"Mistakes. I've made a few."

28 January 2025

By Frank Scoblete

Borrowing the lyrics from the Frank Sinatra hit (to quote “Mistakes? I’ve made a few!”) I want all casino players reading this to know that I have made a few mistakes in my gaming career.

One with a couple of people whom I’ve trusted. Some of the very wrong people. Indeed – totally my fault in this because I saw the warning signs and ignored them.

Fine. Some harm done but not all that much.

But in playing I’ve made a few mistakes. Some big. Some small. And one a devastating one on my very first trip to the casino world when I played the Martingale betting method at the long-gone Sands in Atlantic City.

Oh, what a dumb neophyte I was way, way back then!

I was going to star in a play, “The Only Game in Town” by the great playwright Frank D. Gilroy. It would be the 50th and very last play I would ever do.

It is a three-person play about a driven, gambling-obsessed craps player named Joe Grady who falls in love with Fran, a chorus girl. My costar would become my future wife who forever would be known as the “Beautiful AP.”

Life imitates art you might say.

I had never been to a casino and even though I did some reading about craps I was at a loss to know the game. So, I made a weekend reservation to stay at the Sands and I figured I’d play the game and get a sense of why this character was obsessed with it.

But I got thrown a curveball as I (sincerely believed) I came up with an infallible way to beat the casinos. Yep, I was that dumb.

I figured every time I lost I would just double my previous bet. One win and I would be ahead of the game. It would take a really long losing streak to do me in. And that wouldn’t happen…I imagined.

I didn’t really know the games but I figured I’d bet the even-money bets at roulette (red/back, odd/even, or high/low) and I’d have 18 ways to win a bet and 20 ways to lose a bet. (I was betting the American double-zero wheel.) I’d go with the red/black bets.

These even-money bets pay even money but they are not 50-50 propositions. No matter, I really had no idea of what I was actually doing except to figure I was a genius who had come up with a fool-proof way to beat the house.

I wondered why no one had ever come up with this betting method before? Boy, oh boy, people sure are stupid.

So, I was in Atlantic City to learn about craps, yes, but my attention was really on defeating the Sands Casino at roulette. My betting method started at $5 and a loss brought me to a bet of $10 and another loss to a bet of $20 and on up.

I never figured I’d ever hit a monumental losing streak betting as I was doing. This was a sure thing. The Sands Casino was mine for the taking.

This weekend (without me realizing it at the time) set the course for the remainder of my life.

I played three days when I wasn’t learning the game of craps from the Captain, who would become my mentor in all things casino-related. I didn’t know this at the time.

I did learn the game of craps. I performed in my last play too. And I married my co-star.

And I learned a grand lesson about casino gaming that weekend.

The Martingale is not a fool-proof method of beating the house. Only fools (meaning me) thought it was. On Sunday my boat sank. I was the Titanic and the Martingale was my iceberg.

I doubled and doubled and doubled my bets until I couldn’t bet any higher. I lost all those doubled bets. I lost my entire bankroll during that weekend.

A big mistake. A big one. Never to be repeated.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

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