Explaining casino “luck”

9 October 2021

By John Marchel

The first known use of the word luck was in the 15th century.

The dictionary today tells us about luck: 1) Luck is to prosper or success especially through chance or good fortune. 2) To take action relying on one’s luck, usually used without thought or without a plan.

Luck seems to appear in gambling games from time to time. We don’t know the cause or timing because its appearance is generally unannounced. Here are aspects about luck to think about when planning a trip to a cardroom, casino or racetrack.

• Winners make their own luck, losers believe in “good” and "bad” luck.

• There may be some luck in getting a win, but there’s no luck in keeping it.

• Because of the random factor, luck and failures can appear at any moment of the game.

• In poker, cards can be predictable, but luck is random.

• At poker, even a bad player can get lucky.

• Knowledge will always win more hands than luck.

• Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

• The best way to be lucky is to play smart.

• Luck is the result of good work; bad luck is the result of no work.

• Casinos don’t depend on the luck of their dealers to be successful, so why should you think differently when playing.

• Lucky at cards, unlucky in love; an old American proverb.

• Never trade luck for skill.

• When you win its skill, when you lose, it’s bad luck.

• Luck always favors the backbone, not the wishbone.

• Better be skilled, than lucky.

• Don’t depend on being lucky when gambling.

• Luck can bring you riches, but it will never bring you wisdom.

• Take a chance, but not a risk.

• A positive attitude is the most important element in a successful card game.

• Luck touches everyone at one time or another.


BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW

1. The largest Megabucks jackpot ever been won in Las Vegas was $39.7 million dollars. The Excalibur Hotel and Casino had the hot machine in March of 2003. The jackpot winner was a 25-year-old man that was visiting Las Vegas for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. He was lucky enough to turn his $100-dollar investment into an overwhelming $1.5 million dollars a year for the next 25 years.

2. In the Far East, slot machine players win if they line up lucky eights, not sevens, as per local superstitions.

3. When the MGM hotel-casino in Las Vegas, discovered Chinese players wouldn’t enter their facility because it required walking through its lion’s mouth, which was considered bad luck, the front entrance was completely redesigned at the cost of millions of dollars.

4. At the Sands Macau Casino, off the coast of Hong Kong, to help bring good fortune, the concept of “8” is interwoven throughout the casinos interior design. In Far East culture, “8,” and not “7” as in most Western cultures, is believed to bring luck and power.

5. The Palms casino-hotel in Las Vegas advertises a great nightclub on the 51st floor. It is really on the 41sr floor, but 4 is considered unlucky by Chinese; therefore, it was renumbered.

6. All the stone elephant trunks at Mandalay’s hotel beach in Las Vegas are pointed up, signifying good luck.

7. Both the Wynn hotel-casino and the Rio hotel-casino in Las Vegas do not have any elevator floors that start with the number 4. This is because the #4 is considered unlucky in Chinese culture.

8. On the Isle of Portland, in Dorset, UK, which is a 4-mile-long by 1.5-mile-wide limestone island in the English Channel, the rabbit is said to be unlucky and speaking its name can be awfully upsetting with older residents.

9. President Woodrow Wilson believed that 13 was his lucky number. Indeed, on one occasion, Wilson ordered a ship to slow down - so that he could arrive in Europe on the 13th of the month.

10. The number 7 has come to symbolize gambler’s luck. Why that number? Its origin is perhaps the 7 days of the week, the 7 arts and sciences, the 7 ancient planets or the fact that the Arabians had 7 holy temples?