The Proper Ingredients

21 October 2021

By Royal Flushes

ABBY: You can’t make a delicious cake if you are using superglue and concrete. It won’t have that softness and delectable taste. You could even throw some chocolate in and the taste would still be harsh and awful and if it stuck to your teeth, you’d need a tooth extraction to get rid of it. And that is as true for casino playing as for baking a cake. You need the proper ingredients to make playing games in a casino a delicious experience.

CINDY: In our desire to tell folks about the casino edges and such, we sometimes forget to discuss the mental aspects of the games. I don’t mean how we take winning and losing. You win; you’re probably happy. You lose; you aren’t so happy. That goes without saying.

ABBY: It is the other ingredients that can make or break a casino trip. Okay, what are they?

CINDY: Since we prefer going to the casinos for two- and three-night visits, our rooms, whether comped or not, should be clean and inviting. The glasses, the mini-bar, the curtains, the rug….

ABBY: You name it.

CINDY: Yes, the restaurants, from the café to the gourmet rooms, have to be top level. The servers have to be friendly and professional.

ABBY: Everyone has to make you feel welcomed. A patron cannot be happy if someone working the establishment is in a terrible mood…

CINDY: And showing it. Sometimes it is the job of the workers to pretend they like their jobs. Workers are actually actors. They may hate the patrons in the casino but they have to “act” as if they like them.

ABBY: Like a teacher pretending she likes all her students.

CINDY: Precisely.

ABBY: The gaming tables have to look somewhat new and fresh. If you like to go to dumps then you can find plenty of dumpy casinos but that is not for us. The slot machines should be clean too. I know it is sometimes tough to clean the ashtrays of cigarettes but it must be done. The casino has to think of its customers as their guests like we think of guests coming to our home.

CINDY: And this is a truism! Casino dealers should speak English to the customers unless the customer needs the dealer to translate for them. A dealer speaking to another dealer in a different language is insulting. At least I think it is insulting.

Dealers should never have cross-talk conversations while they are dealing to the players. You’ll find that sometimes at craps; the dealers will talk over the players as if the players aren’t actually there. Picture doing that to guests at your house. Talk over them and ignore them. Very, very bad manners.

ABBY: We are very generous with our tips but cross-talking dealers get to us.

CINDY: When you tip a dealer or a crew, you should get a thank you. Patrons don’t have to tip and many don’t. We do.

ABBY: Good feelings are the key to a patron’s visit. We can’t force the games to give us wins but everything else can be a winning formula.

CINDY: And what about the games?

ABBY: Be prepared to play the best you can play. If you play blackjack then you should know the basic strategy. And you should never tell anyone how to play their hands. If a person asks, refer them to the dealer as the expert. You are there to play your game, not someone else’s game.

CINDY: Know the best bets at craps. Avoid the high house-edge bets. Play slow is good; playing fast is not so good.

ABBY: You get the idea. You should be prepared!

CINDY: And the casino should be prepared too!

ABBY: That about covers it.