As I was going through an online search for something, anything about black women and gambling, I came across Jamie Broadnax’s blog, BlackGirlNerds. The blog’s cover photo is of a beautiful and vibrant young black woman. The title of this particular article, dated December 12, 2016, is “Gaming Trends for Afro-Caribbean Women.” Broadnax comments in the opening sentence that “Pointing out the differences between men and women can be a fun game.”
The differences she comments on have to do with gambling and why women tend to gravitate to slot machines rather than table games such as black jack and poker. She writes,
“Women in general are more drawn to the slot machines because they are a single player, relaxing form of gambling entertainment. They offer the user a chance to communicate with the players around them and, to them, this is a much more socially acceptable gambling tool.”
After reading this, I couldn’t help but wonder if Ms. Broadnax was describing her own experiences with friends at a casino, because slot machine gambling is, more often than not, a very solitary, anti-social activity. All you have to do is go to a casino and watch the behavior of the slot players. As anyone who has stood in front of a slot machine knows, there’s nothing nerdy about them. All you have to do is put money in and watch the symbols spinning. No thought; no strategy. Just spinning symbols that just might land on a payline.
The point of Ms. Broadnax’s article seems to be to encourage Afro-Caribbean Nerdy women to not let the men who populate the table games intimidate them into trying their luck there instead of at the slots. She also mentions that online gaming offers even more opportunity for Nerdy Black women to get their gambling grove on:
“Then there’s the online gaming world – a business which knows no boundaries and offers users the chance to rock up at a virtual table, settle in and play at their own pace. All this from the comfort of your living room.”
What Ms. Broadnax doesn’t mention anywhere in her article is that the online gaming world is a dangerous one. Precisely because people can gamble from the comfort of their living rooms or anywhere on their mobile devices, what she’s presenting as a harmless form of entertainment is in fact very insidious. Black women are becoming addicted to gambling in alarming rates. But since this is such a silent addiction–friends and families often don’t know what’s happening to their loved ones until it’s too late–they often suffer the pain, guilt, and shame associated with compulsive gambling alone.
My advice to Afro Caribbean women and nerdy black women in general is to skip the casino environment and enjoy a few games of bid whist in the cozy comfort of your living rooms and those of your BFF’s!
Sandra Adell, Author, Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen: A Memoir
A Black Woman's Reflections on Casino Gambling 