Laws of gambling

5 January 2019

By John Marchel

There is an endless amount of laws out there that effect our everyday living. For example, there is the Law of Gravity, the Law of Motion and many other phenomenal laws of nature. Closer to home are federal laws, state and local ones, and even walking laws — you don’t want to get a ticket for jaywalking.

There seems to be some type of laws for almost everything we do today. If you are a gambler, you should know there are also Laws of Gambling. At least, there appear to be some undeclared laws for successful gambling. Understanding and following these laws can and will help you to become a better and more successful player. Here are some basic laws of gambling you should know, understand and play according to them.

LEARN YOUR GAME

That is the first law: Regardless of the game, you need to know its basics, rules and strategy. If it’s blackjack, you must learn and play basic strategy. You might “feel” you should stay with a hand of 16 when the dealer has a nine showing; however, basic strategy will tell you to hit.

You should also know the correct strategy for video poker. This can be a little harder because of the variety of different video poker machines available today. In spite of the different machines you should know that you might have to throw away a winning pair of kings and go for the royal flush, but that’s what video poker strategy tells you to do.

If you are a sports bettor or a horse enthusiast you need to have handicapping down to an exact science if you expect to be successful with that category of gambling. With sports betting you should be able to analyze many factors, including whether a team is playing at home or on the road, who is on the injured list, what is the past record of wins and losses against the opposing team, plus a score of other important statistics.

When playing the horses, you want to know if the track is fast or slow and what has been the past performance of a particular horse or jockey. It takes a lot of time and homework when it comes to handicapping sports or horse racing.

When it comes to table games, you need to know what the strategy and odds are for Three-Card-Poker, roulette, baccarat or any other game offered by the casino that you expect to play.

When playing live poker, the same law applies. For example, when playing Texas Hold’em, you must know what starting hands to play, what effect “position” has on the hand. In addition, you need to understand and use pot odds, implied odds and know how many “outs” or chances you have for each hand. Poker players need lots of basic knowledge before playing their first live hand. This first law, Learn Your Game, is very important because it is the starting point of becoming a skill player and it is also the foundation upon which other laws rest.


BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW

• The common reference “poker according to Hoyle” is curious because the English writer and lawyer Edmund Hoyle (1672-1769) never heard of poker: He died 60 years before the game was originated.

• At one time there was a federal law that made it a crime to cross state lines for illegal gambling.

• In 1624 the Virginia assembly enacted a law against gambling. It read “Mynisters shall not give themselves to excess in drinking or yette spend their tyine idelie by day or by night, playing at dice, cards or any unlawful game.”

• Nevada law states that anyone convicted of cheating in a casino get mandatory imprisonment, even for a first offense.

• In addition, courts cannot suspend any sentence or grant any probation for convicted offenders in Las Vegas cheating cases.