Do Not Send a Check!

5 March 2024

By Frank Scoblete

Some casino players will jokingly say, “Well, I might as well send the casino a check and not go because I can’t beat them.” Or “I should not play when I do go since I will lose my money anyway. Ha! ha!”

Are these statements actually funny? Or sarcastic? Or true? Or something entirely else?

How’s this as a statement of fact? “Sooner or later every casino player must lose.”

Is that actually funny? Or sarcastic? Or true? Or something entirely else?

First things first: Do not think of sending the casinos a check – that’s poor thinking. That’s setting yourself up to lose on every trip you make to the casinos and every session you play at the casinos. You’ll be depressed even before you leave your home or apartment. You are heading into the contest with the loser’s mindset.

I am not saying that you can get the edge over the casino – those true advantage players are few and far between. Even many of them aren’t actually “them” at all but players who are creating a cloak of excellence when they have no such cloak.

I’ve seen this phenomenon in both the card-counting blackjack world and in the dice influencing world. Players can fool other players. They can often fool themselves too. More often they fool themselves.

Writing that check, even if it is a statement of possible fact, is in fact an admission that you can’t win tonight, or another night or any night or any session at all. You are admitting that you must lose.

Now, yes, that is negative thinking. It is also correct thinking that the casino has the edge and that edge allows the casino to beat the players.

So, should you write a check or should you learn what games give you the best chance to win tonight, tomorrow night, the next night and the next? Heck yeah. You aren’t helpless. You do have strategies that can win (at times) if you use those strategies. If you bet crummy bets at craps, your losses will be swift and big and frequent even if on some occasions you have lucky wins. Luck is not a commodity you can rely on. Play basic strategy at blackjack and always play at crowded tables which means fewer decisions for you.

Bet the proper bets at craps and keep your bankroll as somewhat sacred and you have a better chance to win every time you play. So, no check writing, please. Same goes for many of the other games. There a better and best ways to play most games so choose the better games and the better ways.

Does the casino have an edge over you? Of course. Is it a big edge or a little edge? Every casino player can make it a little edge or a big edge. It’s that simple. You choose what that edge will be (I’ll repeat myself here) by the game you play and how you play it. So put your check book away.

And now this:

“I must lose sooner or later,” say many pundits. That statement is absolutely true but it is misleading for one big reason: It is too simple a statement because it is not actually believed-in by many players. They do not believe that they will lose sooner; they project that their losses will come later so it is just fine and dandy for them to play today and (sadly) to play miserably since in the short run they can win.

Seriously? The short run is just a short version of the long run. It can be a better version or a worse version but it is part and parcel of it all. Do not think that your losses can only come in the long run. You can start off bad and continue bad all the way down the road. You can start off just fine and then collapse. You can start off so-so and go so-so on down the line. You get the picture, right?

The house has the edge? Fine. Diminish it by the games you play and how you play them. That’s me being a broken record (do kids today know what a broken record is?). The game, the strategy, and the amount of play-money you have to wager. That is your key.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Frank Scoblete’s books are available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, e-books, libraries and book stores.