event it would take to force the casino close. I know that during several bad snowstorms, we stayed open. It came down to severe earthquake (not likely in New Jersey), working fire on the casino floor (small fires elsewhere not included), or a large hurricane that forced the evacuation of Absecon Island. So I guess my voyage of the mind was vindicated because Mississippi casinos in the path of a large hurricane have been closed.
I especially liked the end of the excerpt, where gamblers didn’t want to leave. This, in my experience, is to be expected. I have seen surveillance footage of an armed robbery where a security officer is shot in the face, and people sitting a slot machines not only didn’t move, but argued when told they had to. If you can keep gambling with a gunshot victim sprawled behind you, I’m guessing that a hurricane warning isn’t going to mean much.
I think I’m going to put Ed Bak’s musings on fate into my quote index:
I don’t worry about what’s going to happen tomorrow. We can’t control it anyway.
Yeah, that’s a guy who digs the ever-spinning wheel of fortune, which man is powerless to stop. Something about that attitude annoys me, because it implies a progression from resignation to a fickle fate towards total apathy and acceptance of anything. It’s like people who repeatedly drive drunk, and when asked whether they would feel bad if they hit and killed a bunch of children, just say, “No. When it’s your time, it’s your time. I wouldn’t be my fault.” These people are truly dangerous.
While I think that a certain amount of acceptance of fortune’s caprice is a good thing, just saying, “I can’t control the future, so nothing matters” is a sure ticket to an unfulfilling life.