![the east side gamblers all in the east side gamblers all in](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/W7e7NXlRb3Q/maxresdefault.jpg)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Spanish). REEVES: Thinking positive is not easy in Venezuela right now. REEVES: I guess you have to think like that, right? REEVES: He says he tells them he just trusts in his luck.ĭo you ever think your luck's going to run out?ĬESAR: No, no, no, no. Cesar says his family worries and have asked him to stop. These two claim they usually come out on top, but there are bad days. REEVES: Back on the east side of town, in the other world of the betting shop, luck has run out for gamblers Simon Diaz and Rafael Cesar. There's a severe shortage of medicine so Yolanda grows herbs in her yard that she believes help control pain and stomach upsets.
![the east side gamblers all in the east side gamblers all in](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bNzWeEjsc1M/maxresdefault.jpg)
And she pays no rent and almost no utility charges. REEVES: "Oil, beans, lentils, pasta, milk, rice, sugar and tuna." She teases these out over a couple of weeks then turns to her pension, worth just a few dollars, and the even smaller profit her daughter makes selling vegetables. Yolanda says her box comes roughly once a month. Rights groups say these officials monitor people and strike them off the list if they criticize the government. Distribution is controlled by local officials from the ruling Socialist Party. A food box provided to the poor by the government of President Nicolas Maduro. She doesn't want to jeopardize a resource that her family depends on. REEVES: Yolanda will only give her first name and won't talk politics.
The east side gamblers all in how to#
Yolanda's life is all about precise calculations, about how to stretch tiny resources as far as possible. The alley that leads to her ramshackle home is so narrow, you can touch both sides at the same time. REEVES: Yolanda, who's 70, lives in a slum with her daughter and grandson in the poorer west side of Caracas. REEVES: We've come across town into the real world. Blue Eyes wins, to the delight of the gamblers surviving in this murky world apart. REEVES: "Yes, yes," he says, "we see that a lot." I ask him if people ever walk in here and wager their entire salaries just to try to feed their families. REEVES: Solorzano says more than half his family's left Venezuela. Venezuela's chronic lack of food and medicine and the havoc wrought by hyperinflation are hard to escape. A few years ago, this place was packed with people gambling on all sorts of sports, says Solorzano, who's 36. Sometimes the electricity cuts out in the middle of a race. REEVES: "The lack of power and services are bad for business," says Daniel Solorzano, who's the betting shop's duty floor manager. Here, you forget all the craziness." Yet, Venezuela's craziness is taking a toll here, too. His friend and fellow gambler, Rafael Cesar, chips in. REEVES: "To a world apart from the crisis all around," he says. Diaz says he's here to win money to support his wife and 2-year-old boy. REEVES: We're in a betting shop on the east side of Caracas, a middle-class area where a few Venezuelans still have enough money to try to turn it into a little more. Blue Eyes sets off in a cloud of dust, carrying with him the hopes and prayers of Diaz, who's sitting at a table with his friends, clutching pens and racing guides and mobile phones. UNIDENTIFIED HORSE BETTING ANNOUNCER: (Speaking Spanish) Blue Eye. It's called Blue Eyes, and it's running in the 4:30 in the nearby city of Valencia.
The east side gamblers all in tv#
REEVES: Right now, Diaz's gaze is fixed on one particular horse on a TV screen above us. UNIDENTIFIED HORSE BETTING ANNOUNCER: (Speaking Spanish).
![the east side gamblers all in the east side gamblers all in](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/u_n8jSDDmAE/maxresdefault.jpg)
PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE: Simon Diaz calls himself a pure gambler.
![the east side gamblers all in the east side gamblers all in](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Kf6FHi5MdxA/maxresdefault.jpg)
How do they get through their days when goods are scarce and their money is almost worthless? NPR's Philip Reeves put the question to people in the capital city, Caracas. This is a story of the millions who remain. They departed a country that is rich in oil and other resources which now faces political and economic chaos. Four million people have now fled Venezuela.