My Money or Their Money?

28 October 2021

By Royal Flushes

ABBY: Do you remember poor, old Mister Dobbs?

CINDY: Oh, yes, a sad case. I think he was close to 90 or so when he died. And he never had any of those nights at the casino that he could put in his memory book. It was a book full of blank pages.

ABBY: The guy played in casinos for almost 60 years! Think of that; 60 years and he really didn’t have one trip where he came home a big winner. Or really, even a little winner.

CINDY: He was the typical bad craps player. Every bad bet in the game, he made. He’d have the hardways, the single roll bets as well, and when they started adding those new branded bets like the Fire Bet, he’d bet that too!

ABBY: Yet, he did have some trips where he got out ahead. Way ahead. Like divine luck fell on his shoulders.

CINDY: And he blew those wins too.

ABBY: He had this bicameral concept of his money and the casino’s money. If he were ahead, he’d say he was playing with “the casino’s money.” Even though he had just won that money. He was like two branches of government who couldn’t get the idea that whatever money Mr. Dobbs had was his money if he won it. Dobbs couldn’t get that through his mind. He couldn’t get it through his head that money he had won from the casino was actually his money. Real and simple, and he couldn’t fathom that.

CINDY: I think there are some gamblers – I don’t know the percentage but enough to make me know they exist – who use the “casino’s money” and “my money” idea. Once they have won some money now they bet even more…

ABBY: And even crazier…

CINDY: Than they normally would because the money they were risking they perceived as not really belonging to them. As if the money was interest on a bank account that they could take out and spend foolishly.

ABBY: Every penny you have in your pocket when you are in the casino is your money. Whether you brought it to the casino or won it in the casino. It is hard to get ahead on trips and when you are ahead you don’t want to foolishly splurge. You want to play a normal game – a good game of good bets that might allow you to come home a winner.

CINDY: You are allowed to come home a winner. There might be some players who don’t think that’s allowed.

ABBY: But take Mr. Dobbs again. The way he played; he’d find it hard to come home a winner after a few days in the casino on any given trip. His bets were too many and for too much and for ridiculously too much when he played with the “casino’s money.”

CINDY: Remember the fights he had with his wife? She was a slot player but she was able to occasionally come home with wins and some of them were pretty big wins. She was scold him about how he played.

ABBY: He’d turn sarcastic and say, “Well, what do you know about gambling? You’re only a slot player.” That would drive her crazy.

CINDY: Some slot players know how to gamble better than wild-eyed table-games players. Mrs. Dobbs knew that for sure. But nothing could convince Mr. Dobbs that he was wrong in his approach.

ABBY: Nothing at all.