Nevada gambler
by
Dale Candee
copyright 2013
Foreword
Most of us are exposed to gambling
in its subtle forms, such as marbles, card games and other games of chance. Our
school systems have worked extremely hard to eliminate these games of chance.
Not just because of the gambling but because they do not wish to deal with the
whiny kid who lost his Walkman in a game of craps. Don't get me wrong,
unsupervised gambling does not belong in our schools. But in the process of
trying to protect our kids from gambling, we have also removed a valuable tool
for teaching. Aside from teaching math skills, we also remove the chance to
teach kids the most important lesson of all. Risk taking; what is an acceptable
risk and how to manage those risks. If you tell a child no, what are the odds
of that child listening to you and never gambling again? On the other hand have
him play tic-tac-toe for a while and he soon learns the futility of playing a
game that can't be won. Luckily for me I was surrounded by business people, farmers
and entrepreneurs when growing up. Business people are risk takers to begin
with, but they manage their risk and do not depend solely on luck. Farmers
plant their crops but have to manage the risk of a drought or other
catastrophe, in order to offset any possible losses. If you want to produce a
factory worker or McDonald's employee, send him to school. But if you want to
help your child become something more, teach them how to manage risk and become
an entrepreneur. Teach them how to start their own business and teach them how
to take reasonable risks.
~~~~~~~~
My parents would frequent casinos
only because they offered good food at a cheap price. My father was never one
to pass up a bargain, but at the same time always lectured against gambling.
That's not to say that he didn't gamble if he had one or two dollars he didn't
mind losing. My father would say" If you're going to gamble you might as
well say, goodbye to your money the minute you pull it out of your pocket. So
whatever you pull out of your pocket should be no more than you can afford to
lose.“ Once he lost his two dollars that was it, and if he won he immediately
put it in his pocket and walked away." The longer you play, the more
chances you give the casino to win their money back." He would say. He
also said" if you want to gamble place a bet in a casino but if you want
to make money bet on yourself and start a business."
My first exposure to real gambling
was sitting in a restaurant and being given a Keno ticket to draw on, with a
black color crayon. The drawing soon turned into picking numbers and learning
how to write a Keno ticket. When I got older, my father would place a wager for
me if I was willing to split the winnings. Like I said, my father was not one
to pass up a bargain. As a kid growing up in Nevada, you can't help but notice
all the casinos. The lights and sounds were very much like an amusement park. People
would put money in the machine and then more money would come out than they put
in. As my friends were getting 10 times the allowance I was, you can see how a
slot machine would appeal to someone like me. Being told that I was not allowed
to be around the machines, made it all the more alluring. As a matter of fact,
it turned it into a challenge and by age 16 I was finding ways to break the
rules. I would see young people get carded and asked to leave the casino. My
father would say" They got caught because they looked and acted like teenagers."
I thought to myself" If I cannot be 21 then I can at least look and act 21.“
I would dress in my Sunday best with a
pocket protector and tie hoping to look as business like as possible. I avoided
machines that paid large jackpots as I knew they would ask for ID with any hand
pay. And played only during odd hours when the casino was short staffed or
crowded. Larger casinos were more appealing as I had a larger selection of
machines and I could move around and be unnoticed. And above all else I never
played when my friends were around, as they were a dead giveaway. For six years
I played without ever once being asked for my ID. The very day I turned 21 was
the first and only time that I was ever asked for my ID. I was with several
friends drinking, celebrating my birthday when I was carded, not because I was
gambling but because I was drinking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As time went by, it became very
clear that winning money in a casino, was not as simple as placing a bet. I
began learning by watching other players and taking advice from those I thought
had some insight into casinos. And reading anything that I could get my hands
on, Gambling times magazine, books on card counting and math books on
calculating odds. It is amazing what you can find in a public library.
My great grandpa Van was a truck driver and an avid Keno
player. He would visit once a year, so he could gamble in Reno and visit with
family. We would walk to town and back visiting stores and talking to people
along the way. I always knew when he had been lucky, because he was generous
with his money when we visited the stores. He told me," Never play a game
you don't understand and don't know all the rules to." “If you're going to
play, at least know what you're getting into.” My grandfather would later teach
me a lesson I would never forget. While playing poker for money with some
friends of mine, I hear my grandfather say" If you can cheat them, cheat
them till they're broke." To my chagrin, I later learned my grandfather,
was being quite amused by my friends cheating me out of my money. I think he was trying to teach me a lesson
about not gambling, but what I learned was, rules can be broken. I also learned
that trust was not something that should be assumed. That just because someone was a friend or an
authority figure, did not mean I could blindly trust them.
