Dear
Mark,
Over the past 20 years I have found great pleasure
in making my monthly trip to Atlantic City. My bankroll
is limited to $200 and I generally stick with most
of the low house percentage bets that you recommend
in your column. Sometimes I break even, win every
third or fourth time, or lose it all. My question
is, will I ever become a “consistent winner”
before I join the Angels in a crap game? I’m
looking for divine intervention. Sandy G.
There
is no real easy way to break this to you so I’ll
get right to the point: NO! Though every dog has his
day, don’t expect a good week. It’s not
because you’re making the wrong bets, nor playing
smart, not even because you’re not a decent,
hard-working person worth more than an occasional
bone tossed your way by the casino. You lack the essential
component necessary to whip the casino,and no celestial
spirit can help. And that, my friend, is a big-time
bankroll.
Why? Because the casino
has a whole lot more cash and staying power than
you do. In the industry we call it “gambler’s
ruin.” In essence, it’s how long will
it take you—with your limited bankroll—to
lose everything to a casino, which has a relatively
infinite vault of money. You come to the casino
armed with X amount of dollars, and the casino has
the treasures of Rome. It is the ultimate secret
weapon the casino possesses. So even if you do have
a short-term winning streak, when the house has
this infinite stake, they can, and will, outlast
you.
Test this truism out yourself. Sit at your kitchen
table and play an even-up game like War with an
opponent. You start off with $50 worth of monopoly
money, and your adversary—we’ll call him
Joe Casino—begins play with $50,000. Now start
playing at $5 a hand and you will immediately note
some normal fluctuations inherent to gambling—
like you winning six or seven hands in a row. But
without fail, a losing streak will appear and your
bankroll will start to deteriorate. You’ll
quickly notice that your modest bankroll cannot
weather the bad streaks that eventually come your
way. The casino can, and will, grind away at your
wad of cash because their bankroll is enormous in
comparison to your bets. Before long you’re
out of cash. A casino fatality Armageddon style.
So the lesson here is that not even an archangel
will help you become a “consistent winner.”
Only a Catholic Church size bankroll can.
