Betting a bushel

20 March 2018

By Frank Scoblete

FROM BARNEY: I have to disagree with you about betting. The more bets a player makes, the better the chance he or she will win one. That counts. If we follow your advice and only make one bet per game like at craps and roulette, what is the point? That makes the game dull. You wait and wait and wait to see what happens and you wait some more.

You are playing for fun, right? That’s right, right? The casinos exist for fun, not to make money for players. But we players want something from the casino and that is some action with our bets and action is being able to see some types of wins on a consistent basis. If at roulette you bet like half the numbers you have a chance about half the time of winning something. I prefer that to just betting one number.

I enjoy games where you can make several bets at once. The games called carnival games often have several bets that you can make. That adds to the excitement.

At craps I bet all the box numbers [4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10] and some of the center bets too. Usually I win something on every roll.

Not everyone is as conservative as you. Just keep that in mind when you write articles. Some of us like to throw caution to the wind.

FRANK RESPONDS: The way you play is certainly throwing caution to the wind. The more bets you make at a game, the more money the casino will win. That’s a given.

Let’s take your roulette example. If you bet $10 per number on half the numbers, you are wagering $190 on each decision. You stand to lose on average about $10 per spin of the American wheel with its 5.26 percentage house edge. That’s a large amount for most gamblers.

Remember that you only win 35-to-one when a single number hits – that adds up, since the true odds of the bet are 37 to one. With each win, the house edge piles on that $190.

If you want more consistent wins at roulette without spending so much money, why not go with betting the even-money bets of high/low, odd/even or red/black. You will win 18 bets and lose 20 bets if you do so. I think that is a bet that will give you wins but not hammer you. Ten bucks per spin. You overall losses will decrease markedly but you’ll have plenty of hits.

Multiple bets at craps are deadly. The house edges can go as high as 16.67%! Just calm down and make a few place bets on some box numbers. How would I really make the game close and better? This will be way too conservative for you but here goes anyway – only bet one pass line or come bet with odds. Leave it at that.

OK, I can see you frowning at that advice. You are right about me. I am conservative in my betting strategy. We live in different gambling worlds. I work too hard for my money to just throw it into the wind.

But everyone has the right to bet their money any way they wish. I just can’t do what you do. My gambling principles won’t allow it.

So my future articles will always contain my proper sense of gambling things.


Visit Frank’s website at www.frankscoblete.com. Frank Scoblete’s latest books are I Am a Dice Controller: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Craps, Confessions of a Wayward Catholic and I Am a Card Counter: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Blackjack. Available from Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, and at bookstores.