Dollars and Sense by Dan Ariely EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Dan Ariely
- Language: English
- Genre: Marketing & Consumer Behavior
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 3.3 MB
- Price: Free
DON’T BET ON IT
George Jones*
needs to blow off some steam. Work is stressful, the kids
are fighting, and money is tight. So on a company trip to Las Vegas he
heads to a casino. He parks, for free, in the lot at the end of a remarkably
well-kept, publicly financed road and wanders aimlessly, head down, into
the alternate universe of the casino.
The sound wakes him from his stupor: eighties music and cash registers
mixed with clinking coins and the dinging of a thousand slot machines. He
wonders how long he’s been at the casino. There are no clocks, but judging
by the old people slumped at the slot machines, it might have been a
lifetime. It was probably five minutes. He couldn’t be far from the entrance.
But, then again, he can’t see the entrance . . . or the exit . . . or any doors or
windows or hallways or means of escape whatsoever. Just flashing lights,
scantily clad cocktail servers, dollar signs, and people who are either
ecstatic or miserable . . . but never anything in between.
Slot machines? Sure, why not? His first spin just misses a big score. So
he spends fifteen minutes pumping in dollar bills to catch up. He never
wins, but he does just miss quite a few more times.
Once his wallet is emptied of those pesky small-denomination bills,
George grabs two hundred bucks at the ATM—not worrying about the
$3.50 service fee because he’ll cover that with his first winning hand—and
sits down at a blackjack table. In exchange for ten crisp $20 bills, the dealer
gives him a colorful pile of red plastic chips. There’s a picture of the casino
on them, with some feathers and an arrow and a teepee. They say $5, but
they certainly don’t feel like money. They feel like toys. George twirls them
in his fingers, bounces them off the table, watches everyone’s piles
fluctuate, and covets the dealer’s rainbow stash. George asks her to be kind
to him. “Honey, as far as I’m concerned, you can have all of it—it ain’t
mine.”
A cute, friendly server brings George a free drink. Free! What a deal!
He’s already winning. He tips her one little plastic toy chip.
George plays. George has some fun. George has some of the opposite of
fun. He wins a little, loses more. Sometimes, when the odds seem to be in
his favor, he doubles down or splits his cards, risking four chips instead of
two, six instead of three. He ends up losing his $200. Somehow he avoids
duplicating his tablemates’ feats of amassing giant stacks of chips one
minute, then unfurling reams of bills to buy more the next. Some of them
are good-natured, some get angry when others “take their card,” but none
seem like the type who can afford to lose $500 or $1,000 in an hour. Still,
this happens time and time again.
Earlier that morning, George had turned around just ten steps from his
local café because he could save $4 by brewing coffee back at his hotel
room. This evening, he tossed away forty $5 chips without blinking. Heck,
he even gave the dealer one for being so nice.
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