character Macbeth
comment: “Nothing is but what is not!”
I was reminded of these examples recently when a
radio interviewer asked me: “Come on, Frank,
everyone knows no one wins in the casinos, right?”
When I said to her
that that wasn’t exactly true, she responded:
“Oh, come on, everyone knows that the casino
has the edge at every game and on every bet in every
game.”
While I couldn’t
convince her that she wasn’t accurate in her
assessment of casino games, perhaps I can show you
that the perceived wisdom that no one wins in the
casinos is, like much perceived wisdom, wrong.
On a given night, plenty
of people do win. They win at slots, video-poker,
blackjack, craps, roulette, Let It Ride, Three-Card
Poker, Casino War, Spanish 21 and even at the Big
Wheel and Keno. In the short run, anything can and
often does happen. I don’t think anyone could
seriously dispute this.
More important, are there any people who are winning
in the long run -- say after ten, twenty or thirty
years of casino gambling? If we forget about those
who have won mega-jackpots, such as Megabucks, and
have budgeted their money to last a lifetime in
the casinos, there are still two types of players
who are ahead in the long run: the players who play
with an advantage over the house (for example, skilled
card counters at blackjack and Golden Touch dice
controllers in craps) and the damn lucky.
I know people in both categories.
Good
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