Date: January, 2000
Place: Bay Meadows race track, San Francisco’s South Bay Area
Modus operandi: Troubled
Weather: Indoors
Time: 2pm
Gear: Leica M3, 50mm Summicron
Medium: Kodak Gold 100
Me: Ugh!

Imagine if you can a system which takes money from those least able to afford it and legalizes it. The concept behind the Coliseum cynically updated.

Because that is what California has accomplished though its legalized gambling. Some is state sponsored (our government seeks to exploit its citizens’ weaknesses to make hay), some privately owned like the Bay Meadows race track just south of San Francisco. And, of course, if you are an American Indian you can trade on the white man’s guilt and the sky is the limit, Indian tribes being the largest casino operators in the state. Hardly surprising – congressmen are cheap to buy.

Into the gambling hall at Bay Meadows and there they were, like so many academics, whiling their time and milk money away.

The glow from the objects of their attention – TV monitors with all the latest odds – adds to the opium den feel of the whole thing.