Just one more Cherry

Anyone who thinks slot machines are not addicting clearly is no fan of eating ice cream from the box: just one more spoonful and one more spoonful, just grab that cherry poking up from the vanilla, or level that corner left by the previous spoonful, and that’s enough for tonight.

But who wants to stop when there’s a chance of finding another cherry?

“You should have kept playing a little longer,” a friend tells you the next day.” A guy won a jackpot on your machine five minutes after you left.”

And 90 percent of every penny, nickel or quarter is paid out to players. That’s better than ice cream where the only reward is an empty box and a full tummy.

Just one more pull.

And 3.4 percent of every nickel goes to the state.

Maybe one more.

For every $100 played, another $3.40 boosts the state coffers.

Sure as I leave the game, the next person’s nickel will hit the jackpot.

Meanwhile, the people with money in amounts they could actually afford to share boldly proclaim “tax cuts for all Americans,” knowing all the while tax cuts for everyone is a lot more profitable for them than for the people at the income levels that are playing the slots and lottery on the off chance that “if you don’t play, you can’t win.”