My uncle Ed on the other hand was
quite the avid inventor, creating automatic gates, wind generators for air
compressors, building and living in an underground house. He was ahead of his
time but unfortunately his inventions did not always work out. He had won a couple
of large jackpots in his younger days and bought a cabin in Lake Tahoe with his
winnings. As time went by he lost everything he owned including the cabin in
Lake Tahoe. He was last seen living in his car and thus became a prime example
of how not to gamble. As a kid I was always impressed with his creativeness and
willingness to share his ideas. When it came to gambling, my uncle had more
ideas than you could shake a stick at. One such idea for beating the machines was
by watching the symbols on the reels. (This was when slot machines were still
mostly mechanical, no computers) Unfortunately he thought that simply watching
for certain symbols to show up was the answer. He did not use a math formula
which would have been more accurate. What he didn't know was that the speed of
each reel changed with each pull of the handle. This made it impossible to
predict when a machine would pay out. I was later to learn that his advice,
although it be creative was far from the best advice. His last invention of
putting a wind turbine on top of an electric car should have been a clue. As a
result, I learned from him two things. One, take your advice only from those
who can prove their results. And two, a lucky streak does not make you an
expert on gambling.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From books I learned about all the
so-called systems for winning at gambling and I learned the history of how it
all began. I learned about those who were successful in beating the odds and
how they did it. And I learned about those who tried to cheat the system and
the price they paid. One such system was card counting. This is a system that
uses algebra to keep track of cards being played and when it is best to
increase your bets. It is one of those systems that to this day is debated as
to whether it is legal or illegal. I spent weeks studying and practicing the
game of 21. Learning the basic strategy and the system was quite easy; it just
took a lot of practice. Unfortunately I never had the guts to bet the big-money
in order to make the system really work. And even though I can walk in and sit
at a table and play for an hour and walk away with $40, it is still a risk. I
found the system to be almost foolproof but when it came to actual play I found
I had other lessons to learn. The first lesson I learned, was that casinos
don't like to lose. On one such occasion the cocktail waitress came up from
behind. This made me turn away from the table in the middle of the hand being
played. While my back was turned the dealer played out the hand and took my chips.
On another occasion the cocktail waitress spilled drinks on me. This is not an
uncommon occurrence and I've had it played out even when I wasn't counting
cards. Frequently changing the card decks, shuffling a four deck shoe after
only a couple hands and many other tricks are not uncommon. Even to this day I
find it amusing to sit and watch at a distance, as a casino does everything he
can to make sure someone loses. Some of the methods used are very blatant,
while still others use subtle psychological and subliminal methods. The casinos
best weapon is free drinks, as an intoxicated player will always play more than
he intends to and will make far more mistakes while playing. A typical casino will not have Windows or
clocks anywhere. The idea is if you lose track of time, you will play longer
and if you win you're more likely to play it back. The color red or green will
be used in various areas of the casino. Red is a common color found in the
restaurants and is known to increase people's appetite. The color dark green
denotes trust worthy, reliable and of course money and prosperity. Casinos
spend millions of dollars on research and how to convince people to give up
their money. Casinos play out a psychological battle with its customers every
day convincing them that if they play, they will win. Inexpensive meals, means
you have no reason to leave the casino. In larger casinos inexpensive hotel
rooms and every imaginable amenity is offered in order to keep the customer
playing. Large jackpots are advertised everywhere even though the odds of
hitting one are one in millions. And if you hit a large jackpot in the
millions, it will be paid out to you over 20 years. This means that you will
essentially be paid the interest and the casino keeps the original jackpot. A
well-managed casino never loses money and is as much about how it is set up as
it is how good their accountants are. Some of the best run casinos in Nevada,
are owned and run by accountants or former accountants. So when you walk into a
casino, you should realize that the casino and everything in it is designed to
take your money. Cocktail waitresses in their skimpy costumes are there to
distract you. Cabaret shows and other attractions are there to get you in the
door and distracted. An unfocused gambler is more likely to lose than one that
is paying attention.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One of the best gambling systems is
nothing more than a money management system. You start with a set amount of
money, such as $10. You limit your time in the casino to no more than one hour.
It does not matter how you play what you play, but once you've lost the $10 you
leave. If you win $10 on top of what you started with, you then put the first
$10 in your pocket and do not touch it. If you lose the $10 you won, then you quit
playing until another day. If you win another $10 then you put that $10 in your
pocket with the first $10. You keep doing this so long as you do not lose your
$10 investment. You can continue to play so long as it's not more than one
hour. At the end of one hour you're done. As you can see this is simply a money
management system. The hardest part about this system is convincing your ego
that you're not on a winning streak and that you should break the rules. If you
cannot follow this simple system, I would not recommend that you gamble at all.
After turning 21, I made the next
logical step; I went to work as a slot technician to learn what I could from
the inside. As you enter casino as an employee, you enter a whole other world.
