The Blame Game
Responsibility for Losses: The House Edge, or You?
by Frank Scoblete
My wife, the beautiful A.P., and I walk three to six miles
just about every morning. We love this time, just as the sun
rises, to talk, to think, to reflect together. Today A.P.
asked, “What percentage of responsibility do you take
for where you are now, for your lot in life, for how everything
turned out?”
I thought for a second and then said, “I take one hundred
percent responsibility for my life. Even in situations that
were accidents, or when confronted by something not of my
own making, or having to deal with the decisions of others,
it was up to me to see my way around these things to handle
these things. So who and what I am, I am responsible for.
What about you?”
“One hundred percent,” she said.
Then we discussed people we knew and whether they were the
type who took responsibility for their own lives, or the type
to blame others for their misfortunes. We both knew two men,
now in their 50s, who had made messes of their lives and were
now convinced it was the “capitalist” system that
put them where they were. Interestingly enough, these individuals
grew up in privilege, parents both college-educated, suburban
schooling, never a day when they had to work in their childhoods—a
real contrast to my childhood, which was anything but privileged.
These men, as boys, had made choices to use drugs, cut school,
drop out, and become fringe dwellers, always looking for the
easy way to get through whatever hand life dealt them. They
worked hardest at not working hard. Now, graying and gaunt,
they both are looking for a “communist revolution”
to destroy the ruling class, which they identify as A.P. and
me, and give them the money and goods that others had worked
for. They want free medical, free dental, free rent (they
call it “affordable” rent), and welfare, which they
euphemistically call “redistribution of wealth.”
In short, the decisions they made that landed them where they
are well, these decisions are irrelevant to them. They blame
the “system” and want other people, who have made
something of their lives, to support them. In short, they
are losers who take no responsibility for their losses.
As I always do, I tried to find analogies in casino gambling.
In this case they weren’t hard to come by. I thought
of all the players I have seen at hundreds, no, thousands
of blackjack tables where I’ve played, players who blamed
the dealers when they lost, who fumed and barked like chained
dogs, when no one had chained them to the table to play. Once
at the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas, I saw an impeccably
dressed man—a surgeon, no less—deliberately knock
over his drink, then take the towel out of the hands of the
dealer who was attempting to clean up the mess, and throw
it in her face. Then, completely unhinged, this surgeon pushed
over the table and just started babbling like a maniac.
I’ve seen craps players curse shooters who have sevened-out
early, or muttered over and over about how poorly a session
was going and how unfair it was to them. I’ve even seen
craps players curse out players who have sevened-out after
half-hour rolls! Why? Because these craps players had bet
in such a way that they needed even longer rolls to make money.
I’ve seen a dozen men, and two women, actually hit slot
machines with their fists, hard, because they lost all their
money. (One guy even broke a knuckle.) I saw another guy at
Showboat in Atlantic City kick a machine time and again until
an ancient security guard hobbled over and said, “Sonny,
the machine didn’t steal your money, you gave it to it.”
Indeed.
So, as a serious casino player who is reading a magazine for
serious casino players, I ask you this: Is it the house edge
that is responsible for your losses at casino gambling or
are you strictly and solely responsible for every penny you
have lost at the tables or machines?
My answer is that you are unquestionably 100 percent responsible
for everything. Yes, the casino structures its games to give
itself an edge on just about every bet there is. Sometimes
this edge is small; sometimes it’s large. Yes, every
slot machine is programmed to return less money than is put
into it. A mathematician might say it is the house edge that
is responsible for our losses. Emotionally overwrought and/or
superstitious players might blame the “lucky dealer”
or “bad dice” for their fate. But I say nonsense
to these excuses, because excuses are all they are.
We are solely responsible for what we do and for the consequences
of our choices.
We know when we enter a casino that the games are created
in such a way as to make our chances of winning in the long
run remote. We know there is a house edge, even if we might
not know exactly what that expression means in mathematical
terms. We know that it means in general terms—we lose,
casino wins! We know that when and how much we bet, how long
we stay at the games, how often we go to casinos are all our
choice. We know that no one is forcing us to gamble, neither
is any force nor outside compulsory agency, be it a deity
or demon, mucking around with our free will to say, “Yes,
I will make this bet, play that game for this long or until
that outcome,” or “No, I will not make this bet,
play that game, because—I’m done for the day.”
And we know another thing: We have chosen casino gambling
as our thrill ride. We want the ups and downs; we choose to
go on the roller coaster. No one chooses this for us. You
might hear some critics of casino gambling rail that the casinos
make it easy for people to lose their cool and go overboard.
But that’s like blaming the buffet for a person who overeats.
The buffet didn’t make me fat. I made me fat. The casino
is a buffet of bets. You choose which ones to taste, and you
are responsible for their slimming effects on your bankroll.
As Shakespeare had Caesar so aptly put it: “The fault,
dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves.”
Frank Scoblete is the #1 best-selling gaming-author in
America and an instructor in the Golden Touch Blackjack course.
His websites are www.goldentouchcraps.com
and www.scoblete.com in association
with CasinoCity.com. His newest books are The Craps Underground:
The Inside Story of How Dice Controllers Are Winning Millions
from the Casinos! and Casino Gambling: Play Like a Pro in
10 Minutes or Less! For a free brochure, call 1-(800) 944-0406
or write to: Paone Press, Box 610, Lynbrook, NY 11563.
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