Managing Your Money

19 September 2020

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: Everyone who plays casino games knows that sooner or later the casino will beat them unless they have extraordinary luck and win a giant jackpot at slots. That is not in the cards for just about all players. So long-term most players will be losers. That is the math, the truth, the facts, and the expectation. You can’t really escape that situation.

ABBY: But most of us don’t think that way Cindy. I go to the movies or theatre and I spend money, so I don’t consider that losing money. I buy a television. That is the cost of entertainment. I go out to dinner but I don’t consider that losing money. It’s the cost of a good meal. To me spending money in the casino is the expense of having fun. It is entertainment. Yes, we want to win money and that goes without saying…

CINDY: But you are saying it.

ABBY: True. But some unsayable things need to be said. But I’ll say another thing; you have to know how much you are spending for your casino entertainment.

CINDY: So true. When you go to a movie or theatre or dinner, you know what you will spend. You are not overwhelmed when the check or the bill comes.

ABBY: But that can happen in a casino. You might not realize that you are spending more than you should. If you wake up the next morning and say to yourself, “Gee, I lost too much money last night. What was I doing?” Now that is not the cost of entertainment; that is spending money foolishly.

CINDY: Money you should not have spent. I guess if you go to a movie and it stinks you could say “that was a waste of money.” But I don’t think that is the same thing. You still knew ahead of time what the real expense would be.

ABBY: Exactly. And that should be the same way with casino games; you have to know exactly what you can afford to spend. We are not talking about losing as such. We are talking about how much the product is worth. It is awful to wake up the next day and really know that you blew it.

CINDY: Often that means that you threw away your money. I guess you could say that some people use their credit cards too much or buy things they can’t afford. That is, I guess, blowing your money. But that is not exactly the same thing – at least I don’t think it is.

ABBY: I guess we could lump in all silly, stupid, unreasonable purchases as money poorly spent. Debt is certainly a poor thing except perhaps a mortgage…

CINDY: That you can afford.

ABBY: That you can afford. And a car but not a car that is out of your price range.

CINDY: A car out of your price range is like a casino player playing at a monetary level that he or she can’t actually afford. That is a big mistake and I am sure many players have fallen into that situation. Maybe to get comps or that sort of thing. Big mistake.

ABBY: Bottom line is not to go over your head and not to play in such a way as to make waking up the next morning a thing of self-recrimination. That only ruins your fun and probably makes you not want to go to the casino anytime soon.

CINDY: How do we know this for a fact?

ABBY: We’ve both done what we shouldn’t have done and we certainly learned from our mistakes.

CINDY: So our next column will continue to tackle money management as we see using it properly.

ABBY: Next time.