What I've learned

4 June 2019

By Frank Scoblete

About the following: I didn’t jot down the statistics because this reflection happened after many years of experiencing casino gamblers in their element – the casinos. So my opinion might be off a little here or there. But I think I am right – or mostly right – since it’s been 30 years of seeing this loud and clear.

Most casino gamblers do not want to change their approach to the games. If they know little or nothing about how to play the best strategies and the best games, they will sometimes wear their ignorance with great pride. You can hear them say things such as this: “No one can beat the games, so why worry about the math and the strategies that keep the house edge low? I like to play the way I like to play. We all lose. So what’s the big deal?”

Even some supposed experts on gambling utter such nonsense to support their contention that since they must lose, why not have fun and play stupidly? Trend betting systems abound, not to reduce the house edge but to increase the players’ chances to win. Idiotic gurus will recommend extremely high house bets because of their lack of sense and their understanding of how games translate into dollars and cents.

I’ve had players attack the idea that the math of the games is correct. One such writer wanted to know how a player could lose 1.41% on a pass line bet when you either win or lose the bet. He had no idea of averages. He had no idea of how the casinos grind down the players’ bankrolls. Since he couldn’t lose an actual $1.41 on a $100 bet, that percentage must be a mistake. I explained to him that you add up the . . . and he looked at me as if I were mad. “The math,” he said, “is bogus my buddy. I knew that when I was in school, even.”

Bad bets are bad bets and there is no excuse, in my opinion, to waste money on them. Fantasy is not reality in the world of casino math. There are those experts who claim that the “math boys” have no idea of how to play the games. They recommend the wrong strategies, based on the wrong ideas, based on no knowledge of the actual underpinnings of the games and they give deep and hearty advice; advice that is wrong.

And then there are players who actually do handle their playing strategies quite well. Usually these are folks who read books and articles before they played and got a good grasp of the real math behind the games. Although they knew they would be underdogs against the mighty casinos they gave themselves the best chances to win. That is the best – and the smartest – way to play. Keep the casino edge low; experience fewer decisions at a game, and go from there.

The only cross up for those who wish to learn in advance the what’s what of casino games is if the hopeful player proceeds to read the wrong stuff. What if the dopey expert is the first writer a novice reads? That can be trouble. The internet is filled with ploppies who present themselves as experts.

Now most of the other casino gamblers are somewhere between the two points of idiocy and knowledge. Certainly slot players know they face rather large house edges at the machines but even in this realm there are better and worse machines they can play.

There are always ways to reduce the hit on one’s money and that should be the first criteria: Is this machine one of the better ones or one of the worst ones? Learn the answer to that question and you are on your way to reducing the house edge against you. The lower the edge the better the chance you have to maybe win during this or that session.

Too many casino gamblers have mistaken their dreams and fantasies for reality. There used to be a commercial for one of the big lottery games that ended with “Someone has to win!” Yes, tens of millions of people will play that lottery and one will win. Is that a good encouragement to play a game where the house has a massive edge and the chances of winning are in the multi-millions to one? Or would it be better to ignore the come-on and save one’s coin?

So what should casino gamblers do? First, do not be one of the first types of players. Don’t think because you can say a trite phrase such as “everyone has to lose” that such a phrase justifiably opens the game to total stupidity on a player’s part. No, all that does is express the fact that the casino has structured its games so that the casino will ultimately win – but how much and how long that takes is the real variable.

My experience is that too many casino gamblers do not play smart and that a significant percentage of the bad players really don’t give a damn.

Visit Frank’s website at www.frankscoblete.com. Frank’s latest books are Confessions of a Wayward Catholic!; I Am a Dice Controller and I Am a Card Counter. All of Frank’s books are available from Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, e-books and at bookstores.