First off you should know what you’re
getting yourself into. My great-grandfather always told me “If you want to
improve your odds in life of being successful, know the rules of the game you’re
playing better than everybody else.”
Casinos
are designed to separate you from your money. They spend millions of dollars
every year on subliminal messaging, psychological trickery, computer programs
designed to outthink you and a multitude of other things that border on
unethical. It is for this reason I say goodbye to my money before I even walk
in the door, always looking at gambling as a form of entertainment and nothing
more. Although there are no gambling systems that can guarantee a win, there is
however a few things you can do to improve the odds in your favor.
The
Smothers Brothers once created a video “Odds are! A complete guide to casino
gambling”. Basically it was a system of money management that involved keeping
track of how much you spent, as well as how much time you spent in a casino.
Starting with a single unit of money, which could be anything from a five
dollar bill to a hundred dollar bill. Your unit of money is an amount of money
that you’re comfortable losing and would never cause any financial burdens. Let’s
say your unit of money is five dollars. You start with five dollars, you play
until you lose that five dollars and then you leave. If however you should
double the five dollars, you would then place the first five dollars back in
your pocket and never touch it again that day. You would continue to do this
each time you double the money, but if you lose the five dollar unit you are
playing with, then you stop for the day. The key to this system is having a
very strong willpower and being able to stick to the plan. If you cannot stick
to the plan there is no system anywhere that will help you. When I walk into a
casino I have the unit of money I am playing with, plus a couple of dollars for
drink tips. I never carry more than I intend to lose, so I’m not tempted to
break the rules of the system, and I never drink the point of getting intoxicated.
The system takes advantage of winning streaks and is designed to improve your return
based a long-term averages.
The
second part of the system is based on time. The longer you spend in a casino,
the more opportunities a casino has to take your money. This is where the
casino uses some of its psychological weapons against you. The first
psychological weapon they use against you is convenience of amenities. A hotel
room for you to stay in, restaurant for you to eat in, stores to shop in, and
any other convenience they can think of that will keep you from needing to
leave. My favorite psychological weapon is the absence of clocks and windows. And
this is because if you ask them why there are no clocks or windows, they will
not be a will to give you a straight answer. If you don’t know what time it is
you’re more apt to spend more time than you intended and this is why the system
limits you to one hour. Even card counting systems use this one hour limit. The
reason this works is because you start to lose your ability to focus after one
hour and you start to have lapses in judgment. It is also why you should never
drink to the point of intoxication.
The third part of this system is to
keep records or notebook of how much time and money you’re spending in a casino.
When I have asked gamblers how much they have lost in the past year they
usually cannot tell me. They can always tell me about the last big win, but are
never able to tell me if they actually profited or lost money for the year. Now
this isn’t necessarily to keep track for tax purposes, although if you are
gambling that much money you definitely want to keep records for your taxes. The
reason for keeping track of how much money you play and how much time you spend
is to put the whole thing in perspective. People who keep track usually are
shocked to learn how much money they are losing and how much time they’re
wasting in a casino. Keeping track of your time and money will also help you be
more disciplined. This improves how the
system works and can make the difference between making money and losing money.
I hope that this post is of use to
people and will improve your odds of winning. Our next post will be about club
cards and their advantages and disadvantages. Have a great day and good luck to
all.
