Everyone has a little gambling blood in them, some lose learn their lesson and some never do. It's not possible to try everything interesting and not get scammed once in a while.. hopefully you will learn your lesson from me...
Im pretty sure everyone has heard of the game Monte . It can be done with cards or 3 cups and a small ball, the man twirls the ball around the cups and you guess which cup the ball is in in the end. Sounds easy, and is if it was legit. So yesterday I found myself walking through Napoli with my friend Danny, I just took money out of the ATM and was walking back to the train station. I see a bit of commotion on the street so I take a better look from a block away and instantly knew it was the Monte. I go on for one block talking to my friend about how I saw a dateline show on the Monte and how everyone around the table is in on it and how you can't win, I even knew the exact scam.
As we were passing I said hold on lets watch a few people lose all of there money. As I sat and watched I couldn't catch the scam in act. It was simply amazing I was guessing right in my head every time if the people playing where guessing right or not. I still knew it had to be a scam .. I guess I had to learn the hard way like everything else, I do know that when you think your getting over on someone that you're actually the one about be had.
So now my friends are saying "ok this is for sure I saw him sneak it under the right cup". So I fumble for a 20 and hand it to the man, he says "no theirs only 50's here" so thats the minimum. My blood started pumping knowing I was getting jerked but an uncontrollable devil on my shoulder is screaming to hand the money over. "Screw it here" I said.
The man lifts it and the ball isn't there big surprise. I've been monte'd for 78 american dollars in 5 minutes by 4 scam artists and the devil on my shoulder. So why did I bet anyway? Why didn't I just stick to what I knew and move on. The same reason why every drug dealer says "i knew it was a cop but i sold it to him anyway". It's a impulse that many can't control to make fast money. Just another slap in the face to remind me when making decisions to stick to what you feel/know and don't let your emotions make decisions for you.
It could have been more that I'd lost so i'm thankful it was only a 78 dollar lesson. When on the road you always seem to be presented with easy money opportunities, if it sounds easy, looks easy, chances are you'll lose a lot of money or go to jail, same principles apply for anything. Don't give in to the temptation and let your emotions take over.
The Monte if you don't know what it is or how it works:
