Prison houses the worst of the worst of society. People who are prone to violence, mental instability and sudden bursts of rage are all funneled into one place to be reformed by prison management. Simple activities such as taking a shower, going to the bathroom, shaving, brushing your teeth, cooking dinner and other things become regimented. A person’s freedom is taken away in prison and this puts a lot of inmates on edge.
The prison’s general population is pretty much governed by prison gangs. These prison gangs adhere to a certain set of unwritten rules that when violated, would bring about deadly consequences. One example of this is to never have debts of any kind in prison. If owing somebody money in the outside world is already a big deal, imagine owing someone money in a place where there’s scarcity of it. You will surely be in for a lot of trouble.
Inmates incur debts in prison in a lot of ways. One is through a drug debt—buying drugs on credit—and another is through gambling. There’s nothing wrong with gambling in prison. As a matter of fact, prison staff permits gambling within the prison walls. You’ll never see a prison guard put someone in the hole for gambling. If you’re gambling, however, make sure that you’re able to put up the bets yourself. Never ever gamble on credit.
Gambling on credit brings about circumstances that are detrimental to your survival in prison or jail. One circumstance is that since you’re now indebted to an inmate, you now owe them a favor. You’re now obligated to return that favor back through accomplishing a task for them or being their “bitch.” If you have the ability to pay the debt back ASAP, that’s great. However, if you’re a compulsive gambler who doesn’t know when to stop, you could incur debts that are cumulatively too large for you to pay back. The fact that having unpaid debts in prison can be detrimental to your safety cannot be underscored enough.
If you have a gambling addiction, it would be best to kick that habit right away. For some, it doesn’t matter whether you can put up your gambling bets yourself or not. Gambling, as they say, is an all lose situation; either you win and make the people you’re gambling with really angry or you cannot pay the gambling debts that you have incurred and make the people you owe money from really angry.
Keep in mind that an inmate will try to do everything just to make you pay your debt back. This includes not giving you food during “chow” time, putting contraband in your bunk during security inspections, trying to make you look like a snitch, or even outright stabbing you during shower time and killing you. With that being said, it would be wise for you to learn common gambling card games so that you won’t look like a “chump” when playing friendly games in prison.
One of the main reasons why prison riots occur is having a gambling debt. Believe convicts when they say that you don’t ever want to be in the middle of a prison riot. Prison riots are extremely brutal. Fighting it out mano-a-mano style doesn’t exist in prison. If you disrespect someone in prison, you’re also disrespecting the gang that that person is associated with.
Messing with gangs, whose main income is gambling, is another thing you want to avoid. If you think gangs are dangerous in the outside, wait until you encounter them inside prison. Gangs are ruthless and wield so much power that they can even call hits on people outside of prison. In some cases, they even have members of the prison staff on their payroll.
Never ever incur gambling debts from gangs in prison. They will get back what you owe them one way or the other. When they come at you to collect, make sure that you give them what you owe right away. If you can’t or won’t pay them back, they will beat you to a pulp until you do. If you fight back, then it’s game over for you. If you go up against a gang member, you’re going up against the whole gang. That’s just how it works in prison.
Prison politics state that no race should put their hands on another race. In addition, if someone in the gang gets into a fight, the other members are also obligated to help him out, and so forth.
To escape debt collectors, inmates who have debts often ask prison management to put them under protective custody. In protective custody, an inmate is put in a separate, much more secure, cell block that is away from the prison or jail’s general population. This, however, isn’t a guarantee of safety. Remember, gang influence is widespread inside prison. They can pay a guard, a prison staff member, or even a fellow protective custody inmate to take you out if you fail to pay a debt. That’s how far they are willing to go.
This is why gambling can lead to very serious situations while in prison or jail. Someone would most likely try to take you out if you fail to fulfill a gambling debt. If you’re a member of a gang and the person who’s trying to take you out is also a member of a gang, both gangs would automatically be at war and the prison would be on lockdown.
Prison lockdowns are also very brutal. Prisoners are locked in their cell 24/7. A prison is on lockdown until law enforcement determines the cause of the riot. Lockdowns usually take about a week or a month depending on the gravity of the riot that preceded it. A lot of inmates lose their minds during lockdown. It’s like being put in isolation, except you have to endure the attitude of whoever you’re bunked with.
Gambling makes you incur debts, debts certainly bring about riots, and riots always mean death. This is exactly why gambling can lead to very serious situations while in prison or jail.