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Gaming Guru
The Integrated Gambler: How to Enjoy the Total Casino Experience - Part 123 February 2002
You've seen them tearassing out of the planes at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas and pumping their pocketful of coins into the first slot machines they see just to get into the action as quickly as they can. Pumped-up players embarking on their casino vacations. Come on, you've seen them walking the dusty Strip of Las Vegas or battling the winds on the boardwalk of Atlantic City, or wiping the sweat from their faces on a humid mid-morning in Mississippi -- the disgruntled, the disgusted, the despairing. Players in the midst of casino sojourn gone wrong. Come on, you've seen them walking the decks of the riverboats disheveled and disheartened; and you've heard them cursing and mumbling under their breath in all the Indian casinos all across this great and glorious gambling nation of ours. Players who have lost their decorum along with their money. You've seen them staggering down the Strip at 5 AM, arguing with the statues outside of Caesar's Palace...and losing those arguments, too. Admit it, you've seen them bleary-eyed and bloated at 6 AM finishing up their last cocktails and losing their last chips at blackjack or craps or roulette or whatever, before staggering off to their rooms to sleep uncomfortably and wake uneasily. In fact, you may have looked through the flash and pound of an approaching headache into the mirror of your mind and seen reflected there a harried, haggard, sunken-eyed self staring right back at you. I certainly have. After one particularly gruesome nine-day losing streak in Atlantic City in 1989, when I averaged about 10 mind-numbing hours a day of casino play, I walked along the Boardwalk in a vicious, cold and wet February dusk wondering: "What the hell am I doing here? Is this really fun?" Strangely enough, some months later, after a wonderful three-day winning stint at this same "queen of resorts" -- also playing a mind-numbing 10 hours a day -- I again asked myself: "What the hell am I doing here? Is this really fun?" In truth, whether I had won or lost, my answer both times was: "No, this is not fun. It is far from fun." I was tired, I was cranky, I was... off. I wasn't myself. Gambling for prolonged periods of time felt like work and work isn't fun because, well, because it's work! Therein lies the key to maximizing the pleasure of casino visits and minimizing any pain. And going to casinos should be fun -- fun with a capital "F." Yet, look around you on your next trip -- for all the people who are legitimately having fun, there's an equal or greater number who are miserable and not just because they are losing money at the tables or in those infernal machines. They are miserable because they are - for lack of a better word - off. Next time: Going to the casinos is the ultimate leisure-time activity and should be approached as such. This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net. Articles in this Series
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