Think life is always fair? I would not recommend betting on it

The game started at 7 p.m. every Tuesday.

A couple dozen locales would get together at the bar and play cards in a weekly tournament, which usually lasted two to three hours, depending on your luck.

Standings were kept, and at the end of the 3-month season, prizes were awarded.

And while the bar was located across the street from the courthouse, it was as illegal as could be. It cost $5 to play each week, with the bar keeping $1, a $1 going into the end of season prize pool, and $3 going to the nightly winner.

I played in the tournament periodically, and remarked about the irony of the illegal game taking place literally yards away from the prosecutor and sheriff’s offices.

But I knew the game would always continue, and still does today, as there were similar tournaments at the local Elks lodge, Country Club, and other assorted bars in the county, not to mention the semi-private ones in basements, living rooms, and garages.

But Martin Jones, owner of the Rainbow Café, wasn’t nearly as fortunate as the proprietors of those establishments. Someone reported him to the Iowa agency in charge of issuing liquor licenses, and his bar is now dry for three weeks as a result.

Martin's dead-on when he asserts games like the one previously played in his bar are being played across the country.

He’s absolutely right. But that doesn’t matter. They are still against the law.

Why? Not because gambling is an incessant evil deemed unacceptable by our society. Oh no. Mr. Jones’ bar is dry today because he essentially didn’t give a cut to the powers that be.

We have legal gambling in this country. We have legal gambling in this state. Less than 60 miles away, you can play Texas Hold ‘Em, blackjack, slot machines, or whatever, for as long as you have the money to do so.

But, if you do, the state is going to get its share of the profits. That’s just the way it is.

However, if you are the small-town bar owner and you want to offer the same vice in an effort to drum up a little extra business, you are making yourself susceptible to temporarily losing your livelihood.

Is it fair? Nope. But guess what, anybody who says life is fair is either very naive, or simply trying to sell you a bill of goods.