An Introduction to Leisure Gambling
That said, a night at the gaming tables can be a great deal of fun; if you play your cards right (pun intended), you’ll either make money or, at the worst, spend about what you normally would for any other type of evening out on the town.
Tom’s Rules of Gambling Success
The leisure gambler can have a ball at the casino, provided that he follows a few simple rules of self-protection. These rules are intended to maximize your chance of walking away wealthier than you were, and to eliminate the chances of doing anything that you’ll later regret.
1. Don’t take money to the table that you aren’t willing to leave there
Decide before you go out for an evening of gambling just how much money you’re willing to spend. If it’s $50, then go to the casino with $50, not $500. The temptation to risk just a little more is always there. If you have the money with you, you’ll probably give in to that temptation — and you’ll probably regret doing so.
2. If you lose your stake, head for the door – NOT for the ATM
If you gamble, you can lose. Don’t let that become an excuse for losing more than you intended to. Remember Rule #1 above and abide by it. If you bring $50, and lose that $50, it is time to leave.
3. If you double your stake, set the original amount aside and pretend it doesn’t exist.
We’ve assumed the hypothetical $50 so far, so let’s stick with it. If you take $50 to the table and lose it, walk away. If you take $50 to the table and win, don’t give it back. When the pile of chips in front of you is worth $100, set your original $50 aside and never touch it again until you are ready to cash in and go home. Congratulations. You just broke even. You’re going to go home with at least as much money as you began with — and maybe more.
You now have $50 in your “keep” pile and $50 in your “play” pile. When that “play” pile gets to $100 again, put $50 more in your “keep” pile. Congratulations again. Now you are a winner. You’re going to go home with at least twice as much money than you brought, regardless of how well you do on the next bet you make.
4. Use your comp card
“Comps” are little bonuses that the casinos give to gamblers to keep them happy, or at least to keep them around or bring them back. At one time, getting comped (the term presumably originated from the root “complimentary”) was something of an arbitrary process. If the pit bossed noticed that you were losing a good deal of money, he’d offer you a free meal at the casino restaurant, or tickets to a show, or something else of value, in order to keep you playing. The losing gambler is, by definition, the casino’s best friend.
Of course, it wasn’t only losers who got comped. So did winners, and for the same reason: to keep them playing. The casino wants to win back every dime it pays out, and the longer you gamble, the more likely it is that they will. That’s why you need to regard Rule #2 above as an absolute commandment.
Today, most casinos give the customer a “comp card” — you may have to ask for it, you may not (some casinos will do everything short of dragging you off in chains to make you accept one), but they probably have one. The “comp card” looks a lot like a credit card, but it’s actually a tracking device that lets the casino know what you’re up to — how many chips you bought, how many you cashed in, what games you played. Whenever money changes hands, the comp card is swiped through a reader. Some casinos have “point programs” that allow you to accrue credit toward meals, hotel rooms and other premiums based on your comp card’s activity. Others maintain a database and send you offers in the mail (or notify the pit boss that the player at roulette table #2 should be comped). You may receive a postcard from the casino weeks after you play, offering a free buffet or a free night in the casino hotel in order to get you back to the tables.
You can also get yourself comped without a card. I once picked up two free meals (as did everyone else at my roulette table) for putting up with a jerk for awhile. I watched him drop $5000 in about half an hour. The pit boss didn’t want him gone — but he didn’t want five other players to leave and never return, either. He made a point of giving every player at the table a quiet signal to stay put, and when the jerk decided to go lose another five grand at blackjack, we all received coupons for dinner that evening and breakfast the next morning in the casino’s very fine restaurant.
Don’t underestimate the value of comps. A prime rib meal can be soothing if you’ve just had a losing session, or it can be a celebratory experience after a big winning run.
Why gambling is a great leisure activity
The first time I visited a gambling town (Reno), I started off with $85 in my pocket. The bus trip (from a nearby Marine Corps base) was sponsored by the Flamingo Hilton. For $15, participants got a round trip ride and $10 in chips or tokens.
I gambled all day (and broke my own rules — I formulated them later). I ate breakfast from a huge buffet and had a full pound of ribeye steak, complete with baked potato, salad and drink, for lunch. I drank expensive liquor for nine hours straight, on the casinos. I caught a couple of passable lounge acts and did the tourist rubberneck bit for a couple of hours.
