Everyone has been emailing me about Aurelia Taveras, a lawyer and TV commentator who started gambling and eventually lost nearly a million dollars in the casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. Unfortunately, some of the money belonged to her clients. Now she's suing the casinos that she lost in, saying they should have recognized her addiction and not let her play. She says she would spend days at the tables--- not eating or sleeping, brushing her teeth with disposable wipes so she didn't have to leave her seat. Her little dog was often at her side, and it made me wonder if she made the doggie wear disposable diapers or something. Somehow this is starting to sound like the crazy Astronaut.
People want to know if I think Taveras is in the right, because, as I tell in Hats & Eyeglasses, I also lost huge sums of money playing online poker, although all that money was my own. They've also been telling me about a guy in England who is suing his bookie for taking his bets when he was a constant loser.
What the hell? Why does everyone have to lob off their screw-ups on someone else? I'd like it better if Taveras had said, "Okay, I did this, it felt good at the time, I'm ashamed and mortified that it got so out of control, but there's nobody to blame but myself." If she said that, I'd send her twenty bucks for her defense.
