Have you noticed that we have become a nation of gamblers? Not only do 45 of our 50 states (at last count) have lotteries, but sports gambling is on the rise everywhere, with just about every aspect of most all sporting events (not just the winning and losing) open to wagering. There are also lots of betting advice businesses, both online and off, eager (for a fee of course) to show you how and where to make your wagers and beat the odds. Plus, there are casinos all over the place nowadays, most within short driving distances of where we live, dying for you to place your bets or play their slots. We used to have to somehow get ourselves all the way to Las Vegas or Atlantic City to do some serious gambling, but those days are long gone. In addition to all of that, most people are in the stock market in one way or another, which, unless you are an insider or have lots of money that will effortlessly make you more money, is just a more glorified way to gamble.
There was a time, not all that long ago, when gambling was considered to be everything from sinful to reprehensible. In fact, one of the major reasons behind the alcohol prohibition laws of the early 1900s was that long suffering American wives were sick and tired of their husbands getting drunk and gambling away their paychecks before they ever made it home.
Anyway, I will own up to the fact that I enjoy going to my local casino now and then, mostly to leisurely play video poker in the non-smoking room. Why casinos continue to let people smoke in their establishments goes over my head, but I’m sure it has something to do with their bottom line.
What I actually like most about casinos is that when you walk into one, all of your senses are immediately assaulted, making it almost impossible to dwell on your problems or worries. Between the continuous music, the mingling of lots of chatty people, and the gaudy decorations and colorfully lit up slot machines, you’re almost lost in another world the whole time you’re there, and other-worldly experiences can be a good thing, for a little while at least.
My youngest son happens to work at the casino I most often visit, where he is a manager. That allows him access to the data that all casinos keep on their customers, including mine. It’s made possible by the little cards the casinos give patrons that usually offer twenty or thirty dollars of free play or other incentives to help keep people coming back. So, when you insert your card into the computer games you play, you are not only qualifying for some of the incentives, the casino is also learning exactly how much you are betting, and if you are winning or losing.
It turns out my son is always checking up on how I am doing, of course wanting to make sure I am not out there gambling away his inheritance. To prevent that, I actually have a little rule that I never take more than $100 with me when I go to a casino, and I also never take credit cards, since casinos have ATM machines everywhere, hoping you will use them often when you have lost all of your money and desperately need more.
I was talking to my son the other night about this, and he said something that was very interesting that I think is worth sharing with all of you fellow gamblers out there, and our conversation went something like this:
“Dad, did you know that last year, on average, every time you went to the casino, you ended up losing eight dollars?”
“Really?” I asked. “That’s good, right?”
“That’s really good,” answered my son. “We have lots of customers who lose thousands of dollars every time they go, and high rollers who lose tens of thousands and more.”
“What about those who win?” I asked. “What do their yearly averages look like?”
“No one wins, Dad. No one.”
“But people win at casinos all the time,” I said. “Even I win every now and then.”
“It’s set up that way, Dad. It’s called intermittent reinforcement. The casino lets you win, and sometimes even big every now and then, and that keeps you coming back for more. Plus, some people are just luckier than others, and that can give them the illusion that they are winners. But for anyone who visits a casino regularly, and by that, I mean a couple of times a week, at the end of the year, they are all losers, each and every single one of them.”
“That’s hard to believe,” I said. “I didn’t know that. But I do know that I never win enough to get on the good side of the ledger. So, I just try to look at it as entertainment. Going out to dinner and a movie costs $100 or more, so I just budget playing video poker the same way, as something to do for fun.”
“Well,” said my son, “as long as you continue to only take $100 when you go, you’re not going to end up attending gamblers anonymous meetings. But if I was you, I would always remember something Granny used to say.”
“What is that?” I asked.
“That only two things can happen when you go gambling. You either lose all of your hard-earned money, or you win money you did nothing to earn, and both are bad!”