I arrived back at the base that evening with $85 in my pocket. As I mentioned above, I broke the rules I’ve described herein that day — if I hadn’t, I’d have been in even better shape. You see, at one point during this little day trip, I had more than $600 in my pocket. At another point, I was down to my last $10. Had I known then what I know now, I’d have made it out of Reno with more than $500 and all of the perqs I mention above to boot!
Nonetheless, it was a good experience. Think about it! Where else can you go, booze it up all day, eat huge, well-prepared meals, be entertained, see the sights — and end the day with as much money as you had that morning? Nowhere, that’s where.
Where to gamble
Every gambler has a preference. I like the Union Plaza and the Horseshoe in Las Vegas, the Flamingo in Reno and Sam’s Town in Tunica. Here in my home state of Missouri, the Ameristar riverboat in St. Louis and the Aztar in Caruthersville top my list.
To a degree, all casinos are the same. State gaming commissions set the rules on how games are to be played, the percentage of return required on slot machine operations and so forth. But don’t be fooled — atmosphere makes all the difference, and so do table minimums. $50 isn’t much at a $5 minimum roulette table with dollar chips, but it’s a considerable stake at a $2 minimum table with 25 cent chips.
Choose your casino based on what you have to spend and whether you are comfortable there. If you have a thousand dollars to play with, don’t let anyone stop you from tearing down the Las Vegas strip like a tornado. If you have a hundred dollars, go downtown. You can always go up to the strip to do your rubbernecking (the MGM Grand and the Luxor are wonders of the world, and if you haven’t seen the mall at Caesar’s Palace, you haven’t lived yet) — after you are done playing. Most importantly, though, go somewhere that you find comfortable. For me, that means the Union Plaza or the Horseshoe when I’m in Vegas. They’re downtown, they’re more relaxed, they have lower minimum bets — and the drinks there are just as strong, and the money just as green, as any place on the strip.
Internet Casinos
I’m not going to recommend an Internet casino to you. Caveat emptor. I’ve played at some of them and haven’t played at others. For the most part, I eschew Internet casinos because I am a leisure gambler. When I play roulette, I want to be served drinks by pretty women in short skirts and socialize with others at the table. I generally regard Internet gambling as one of three things: a profession, a lark or a compulsion (see the section on problem gambling below). Professionals may do well on the net. Gambling is their job, and I suppose that if they want to work from their desks in their underwear instead of going in to “the office,” that’s their prerogative. If you’re gambling on a lark, well, have at it. Even as a one-time “I’d like to try this” experience, I’d suggest that a good gambling town has a lot more to offer than a web site and a credit card form.
If you have a gambling problem
The casino is not going to kick you out for continuing to lose money. That’s what they want you to do. It doesn’t matter how bad that blackjack dealer feels about your situation. He is paid to deal the cards and rake those chips back to his side of the table, not to give you a break.
The casino is not going to remove your name from their mailing list and stop sending you coupons for a free hotel room or a free dinner. They don’t care — hell, they don’t know — that your mortgage payment is overdue and that your car was just repossessed. All they know is that you are a good customer (one who loses a lot of money to them) or a bad customer (one who wins a lot of money from them), and their strategy with both types of customers is the same: get them back to the casino to lose more money, or get them back to the casino in the wellfounded hope that they will start losing money.
If you can’t stop gambling, you have a problem. If you lose more money than you can afford to lose, you have a problem. If you spend your days convincing yourself that tonight is the night you’ll break that losing streak and get back into the black, you have a problem. You have a problem. Not the casinos, not the dealers, not the other customers. You.
And only you can fix it. Most states require casinos to fund a program for compulsive gamblers. You’ll see their toll-free number posted in the casino or printed on their literature. If you don’t, Gamblers Anonymous is in the phone book.
Don’t let gambling take over your life. If you are skilled enough to make a living at it, more power to you. If you’re not, it should remain a leisure activity that commands only expendable leisure funds from you.
[Note: This is an edited version of the first chapter from my 2003 ebook Roulette for the Leisure Gambler]
