More on Lady Luck

30 August 2016

By Frank Scoblete

FROM JAGGY: I liked your article about luck (“The Lucky One”). Here is my version of this mysterious notion called luck.

L-learn
U-under
C-certain
K-knowledge.

That is how luck is born. The Captain taught you luck in the game of craps. The 5-Count and dice control. He gave you the knowledge or the idea that certain strategies exist. And now you have that knowledge to win at the games of craps or blackjack.

Luck comes from an idea that will invent wealth. I guess you can say luck is an intangible thing. So luck does exist to some extent.

Here is a story about my son Max who became a nurse.

Max had several jobs. He didn't want to go to college as he didn't know what he wanted to do. Then one day he decided to go to nursing school.

After three years of nursing, he met a patient he was taking care of. He had a conversation with the patient who had a medical supply business. The patient was on his way out of this world.

The elderly man taught Max everything about the medical supply business. A few weeks later the gentleman died.

Today Max has a worldwide business network in several countries. He has other business ventures too. He has the whole family in the businesses. His wealth was built on “luck.”


FROM JAMES: I disagree about luck. I do think it is a force of nature and not just some random thing or other. There are some nights when I feel lucky and I go into the casino and win. I can’t explain that. Can anyone?

Then there are nights when I feel unlucky and I lose. I do not think this is just blind chance. I just can’t believe that. I think what we call “luck” and our ideas about “fate” might just be the same thing.


FROM ALAN: I think we as human beings need to make the world, the entire universe in fact, personal. We have to be able to relate to it.

It is very hard for me to grasp the truth of randomness. Blind randomness with no motives, no existence out there as a being of any kind? I find it hard to look out at the stars and think there is no reason for them other than the chaos that came out of the Big Bang. How can you grasp this? I don’t think we can. I certainly can’t.

I do think relegating everything to a divine being makes or at least seems to make some sense to me. Then the universe has meaning. Your life has a meaning. Otherwise what is the point of it all?

I admit that I can be wrong in this way of thinking but at least it is a comfortable way for me to think. So is there really Lady Luck? Is there a luck-force? I think “yes” is the right answer at least for me.


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.