Spielsucht

It was sunny and clear autumn day with slight chill in the air.

I was at the main square of Graz observing flock of pigeons in front of city council with nobody around me except of two men on ecstasy who just bought their supply and old drunkard stretching on bank in booze doze.
It was my birthday.

I had bank account sufficient to buy a pair of home slippers and a few tinkling coins in the pocket. I did not mind curves of fortune except of difficulty to know what to do next.

Perhaps it would be clever to buy a loaf of bread and reconsider invitation of Venus bar manager. He collected the girls in trouble for night work. I might appear in nightclub in role of salable puppet, one more in the army of town whores. As I was going out of age, there was no hope for profit. I could also try selling items of my wardrobe, like old fur overcoat and books, which probably nobody would buy.
To lose your spirits means to perish. I went on, but there was no change of tide. When I left my home for Austria some years ago, I played not innocent lotto, but Russian roulette.
The 26 euros I had now was not so little after all. It was enough to keep human being alive for a few weeks if cut loafs of bread in small pieces and enrich menu with garbage from junk cans downstairs.

It was also enough to enter Graz casino and to drink glass of champagne there.
It was traditional casino woman’s day and my birthday! Therefore, I could get additional free tokens to play. Who knows what destiny prepared there for me according with its incomprehensible schemes? Reality is secret order concealed from our eyes.
If I win much, I would leave town for good. If I win little, I would buy myself hearty meal. If I lose… Well, there is always Venus Bar and main bridge from where one can jump in the river with the skirt around the head and white buttocks exposed to spectators of Murradweg.
The moment I made up my mind, the bells of Franziskaner monastery rang, and flock of pigeons left the square. I came back to my lodgings and put on lace underwear, shoes and small black dress. However, eye shadows brush demonstrated disobedience to my shaking hands.
From the first glance, the interior of casino struck me as place of luxury and refinement.
The buzz of voices, carpeted floors, deep mahogany colors and aroma of expensive perfumes, all this added to the atmosphere of money currents flooding back and forth through the place and bringing here true core passions of society, longing for power, emanations of fear, boredom and greed.
There were women in eve outfits and men in elegant suits.
It seemed that majority of them could afford to lose. Some of gamblers nonchalantly played with 500 euros tokens piled in small colorful heaps in front of them at the green cloth of tables. Movement of big roulette wheel was hypnotizing and fascinating indeed.

Nobody could interfere with your chances to lose or to win. Impenetrable order of things manifested itself here - trough run of roulette ball and where it stopped dead as if controlled by invisible force.

(to be continued)

KPÖ: Geschenke an Glücksspielindustrie verschärfen Spielsucht-Problem
Graz (OTS) - Verwundert zeigt sich der Landtagsklub der steirischen KPÖ über die Aussagen von Staatssekretärin Kranzl, die Klubchef Kaltenegger vorwirft, lediglich für eine höhere Besteuerung der Spielautomaten einzutreten.
Die Dichte an Spielautomaten ist in der Steiermark österreichweit am höchsten. Das liegt auch daran, dass pro Automat und Monat 1.000 Euro weniger an Abgaben zu leisten sind als in der Bundeshauptstadt. Deshalb hat die KPÖ im Rahmen eines Paktes an Vorschlägen zur Bekämpfung der Spielsucht gefordert, die Abgaben auf Wiener Niveau anzuheben. Das würde die Zahl der Automaten reduzieren und dem Land gleichzeitig jährlich Mehreinnahmen in der Höhe von bis zu 60 Mio. Euro bringen.
Der Vorsitzende des Glücksspiel-Ausschusses im steirischen Landtag ist Wolfgang Kasic (ÖVP), der als Funktionär der Wirtschaftskammer Obmann der Spielautomatenbetreiber ist. “Wir verstehen, dass Staatssekretärin Kranzl sensibel auf Fragen des Kleinen Glücksspiels reagiert. Klubobmann Kaltenegger ist jederzeit zu einem Gespräch mit Frau Kranzl bereit”, betont Georg Fuchs, Pressesprecher des KPÖ-Landtagsklubs.

[tags]Graz, Spielsucht[/tags]