Season 8, Episode 4
March 19, 2023
Theme: Easy Money
Playlist

One of the earliest board games that I can remember playing is Monopoly Junior. It was, as you can guess, a simplified version of its older brother. Instead of building hotels on properties named after streets, you build ticket booths on amusement park rides like the Merry-go-Round and Ferris Wheel. It was a cute, fun game – not at all like the maniacal critique of capitalism that you experience when playing the original. And that makes sense, since kids probably aren’t too keen on drawing a card that says, “Go to jail.” But at some point, we put the game on the shelf for the final time. In its place came Monopoly classic (or one of the countless themed versions we had). It was time to leave the amusement park and hit the mean streets of Atlantic City.

That is, after all, where the names of the avenues and places listed on the Monopoly game board come from. “Fun” fact – the more expensive properties in the game were inhabited in the real world by wealthier people, hiding behind walls and racial covenants excluding Black citizens, who in turn lived on Baltic and Mediterranean Avenues. It’s pretty hard to win the game of Monopoly when your only properties are the purple ones right after “Go.”

I have only been to Atlantic City twice: once for a day-long conference and once for a weekend of gambling. The first was spent with coworkers from a summer camp (it was a camping conference); the latter time was spent with a few great friends from back home in Delaware. From that weekend, I remember three things: the opulence of the casino we stayed in; getting drunk on free drinks while I lost money at a slot machine; having breakfast in a tiny diner on the water before heading home. And I went home with pockets no fuller than when I had arrived. It’s no surprise I didn’t win anything. I hadn’t expected to – but I had still hoped it would happen.

The idea of pushing a few buttons and having thousands of dollars fall into my hands – it’s exciting. It’s also a natural impulse, I think. Most of us have to spend roughly a third of our life doing things that don’t bring us joy in order to make the money necessary for survival and a little bit of joy. Knowing that there is a way to avoid all of that work while still getting that money…I guess that’s why gambling is a thing. Combine it with taxation and the funding of popular items like education, and it makes sense that municipalities and states would legalize it in various forms. The casino-style form that I had experienced in Atlantic City is typically restricted to a specific city, but there are two states that allow it throughout their borders: Louisiana and Nevada. It has been legal in the latter state since March 19, 1931 when Governor Fred Balzar signed Assembly Bill 98 into law. This has been a major source of revenue for Nevada, especially for the crowds of tourists who visit each year.

But here’s the thing about gambling: you still have to play a game, one in which the rules are not designed for your benefit. So, why not be more direct and just take money from the buildings where they keep it? That’s what happened on March 19, 1831 (100 years prior to Nevada’s legalization of gambling), when the first documented bank heist in the United States occurred. James Honeyman and William J. Murray used a set of copied keys to enter the City Bank of New York during the night, then took $245,000 out the door. (As a person who will never be rich, that seems like a massive amount of money. But keep in mind that the value of their haul would be roughly $52 million today.) The two men spent roughly a fourth of the money before being captured and sentenced to five years in prison.

I think back to that trip to Atlantic City. I did not go home with a fatter wallet, and the free drinks dried up as soon as I walked off the casino floor. But, after breakfast, my friends and I stood by the water, wind blowing our hair and forcing us to squint, and had our picture taken. It was a photo capturing us as we were, roughly 15 years into a friendship built by hundreds of jokes, arguments, adventures and tender moments. That photo helps me remember how rare is the effortless jackpot, how valuable is what we create through dedicated effort over a period of time.

Yet, as encouraging and lovely as that sentiment is, a small part of me is waiting for a instantaneous payday. In recognition of this common human desire, our theme for episode 4 of Community Radio season 8 is easy money.

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