There are exceptions and I am not saying to put on a huge act when you lose. I have found that a short laugh or smile and rolled eyes after the dealer catches a five to his sixteen to beat your max bet tends to put the pit boss at ease. Casinos like good losers. I have always disliked watches as I feel as they are like chains dictating my life. Casinos are one of the few places I wear a watch. Repeatedly glancing at my watch and looking toward the door before dinner looks like I am waiting for my wife. Since I am just killing time, I need show no emotion, or even look like I am paying attention to the game. Casinos like players who don’t care what happens.

One more point in this area. Never obsess over what might have been. “If I had only doubled, I would have made two max bets.” The past has no meaning. You have no idea what this means in the long run. If you sneeze while the dealer is riffling the cards, ever so slightly affecting the shuffle, every hand you play for the rest of your life will be different.

Your Attitude toward Casinos

Those who have seen me post on forums over the years, will notice that I do not use derogatory terms in reference to casino staff, like “pit critters” or spend much time griping about casino management. It is not that I have any great love for casino staff or that I am not appalled by many of their actions. I simply find it easier to avoid switching my attitude back and forth between talking on a forum and chatting with casino folk.

I prefer to pretend that casino staff are just doing their jobs. We do have a symbiotic relationship. Card counters, and the related movies and books, have done wonders for the casino business. Casinos love slot machines. They just sit there and swallow money. But it is the romance of the green baize tables that makes Vegas, or any other major casino location, what it is. Would James Bond play a slot machine? If all the tables were to disappear, the magic would disappear. No one makes movies about slot machines. And when professors tell people that Blackjack can be beaten, all manner of people are attracted, even if they know they won’t win.

On the other hand, the casinos supply a game at which we can gain an advantage, and give us free drinks while we play. Albeit the advantage is shrinking and the casinos are absurdly paranoid about advantage players.

 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger