What's it all about?

25 August 2015

By Frank Scoblete

For over a quarter of a century I have been writing books, articles, television shows and DVDs about casino gambling, from game strategies to my take concerning the industry. I’ve logged scores of my adventures (many with my beautiful wife AP) in the world of casinos (the good, the bad and the even worse) and how I think people should play and comport themselves in the Temples of Chance.

I have made no bones that my mentor, the late, great Captain of craps, took me by the hand and led me in the right direction. It is possible that without him I might never have bothered to play the games or become an advantage player. I might have just continued with my theater career after I left teaching. Or worse, I might have become a typical gambler; out of cash and ideas.

I’d like to think that in some small ways I have helped casino players become better players; something as simple as not losing as much money as they might have lost had they not taken my advice. I’d like to think I helped some players learn to play with an advantage over the house. I also hope that I have made reading my writings a generally enjoyable experience.

I have made some great friends in the casino world: players, dealers, hosts and even some “suits.” Being on the “other side” of the casino division – opposite the player side, in short – is not that easy. Having dealt with the public in my life I know how difficult it can be. One jerk can ruin an otherwise great day with players. Teachers experience that with students; the “other side” experiences that with players.

I’ve also accumulated a few enemies, writers who wished their books sold as well as mine (“How can he be any good if he is so popular?”); teachers of strategies that have blanched when I’ve called such strategies (harsh) names (“Yeah, well, Scoblete made up all that stuff about the Captain.”)

True, those I have berated for their strategies I’ve done so leaving their names out of my “berations.” These purveyors of bad ideas know who they are and those individuals who know the purveyors know who they are but the vast reading public does not know these purveyors by name.

Readers do learn why the bad ideas are bad ideas and that is, when all is said, done and written, the whole point. I have gone after their ideas, often in very unflattering terms, but I have left their selves out of it.

Because what is writing about casinos and casino games all about when it comes down to it? None of the gambling writers I have read or met have made great impacts on society. Not one has found a cure for cancer in the roulette wheel or the route to end hunger in a craps game or the key to unlock the wonders of space travel in a pai gow poker hand.

Casino gambling, for all but that small percentage of addicted players, is just playtime for adults.

“Hey, Timmy, let’s go out and play,” says the kid.

“What do you want to play?” says Timmy.

“Catch?”

“No, kid, I’m 50 years old. Let’s play blackjack in the casino.”

“OK!” says the kid.

And that’s what it is all about; right, Timmy? Let’s play.


Frank Scoblete’s new book is “I Am a Dice Controller: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Craps.”