Whose Casino Is It, Anyway?

1 December 2022

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: Playing games in the casinos is not always totally pleasurable. Certain things detract from the fun. Why is that so?

ABBY: Other people? People who reduce the pleasure of playing? I think those are the answers. People help to make the experience a full fun experience or something less than a full fun experience. This can go from dealers, pit people, casino regulations and, of course, other players.

CINDY: Right on the money!

ABBY: I think everyone thinks that the casino in some way shape or form belongs to them.

CINDY: And in various ways they let you know that.

ABBY: Start with the casino itself. Obviously, the casino runs the games, as in their pit people and the dealers interact with the players. A friendly pit person and a friendly dealer can make the game easy to play. You would look forward to seeing them when you hit the tables.

CINDY: If the floor person comes over with a frown on his face and snickers at the game or the players at the game, that reduces your good sense of self. He writes down whatever he writes down and ignores your existence, that is not good.

ABBY: How about a dealer, say in blackjack or mini-baccarat or another card game, or a roulette dealer or box person in craps, who wants to speed the game up. They can sometimes bust your chops about that.

CINDY: We know the casinos want faster games, that helps them win more and more money from who? From us. But if they press you to play faster, you might just do that opposite, play slow or just leave.

ABBY: I remember a dealer in Vegas who really got on me the very first time I played blackjack. I had memorized the basic strategy and was trying to remember how to play each of my hands against the dealer’s cards. Every so often I had to pause to think about what I was doing. And I was nervous as all get out. I was sweating too. But the dealer would say to me coldly, “Make your decisions faster, miss.” I couldn’t make my decisions faster. He had no sympathy for me when I told him I had just memorized the strategy and at times was having difficulty remembering it. He just looked at me and said, “Faster.”

CINDY: That dealer thought the game belonged to him. I mean it does in one way, he works for the casino and deals the game, but he made the game less fun for you. He ruined your game.

ABBY: I consider the game I am playing to be my game, in a sense really. I want to be comfortable. Of course, I want good luck but I can handle the ups and downs of fortune. But I find it hard to handle the folks who tend to ruin the game for me. They take away my game and make it more of their game. I hate that.

CINDY: It’s not just poor dealers or other workers; what about other players? How about the “experts” in blackjack who are always annoying other players about how they play their hands? Or where they sit? They can be the biggest nuisances of all.

ABBY: And their advice is almost always wrong.

CINDY: Well, sometimes I’ve lost it at the table and told the “expert” tp play his own hand and leave the other players alone.

ABBY: Did it work?

CINDY: Not really. Some will say that how the other players play their hands will affect him. It won’t but there you go. His game is the triumphant one. The rest of us have to play his way.

ABBY: Okay, next week, let’s look at the perfect casino. How about that?

CINDY: I’m in!