As a slot technician part of my job was to pay out jackpots and to act as
additional security. In those days the slot machines had to be rebuilt every
six months. The coins moving around inside the machine would literally wear the
machine out. Although the biggest problem we had was not with the machines but
with the customers. People would try everything they could to cheat the machine
and the casino. They would try everything from tying nylon string on to coins,
to making out right false claims the machine did not pay. I don't know how many
times people would offer a bribe for me to fix the machine payout. They never
understood why I always turned them down because I never knew who was working
for the casino and who was not. Today's machines would be nearly impossible to
rig or tamper with unless you were a programmer and had access to the machine. In
one case a lady tried to use Mexican pesos in the dollar slot machines.
Unfortunately for her she was caught and charged with one count of fraud for
each coin that she tried to use. That's a possible 10 year sentence for each
coin and in her case a possible life sentence for trying to cheat a slot
machine. When it comes to the Nevada Gaming Commission they do not pull any
punches for someone trying to cheat the casino out of its money. On one
occasion the Nevada Gaming Commission came in and gave us a lecture on how to
spot gaming cheats. It was the most informative lecture on gaming that I had
ever seen. But afterward I wondered if I had just been given a lecture on how
to spot gaming cheats or an elaborate lesson on how to cheat? At the time that
I was a slot technician, the industry was going through a radical change. Slot
machines were being converted from electromechanical devices, to computerized slot
machines. The first electronic touchscreens were being introduced for games
like Keno that require the use of a stylus pen. Casinos that once had to change
out reels in order to change the odds, could now simply push a button to
increase or decrease pays. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch an
industry transform itself from the mechanical age, to the computer age. At the
time we still had to collect coins twice a week from the slot machines. This
required several people from the casino to go around and collect coins. As a
slot technician, I was one of those people. This afforded me a unique
opportunity to see what the machines were actually paying out and what they
were collecting. A machine that had coins overflowing the bucket underneath the
machine was a machine that was not paying out anything or was getting a lot of
play. And a machine that had hardly anything in the drop bucket was a machine
that was paying out a great deal of money or was not being played at all. This
gave me a unique insight into the machines and how they paid out jackpots. This
told me that if the machine was not paying out after the first two dollars I
played, odds were that it was not going to anytime soon. The second thing that
it told me was that if the machine was paying out money periodically, I had better
odds of it paying out a jackpot. This is one of the things that I learned to be
true even to this day. One of the other things that I learned was that a
machine that had a lot of pay lines usually made more money than a machine that
only had five or eight lines. The psychology that the casino tries to play here
is that the more bets you make the more likely you are to win. The fact is that
it is the opposite and you're more likely to lose more money than you are to
win. The advent of the penny computer slot machine allowed casinos to take this
to the extreme. It is not uncommon to find machines that have 50 to 100 pay
lines. Over the years of playing these machines, I have found that a machine
that has 15 lines can and will pay as much or more than a machine that has more
lines of pay. With the addition of bonus jackpots and progressive jackpots it
has become just as important to take note of which group of machines you play.
Most progressive jackpots do not pay out until they get close to the max payout.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In these competitive times casinos
are desperate to keep the customers they have and to entice new ones by offering
additional bonuses, raffles and games. Many casinos now offer club memberships
that offer bonuses based on how much they play. The player is issued a card that
they insert in the machine, which then tracks how much the player plays. It is
usually very beneficial to sign up for these clubs as the casinos will offer discounts
in their restaurants and hotels, in addition to cash payouts. Larger casinos
also offer specials packages, such as dinner and a show at a special price. They
also will send out invitations to special events, such as slot tournaments and
special parties. In addition casinos will offer bonus games such as bingo,
random drawings and other games at special times. Most require a minimum bet to
participate in the additional games. It is also important to ask the casino
what amenities they offer, as many of them are not advertised. Many offer
self-serve coffee, soda and snacks for players. Casinos also offer basic
instruction on how to play many of the games, such as roulette, blackjack and
craps. Keep in mind that the instructions the casino will offer will not
necessarily be to the benefit of the player.
Another benefit that may be offered is the
casino keeping track of your losses. This allows you to get a print out at the
end of the year so you can write off some of your losses on your taxes. Be sure
and asked the casino before signing up if this is one of the services they
offer. If the casino does not offer this service, it is still a good idea to keep
a log of where you play, date, time and how much you win or lose. You should
talk with a tax expert or accountant to find out how much if any of your losses
may be written off. A gambling log will also help you keep track of what you're
actually winning or losing. I've had many players tell me they won a $1000 only
later to admit that over the year they probably lost three times that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over the years I have learned that
my father was right, casinos are good for discount meals, free drinks and cheap
entertainment, but only if you learn how to play them, before they play you.
