Different strokes for the same folks

5 December 2017

By Frank Scoblete

Most of us have a singular impression of casino players. We tend to think almost all of them prefer a given game and tend to play that given game exclusively.

So Jim is a blackjack player and Mike is a craps player and Lulu loves slots and Carla hankers after roulette and Ben is totally enamored to video poker.

But there are some players who fly in the face of this stereotype. These are the men and women who love to play different games in the casinos and spread their play about them with enthusiasm.


Thomas Landers: I would find the casino experience boring if I played the same game over and over. I like to jump from one game to another. I’ll play blackjack and then head over to the slots after about 15 minutes, then over to craps in a half hour. I think I’ve played every variation of the table games in the casinos near me. My wife says I am the restless type. I guess she is right. She just plops herself at a machine and she can sit there for hours. That would drive me crazy.

Beth Diamond: I like the slots, but I won’t play the same machine throughout the day or even several machines to take up my playing time. I go right through an aisle, playing credits on one machine after another. I will range my bets from 25 cents to $5 and everything in between. It is true that if a machine is paying I will stay there until it turns cold, and then off I go to find my lover, which is a machine that is hot for me! I have more luck with hot machines than I do with men.

Jodi Powers: My husband just plays craps. He plays hours of craps when we go to the casinos. Now, I have played craps too. I like the game but after a while it does get boring. I am sorry to all those craps players who think this is the most exciting game in the casino. I hate to tell them that craps is just a game like all the other games. It is fun for a little while but then I want to go to another game. I play roulette and baccarat and sometimes I play blackjack, but some blackjack players are very uptight. They are a show. So are the baccarat players. I enjoy all the people as much as I enjoy the games. The one thing I don’t play is video poker. Doesn’t interest me.

Gordon Levine: I am a high roller. I bet about 5 to 10 thousand per decision, so the casino will allow me to reserve a craps table and a blackjack table. I will take the dice at craps and when I seven out, I will go to the blackjack table. As soon as I lose three hands in a row I head back to craps. I play maybe eight hours a day this way and I love it. Each game is different and each game gives me a real spurt of adrenaline. I will even play some of the other games, but I don’t reserve tables for them. I mean if I get hot at craps I am not leaving until the streak ends – and it always ends, or I would be dead of starvation.

Mary Jane Masters: I once went to a casino – and I kid you not – I played almost every slot machine in the place over four days. That was my goal, to test all of the machines and see which ones I liked. For a while I was actually ahead but some of the big-money ones clobbered me. But I did make it through every single machine except for the ones over $25. That was too rich for me. I did play $5 and $10 ones. Although my recent visits don’t see me going to every machine I do play maybe 30 or 40 different ones. It’s like taking a tour of the casino.

Fredrick Ownings: I am an accountant and I am precise. I lay out how many games I will play in a given day, the times I will play them and for how long I play each one. For example, I will give the slots about 20 minutes, but I will play blackjack for about 90 minutes, same with craps and roulette. The “carnival” games I play a few hands at each one and then move on. In a day I play maybe six hours and I like the feeling of approaching a new game because your hopes are high that this will be your lucky day – and sometimes it is!


I am sure that many of our readers are not limiting themselves to one game but enjoy playing a couple or a few – or maybe they play every slot machine or table game in the place. So when surveys are made about casino players and the game percentages are divided up, keep in mind that all craps players are not just craps players but blackjack (and other games) players.

The multi-game players are the King Solomons of casino gambling – one is just not enough!


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. Visit Frank's website at www.frankscoblete.com.