I have a 21-year-old nephew, “Marcus,” who I’ve never been extremely close to, due to distance and other logistics. I have always thought he (along with his dad, my brother-in-law) had a “jock” attitude that they were better than anybody else when it came to any type of competition. At Thanksgiving, Marcus was bragging about how good he was at pool and was asking around if anybody wanted to play pool. I said yes, and Marcus asked if I wanted to make the game “interesting” by betting $1, which I agreed to. I lost the first game and paid him. Then he said, “Double or nothing?” and I agreed. I won, but just barely. He then again offered to go double or nothing; I agreed and barely won again.
This was repeated until the game where, if he lost, he would owe me $64. This time, though, instead of barely losing, I ran the table. By then we had a small crowd of relatives watching. After I won the game, I asked Marcus to pay up, but he said he didn’t have that much money. I said, “Well, you better be asking your dad for it.” One of my other in-laws told Marcus, “You just got snookered. Years ago, Thad (me) was in multiple pool leagues and has won several tournaments.” Marcus’s dad was livid, calling me about every name in the book. I told him his son shouldn’t be gambling if he doesn’t have the money to back up his ability. My mother-in-law was chewing me out for treating her grandchild that way, saying he is “just a kid and our family doesn’t gamble.” I said your grandchild is an adult and you yourself go to the casino at least once a month with your friends.
I then said he doesn’t owe me any money but let this be a lesson, if Marcus did this in a bar playing against strangers and didn’t have the money to cover his gambling debts, he probably would get his face beat in. Most of the family (including my wife) agreed that he probably should have paid up, if not today, then next holiday when he would have time to save up the money. As we were leaving Marcus’s dad came up and handed me a check and said, “Here, we are even, but if you think you are coming to our house for Christmas (their turn in the rotation) you can forget about it.” I said they didn’t need to pay and tried to refuse the check. What do you think about them excluding me (not my wife) from Christmas? Should I make it “right,” and how?
