Chapter 1 - ONWARD not foreword

And so we finally begin the book proper, for those of you who know me you've no doubt surmised this is a book about gambling, based on the fact that for a long while gambling was basically all I did, gambling and other acts to support the habit- addiction if you will.
If you've just found this book lying in the street and had no idea previously of what it was about then now you know. Rather than laying it gently back into the gutter perhaps you could stick with us a little while, it may help if you ever have the misfortune to be associated with any gambler or, god forbid- become obsessed with the fall of the dice yourself.
Or you may just enjoy the read, as I’m sure someone important once said: “A book found in the gutter is a good book”.

Fall of the dice is of course a generalization; any activity that eats up your time and money with a chance it may later on give you some of that money back (but never the time) is what we're talking about here.
In my time I've played casino card tables, casino slots, pub slots, internet slots, horses, keno, internet poker, internet horses (same as real horses except the horses look identical, never need feeding and is basically far more abstract, although the track is always sunny and the horse with the best odds rarely wins) and of course now and then a good old game of casual, friendly, harmless poker.

I have been doing it for about 10 years, I am 28, I have lost about AU$400,000- at a conservative estimate, and it has been roughly 24 hours since I last rolled the dice at the time I am writing this.

That would seem as good a place to start as any.