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Deal Me In: Luck be a lady tonight

18 April 2014

Dear Mark: I am glad that I didn’t purchase a season ski pass for the slopes at Tahoe last fall. I am taking what little I had saved and will try to grind out a kitty for a 14/15 pass. Sometimes a shooter will ask me to blow on the dice and even give me a chip, which automatically goes to a fund for next year’s pass. Any idea when/where this got started? Ski Bunny – Tahoe

Plenty of skiers at Lake Tahoe have chased, with little success, a season’s ski pass from the rail of a crap table or on a blackjack game. Here, Ms. Bunny, is perhaps a better way to go: Buy your ski pass directly from the resort in the spring, as it’s usually at a 30 percent discount off fall prices.

I do feel for, and acknowledge your lack of snowfall, as seldom a day goes by that I don’t check the Alpine Meadows webcam. In my 20-plus years of skiing in the basin, I don’t recall anything close to the lack of snow that you experienced this past season. In fact, I actually remember skiing as late as July 4.

Anyhow, as to your question, you would be surprised how many players perform the blowing on the dice ritual before throwing them. I am familiar with two theories as to its genesis. The first being, in the early days, charlatan gamesters would try to cheat the game by coating one side of the dice with a sticky substance that would become active when blown upon. The other originates from early street games, where by blowing on the dice, you were cleansing them of debris before tossing them. I am sure there are many, many more.

Today, gamblers blow on the dice for luck. Some gamblers think they will have even better luck if an attractive woman like you, Ms. Bunny, blows on the dice, believing your breath will lead them to a "hot" roll. Their false-premise gambling belief is based on an illogical point of view.

When the shooter thinks he can improve his luck and influence over the outcome of the dice game when something fairylike happens on the game, this player is under the illusion that somehow he, or in this case you, can control the outcome of the roll. Many grass-roots gamblers have this mistaken view. They think that if they do certain things, it will influence the outcomes of the game in their favor. In gambling, such beliefs are called superstitions, which are nothing more than irrational beliefs that a certain act (like blowing on the dice) can bring about good luck.

Certainly, the casino will allow you to perform this ritual just so long as you make it quick – remember, there is money in play on the layout – but no gambler can exercise some supernatural control over the outcome. In other words, as long as the dice are fair and thrown randomly, there is no connection between what you do and the number that appears.

I part, Ms. Bunny, with a few lyrics from Frank Sinatra’s hit, "Luck Be A Lady."

A lady never leaves her escort
It isn't fair, it isn't nice
A lady doesn't wander all over the room
And blow on some other guy’s dice.

Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “Going to the bathroom during a dice game is a mistake. You might miss a hot hand worth a hundred thousand, and nothing in the bathroom is worth that much.” Nick "The Greek" Dandalos, King of Gamblers (1969)
Mark Pilarski

As a recognized authority on casino gambling, Mark Pilarski survived 18 years in the casino trenches, working for seven different casinos. Mark now writes a nationally syndicated gambling column, is a university lecturer, author, reviewer and contributing editor for numerous gaming periodicals, and is the creator of the best-selling, award-winning audiocassette series on casino gambling, Hooked on Winning.
Mark Pilarski
As a recognized authority on casino gambling, Mark Pilarski survived 18 years in the casino trenches, working for seven different casinos. Mark now writes a nationally syndicated gambling column, is a university lecturer, author, reviewer and contributing editor for numerous gaming periodicals, and is the creator of the best-selling, award-winning audiocassette series on casino gambling, Hooked on Winning.