Check your inner child at the door

23 August 2016

By Frank Scoblete

“I am looking to find my inner child,” said my neighbor Gracie. “I want to run in the wind, eat a mountain of candy and do all the things a person my age (38) shouldn’t do. To me being a child is the fun of life. I like to let myself grow!”

Gracie goes to the casinos in Atlantic City twice a month. She takes the bus. “I am the youngest person on the bus! So that gets me in the spirit to dare anything.”

Her philosophy of play is really rather simple. “I just float here and there and play as my emotions move me. I don’t plan on anything. I am a feather in the wind.”

So how’s this casino philosophy holding up? “I am not ahead by any means but I enjoy myself. I do wish I would win more often but I prefer going after those million-dollar and multi-million-dollar jackpots. I just don’t see winning a little jackpot. Why use up whatever luck I might have trying to just win a little? I want to bag the big one which has so far eluded me.”

I think Gracie has the wrong opinion concerning casino play. Yes, it is her money. I grant that. Yes, she can bet it any which way she chooses. I grant that too. But I think waiting for monster luck in the form of a monster jackpot actually reduces one’s pleasure the more one goes to the casinos.

Think of it this way: A single given night of trying for the big one? Okay. But going twice a month, year in and year out, and never hitting anything close to the big one? That has to generate negative emotions. I mean how can one think of herself as anything but a loser? If she is letting her inner child out, that child is seriously scraping her knees.

I think making a good bet, meaning one with the lowest possible house edge, is a more exciting method of play than just winging it. Why? Because you have a decent chance of winning! As I wrote over 25 years ago and have referenced ever since, “Winning is the most fun!” Indeed it is.

So what should Gracie do? I'll give her a plan.

Give herself 10% of her session stake to throw away at the multimillion-dollar machines (OK, so I give in a little here) but take the other 90% and play standalone machines – meaning machines which do not have inter-linked progressives. The return on stand-alone machines is far greater than the returns on inter-casino progressives.

Playing this way will increase Gracie’s chances of coming home ahead or at least not coming home as much behind. In short, you have a much better shot at my recommended machines.

I do maintain that a good bet is far better and more fun than a bad bet, regardless of what that bad bet returns. Come on, you have to agree with me on this: “Winning is the most fun!” Otherwise what’s the point of gambling?

Frank Scoblete’s new 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.” All available from Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, and at bookstores.