Charity + Gambling = Chambling?

Since my last blog post, I've sat at my computer a minimum of 7 times to write a new entry, but life just keeps getting in the way. I've discovered that March is a terrible time for my productivity. If I'm not spending the weekend up in Tahoe, I'm "busy" throwing myself into as much college basketball as possible. If I don't spend the 1st 3 weeks of March studying basketball furiously, I won't be able to blame it on bad luck when I lose all my money in Vegas betting on the March Madness games. I couldn't let that happen.

And just when basketball starts to die down, it's immediately fantasy (and regular) baseball season. Of course not all my non-work time is spent studying sports, but the few hours where that's not the case, I'm usually thinking about Vegas or talking about Vegas.

The Marathon Blog simply falls down the priority list...

I've been doing my long runs on Sundays, and I thought I'd come home from those pumped up & ready to blog away, but it's really hard to sit upright & type on a computer when you feel like an 18-wheeler just ran you over.

So I've been thinking, what if there's a way to combine my non-stop Vegas focus with my blog & fundraising efforts?? Turns out, there is.

My typical day in Vegas (arriving on Thurs afternoon by the way) goes like this: place an ungodly number of bets on the 1st 4 basketball games of the day, go find a blackjack/craps/poker table, start drinking for free (at 9:30am), lose some money at those tables, check back on my basketball bets 2 hours later, get pissed off that I lost them all, then start the entire process over. Repeat 4 times per day, and that's my annual March Vegas trip.

So here's the twist this year: on Saturday, from (approximately) 6pm - 10pm, all profit I make on any gambling I do will go directly to the Playworks charity. Your immediate thought is probably, "that's stupid, what are the odds you actually make money during that time?"
Good point--I probably won't make any money & Playworks will get nothing from me. But if I know the gambling gods like I think I do, this is going to turn into the greatest 4-hour gambling binge ever seen. If those gods do exist, I'm going to win every basketball bet during those hours & catch fire at the tables. And yes, it's going to be super painful to have to donate all that money to Playworks, especially when I probably won't win a dime during the rest of this trip. But I'm committed now.

Your other thought is probably something like, "Hey, Ross, wouldn't it be smarter/more responsible to simply donate a couple hundred bucks to Playworks instead of gambling it away?"
My response to that...lame, try to have a little fun in your life once in a while, ok?

That's it for now. I will certainly update everyone on what went on during those magical 4 hours in Vegas.