In the final analysis, gambling, is a losing proposition on almost every game in the casino. Yes, there are some games where, if you spend the time developing your skill, you might be able to squeak out a .5% advantage over the house (counting cards in blackjack for example) or, you MIGHT be able to find a "full-pay" video poker machine that provides you with a less than 1% edge if played PERFECTLY. You might even be an above-average poker player who sits down to a table and has an edge over suckers, or a "sharp" sports bettor who has a solid algorithm.
You might.
Each of these things takes many hours of practice and no small amount of skill. Hours and mathematical skill that, quite frankly, not all of us possess.
For the average gambler, in any given casino, the hard facts are this:
You're playing a negative expectation game and your money is really a fee for entertainment. In the long run, you're going to lose. They don't build these casinos on the backs of winning gamblers after all. Going broke owning a casino is more an example of horrible business acumen than it is a sustained run of bad luck. Winning in a casino is mostly luck. (and a little math)
That being said, your goals on any gambling trip should be:
1. To have fun.
2. To make your bank roll last for you to have more fun.
With that in mind, let's talk about the return of an old gambling trend that needs to die out immediately: Game shaming.
You see it pop up on gambling forums, Twitter (where everything bad seems to metastasize) and other various forms of social media.
Take a picture of you making a side bet on BlackJack? Shame on you. There will be legions of comments, twitsponses and "experts" telling you this was a bad bet.
Video yourself playing video poker and you make an incorrect hold? Jerk. You will be told that you suck at gambling and you should never play again.
Play the Big 6 Wheel because you enjoy it? "You realize that game has the worst odds in the casino right?"
The fact that there are bad games in any casino should not surprise you. Triple Zero Roulette anyone? What should surprise you is that there has developed legions of "fun police" whose sole job it is to scour the Internet for people playing games, making bets, or holding cards with which they do not approve and actively scolding them for it.
And, you know what? It's time for this to stop.
The first (and most important) reason is this: When people scold you for playing bad games what they're really saying is that you don't like the things they do and that makes them angry.
The money you are putting down on a table, or playing in a machine, is YOUR money, not theirs. If they don't want to play those games or make those bets then let them do it with their money, not yours.
If you want to make the side-bet on blackjack, then make the damn side-bet on blackjack. If you want to play $20 on the Big 6 wheel, then play $20 on the Big 6 wheel. As long as you know the odds and understand the holds involved, then have at it. If other people don't like it then they're free to play the games they do like on their own dime.
I've been guilty of this. Specifically, calling out people for playing a bad pay-table on VP. But, after thinking about it, I've stopped doing that. Because sometimes you just play the pay-table that's available, and you live with it. If you get lucky and hit 4OAK then it really doesn't matter if the pay-table is 9/6 DDB, 9/5 DDB, 8/5 DDB or even 7/5 DDB (which is ALL OVER the Las Vegas Strip at the quarter level.)
What matters is that you're having fun.
This doesn't mean that I won't TELL people the correct hold, or talk to them about pay tables, IF ASKED. Of course I will. But if they don't want to know then I don't want to tell them. I congratulate them on their win, or having fun, and I move on.
I LOATHE 3-zero Roulette and would never play it myself. I feel the same way about 6:5 Blackjack. But I've NEVER chided someone in person, or online, for playing the same.
And neither should you.
It's OK to call out casinos when they put these awful games on the floor. The 4Queens casino, which I like and enjoy playing at, got rightly roasted online when they installed a 3-zero Roulette machine and advertised it as "giving the players more chances to win". You SHOULD call out a casino every time they make the odds worse. If you care about those things you should refuse to play the games. I, for one, will not play 6:5 blackjack and I'll inform the casinos, in person and on-line, that I won't.
But what I won't do is call out individual players for playing these games. Especially if they'r having fun.
Because gambling should be FUN. Unless you're a pro, and that's a different matter altogether.
