Why only one bet?

24 December 2024

By Frank Scoblete

QUESTON:

I just read one of your articles where you advocate for making just one bet. What’s the point of that? Don’t you diminish the fun of playing a game by doing such a thing?

I enjoy craps and roulette, just behind those I go with blackjack and – I’ll admit this – slots.

I can’t imagine myself only making one bet at craps. Part of the fun of the game is how many ways you have to win. Reduce the number of bets you make and you reduce the possibility of winning. With craps you have a tremendous number of bets available to you to make.

Why not take advantage of that? It would seem like a waste of time to go to a casino only to bet one bet at a time.

To me that is simple logic.

Show me where I am wrong.

---CARL

FRANK:

It depends on your philosophy of gambling. Since the house has an edge on every bet you make (unless you are a true advantage player and those players are rare), the more bets you make the better the chance for long term losses.

That’s my logic. More bets do not, to me, give me more chances to win but more chances to lose my money.

Take roulette. You have 38 pockets on the American double-zero wheel. The payment is 35-to-one on a winning bet. Great. Now, I can bet all the numbers. I can win every spin of the wheel and – oops I lose with each spin! My total worth decreases with each spin of the wheel.

The winning bet pays me 35-to-one. That’s great. But I lose on 37 other numbers. My gambling is producing nothing.

That is how I look at every game in the casino. The more bets, the more I will lose over time. The fewer bets? The better for me.

I also think that a large part of the fun in casino gambling is enjoying the anticipation when the decision is about to be made. I want to be able to
experience that anticipation without having to worry much about losing.

To me there is no reason to drain the bank account to have fun. One bet at a time. Oh, and also, make the one bet the best possible bet you can make at the game you are playing.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

---FRANK

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