The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-20
Budgeting May
End Gambling,
Jane Counsels
Childish Wish for Some
thing for Nothing
Hard to Overcome.

Do you need 4 new slant on your
problems? Write to Jane Jordan today
and read her answers in this column.
Dear Jane Jordan-My husband
has only one fault; he CANDLES away
his earnings. When he gets an
extra dollar it burns hole in his
pocket until he can bet it. How
much he loses playing poker and
pool on Saturday nights I will never
know, but I am sure it is consider
able. I don't mean that he always
loses. He wins sometimes and that
is his ruination. He never knows
when to stop.
A slot machine has an unholy
fascination for him. If he gets a
handful of nickleS, he is not smart
enough to walk away but works the
machine until every cent is gone.
He puts money into every Office pool,
bets on the ball games, the horse
races, the weather; he buys two or
three lottery tickets each week.
When complain he points to the
few times he has won and I can't
convince him that he loses more
than he wins in the long run. Like
a child, he is always expecting to
make a big haul some day which
will put us on easy street, but the
day never comes. He is a good work.
er and we have moderate income
which would be sufficient except for
this one vice. How can I get him to
stop gambling?
GAMBLER WIFE.
AnSwer-You can't. Until the man
recognizes his folly and wants to
stop there is nothing you can do
about it. Preaching, cajoling or good,
sound logic have no more effect on
a person with the gambling habit
than prayers have on the course of
the sun.
The inveterate gambler is the
victim of gnawing sense of his
own inadequacy. He has lost faith
in his ability to succeed in life by
his own efforts. Legitimate COM
petition is too much for him and
he falls back on a childish belief
in magic. Failures in childhood
have given him a deep-seated
sense of inferiOrity, which he
seeks to assuage by winning at
something which depends on luck
rather than personal effort.
No man whose personality is built
on a firm foundation of belief in his
own powers is tempted to gamble.
To be sure, the childish wish to get
something for nothing crops out
from time to time in the best of
men; but you will find that they
gamble with surplus, and not with
the money they need for living ex-
penses. The motive is the same in
both cases, except that the mature
person will not risk his actual bread
and butter, whereas the immature
person is as gullible as a baby.
Big gambling or petty gambling
comes from the same infantile ten
dency to substitute wishes for facts.
The winner enjoys a glow of spu-
rious superiority which holsters UP
his faith in his own opinions mo-
mentarily. He who plays his
lunches" and believes in their
power is about as advanced men
tally as the savage who expects his
superstitious formulas to deliver
him from the evil eye or change for
tune in his favor.
Only complete psychological re-
education can build up your hus-
bands confidence in his power to
gain what he wants by toll and eff
fort. About the best thing you can
do is to persuade him, if you can, to
let you handle the majority of his
income and to confine his gambling
to his own share of his wages.
Mr. and Mrs w r Adams orc