Imagine you are at a poker table, and you go all in. The cards are being dealt, and it’s almost time to figure out who won. At that moment, excitement and anticipation consume surge throughout your body. This is the feeling Joseph Galante has when he plays poker with his friends.

The reason it’s easy for so many people to lose money gambling is because there are many ways to gamble your money. Two ways to gamble include card games and tickets people buy at convenience stores. Here, at Triton High School, there are some who have contributed to the realm of gambling. Card games are common among gamblers, and poker is one of the most popular card games. Joseph Galante is a math teacher at Triton, who has played poker with his friends, as stated earlier.

“I’m a really good poker player,” said Galante. “I’ve probably won $500 in my life playing against friends.”

Aside from casino games, tickets are another form of gambling in the United States. The ability to buy scratch tickets are available once someone is at least of the age of 18, and the ability to buy tickets for the Mega Millions. Gregory Lewis is an 18 year-old senior at Triton high School who bought tickets for the Mega Millions.

“I’ve been 18 for a couple of months, and I’ve bought four tickets for the Mega Millions,” said Lewis. “I think they are very beneficial, but the percent on winning money are low. So, since the chances aren’t that good, I only buy a few.”

To be involved with gambling, a person could be someone selling scratch tickets or a dealer at a card table. Tirth Patel is a Triton native who doesn’t deal cards, but instead works at one of his family’s gas stations. There, his store sells gambling products.

“As I am not old enough to sell lottery tickets, I have personally not sold any,” said Patel. “However, I have a co-worker who has sold them for his entire career at the store.  What we offer are lottery tickets, Keno, Mega Millions, and the Powerball. Overall, we probably sell hundreds of scratch tickets a day. And so some regular customers spend roughly twenty to thirty dollars a day while some spend an upward of one-hundred.” Patel said he feels like gambling is important to his parent’s store, and without gambling there would be a decrease in the store’s popularity. For the store Tirth works at, gambling is a good source of revenue.

Gambling is considered a problem in the United States because it has the potential to cause people to lose large amounts of money through addiction. However, high risk means high reward. Someone can win and lose large amounts of money when gambling, like the lucky soul who won lots of money from the Mega Millions jackpot, and all the other people who lost money by not winning.