下雪天最好的娱乐形式——在线赌博

　　本周我飞到伦敦参加一个会议，因为英格兰地区的极端天气条件，除了几个小时坐在令人烦躁的会议室以外，我一直闭门在我的酒店房间里。公共汽车和火车不能运营，飞机航班也已经暂停，我希望我能早点飞回家，但我什么也做不了，除了等待…

　　谢天谢地，我有值得信赖的笔记本电脑，我花了好几个小时与我的朋友在我最喜欢的网上赌场玩赌博游戏。我必须说，访问在线赌场，我获得了很多乐趣，也消除了极端天气对我心情的影响。只需要简单地登陆网上赌场，在几分钟之内，我就仿佛脱离了现实世界，进入一个只是对战机器作战的一个有趣的网站环境。

　　我比较擅长二十一点在线赌场游戏。昨日上午，我玩得得心应手，很快我的资金就达到了我限定的最高盈利目标。两个小时后，我暂停游戏，走出了酒店房间，到酒吧喝酒，并为几个朋友挑选礼物。当天晚上，我决定切换到老虎机游戏。我一开始就玩两三个卷轴经典老虎机，但没有太成功，后来还尝试了多卷轴视频老虎机。在大多数网站，我玩老虎机游戏通常会做一个令人意外的决定，我有时花费多少心思去考虑老虎机的游戏过程。无论如何，我即使整整一个小时不能很好的发挥游戏，但我依然能从中获得了不少愉悦感，我的目的不在于赢得大把的赌金。感谢网上赌场，它让我在伦敦下雪的天气中也能获得不少乐趣。

　　译文：

　　I flew into London for a conference this week and, besides a couple of hours sitting in an overheated meeting room with irritable executives, I’ve been cooped in my hotel room, waiting out the extreme weather conditions like the rest of England. Buses and trains have come to a halt, flights have been suspended until further notice （I hope I can fly home on Sunday!） and there is nothing to do except sit and wait…

　　Thank goodness I have my trusted laptop with and I’ve spent a good couple of hours a day gambling at my favorite online casinos. I must say that simply accessing sites with names that conjure up hazy Vegas days and paradise islands immediately does something to my poor claustrophobic self,  and within minutes I am whisked away to another world, where it’s just me versus the machine in a fun and entertaining environment.

　　I had a good run at the blackjack tables yesterday, starting with microlimits and – when my bankroll started growing nicely – switching to higher limits. I stopped after two hours - the time I allowed myself to play online in the morning – and came out ahead. Enough to buy myself a drink in the hotel bar and a few gifts for friends back home.  This evening I decided to switch to the slot machines, feeling like a bit of a change of pace. I started with a couple of three reel classic slots but wasn’t  too successful in that department, and so tried out multi reel video slots instead. There is an amazing selection of slot games at most of the sites I play at, and I am sometimes bowled over by just how much thought goes into their creation. Anyway, I came out even after an hour of play, which isn’t bad when you think that I got a full hour of entertainment at no cost.  Of course, I could have just played on the free games at the casino, but then I would not have have put myself in line to win great cash credits! Thank goodness for online casino gambling – it made my snowed in London stay that much more bearable!