Honesty Policy

18 August 2020

By Frank Scoblete

You’re in an elevator heading to your floor. Tonight has been a loser, not by much, but a loss is a loss. An older couple joins you and up you three go.

“How you doing?” asks the man.

“Even,” you say.

“We’re ahead,” says the woman.

“A little ahead,” says the man.

“Good, good,” you say. “It’s obviously been a good night for the three of us.”

They leave the elevator. You always say you’re “even” to people who ask you in the elevator “how are you doing?” Saying “I’m even” when you are losing is second nature to you. You always say you’re a “little ahead” when you are actually even. You always proudly say you are way ahead when you are just a little ahead.

Yes, you are a liar.

Guess what? Those two other people who joined you in the elevator were also lying. They weren’t ahead; they were behind.

Perhaps we can lay this at the lying nature of human beings. Perhaps. Or we could simply say we are selling a product that isn’t real – our wins – in order to fool not just other people but ourselves.

Sometimes this tendency to lie to ourselves is called the “big lie.” Countries and politicians have used this technique over the centuries. It seems to have worked; often for evil purposes.

The private “big lies” come because you just keep telling yourself a fib over and over and over and after a while you think the fib is the truth. I have seen this all too often in casino players. Being “even” is also a way to saying you are behind without saying it. After a while saying you are “even” makes you actually believe that you are even.

I think selling yourself a “big lie” is quite dangerous. Thinking you are doing better than you are actually doing can give you a false sense of accomplishment which then eggs you on to wager more and more money with poor results. If you are lying to yourself those results will cloud reality. Ultimately you could be wandering in a storm but thinking you’re just going for a walk in the sunshine.

When it comes to understanding how you are doing in your casino career, true honesty is truly the best policy. You can tell the truth to those people in the elevator or just say to them, “I don’t discuss my wins or losses.” Just forget the lies. Just forget the self-serving untruths that might fool those others but also might fool you. Fooling oneself is dangerous.

I believe that casino players should keep an honest record of their wins and losses. You can do this after every session of play in the casino. At the end of a prolonged period of time you can look at that record and know just how you are doing. I call this the “big truth.”

Casino playing is fun but honest casino playing is even more fun. The “big truth” can set you free from delusion.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Frank’s web site is www.frankscoblete.com. His books are available from smile.Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, kindle, e-books and at bookstores.