Blog downtime and Las Vegas.

Apologies to those of you that may have tried to visit the blog recently and found it unavailable, there was a power outage at Typepad HQ, so everyone using their platform suffered.  Hopefully that's all sorted now..

I've not been betting much over the last 2 weeks, taking that holiday has changed my gear somewhat, so I've been relaxing away from the computer a bit, getting addicted to facebook and getting a haircut.

Which leads me to an interesting chat I had with my barber who is going to Las Vegas on his holiday.  He knows what I do, so my visit was full of questions about gambling and casinos.  I've always known that professional gamblers and the general public have very difffering ideas on gambling, but it was a very interesting conversation that highlighted them all pretty much..

Questions about the best tactics on Roulette !?  Which games he can win on, whether I would play Slot machines ! 

Now, I know there are people out there convinced they can win on roulette, and they might even do so - I get enough spam in my inbox from people claiming they've made millions from it.  For the general population though, it is much safer for them to know that the odds are in the casino's favour, the more you play it the worse your chances of leaving the game with a profit are.  An interesting concept to the barber.. Another one was that casino's are in the business of taking your money, when did you last see a poor casino owner?

What I did try to impress on him was that as a professional gambler, I would never enter a casino, unless I was playing poker against other people (and even then probably not because I'm not very good at poker!).  I also said that he should consider any money he takes into a casino as "spending money".  He should think of it in terms of spending some cash and in return recieving an amount of fun and enjoyment from the game - a game in which is going to have to be lucky to win, ie. it's not skill based.

I asked how much he might take into a casino..  £200 ?  For that £200, you could have a very nice meal with some decent wine and some friends round, lasting hours probably (being Italian).  That would be money well spent.  Compare that to spending it in a casino, a place where they pump oxygen around to keep people buzzed up to bet, where all of there games are biased against you and where they make their money from people's gambling habits.  You'll be very lucky to come out with money, let alone profit.  Good food with friends, or solitary betting on where a white ball ends up ?

On reflection, perhaps I was a bit harsh.  But it seems few of the general public see gambling in this way.  They think they can go in and win, and indeed they can if they get lucky on very few bets, but consider them doing this at various times of their life.. every bet placed during their entire lifetime in a casino adds up to poorer value.  If you must, enter once, put the money down you had to spend on red or black and walk out again never to return.  The people with the best value from a casino, are those that never enter it.

As for those that claim they win, well good luck to them.  I'd rather spend my time doing something fun than spending hours of my life in a casino.

Comments

[Andy Croll]

You should check out Breaking Vegas by Ben Mezrich. A fantastic book about MIT students who beat the casinos...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Breaking-Vegas-Ben-Mezrich/dp/0099490994/ref=sr_1_6/203-6226653-7836709?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185441110&sr=1-6

Your average joe (such as my good self) would do well to steer well clear of those money pits...

[The Gambler.]

Good Stuff Steady. I had an hour to kill in Hammersmith the other day. I passed one of these amusement arcades. Thought I would pop in for a minute and check it out. Only in a professional interest of course.

Was amused to see that these fruit machines now have a £500 payout. Stuck a quid in for a laugh and won £100. Spent the other 50p and walked. Beginners Luck. Quite amusing.

More details on me blog.

http://john2e.lastminuteliving.com/

BTW Punt Russ Wiseman from Betdaq is looking for a few more punters to give their views on various sports. if you are interested let me or him know.

Break a Leg. :-).

[TJ]

Attitudes from the masses to gambling will always be the same, and for good reason: There will always be far more losers than winners, if there weren't then there'd be no industry. I don't really mind these attitudes, if enough people took the time to really look into and understand exchange punting/trading, well, there'd be less cash floating around in my direction.

As for casinos, I sometimes visit the Victoria, Ritz Club and Park Tower casinos in London to play poker, if they're running an appropriate NLHE table. This is the only game I would consider playing within a casino since you're playing others and not the casino (assuming they're not using ringers or what-not). I'll be at the WSOP Europe in September also.

[Dip]

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[Matt]

Thanks for the comments guys. Nice one John, well done for making a swift exit!

I agree TJ re: Poker being the only game, this is what I told my barber. It's the only game you can win at, where you can have an edge.

Good luck with your blog Dip.