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Bob Dancer writes a video poker column for beginners to experts. He also writes a column with Jeffrey Compton, "Player's Edge", featuring information on promotions at various Las Vegas casinos. Player's Edge is published each Friday in the Neon section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Click here to send Bob Dancer an e-mail.

For more details and a schedule of Bob's free classes, visit www.bobdancer.com.

July 22, 2008

Taking From Others

In a recent column in "Casino Player," I listed a lot of the goodies that go to successful players --- such as high profits, gourmet meals, luxury hotel suites, cruises, free airfare, and other gifts. The purpose of the article was to inspire others to study enough so they can enjoy the good life.

I received an angry letter from a gentleman in Texas that I'll refer to as "George." He wrote that he was a slot player and he was a net loser, like most other slot players. George felt that his losses were paying for my meals and cruises. He thought that I was gloating about my good fortune, and since he was the one paying for my good fortune, he resented my gloating.

George is largely correct in his premises. The way casinos work is that the losing players pay for both the winning players and the casino profit. Not directly, of course, but that's the way it works out.

If a casino is going to pay me $10,000, they must collect $12,000 or more from others to deal with their expenses. Casinos have all the expenses of regular businesses (payroll, advertising, inventory replacement, return to stockholders, etc.) plus they must deal with a larger-than-average tax burden. In many jurisdictions there is resistance to casinos and the only way casinos have been able to get their foot in the door is to pay higher taxes to offset much of that resistance.

My suggestion to George is that if he's playing a losing game and doesn't like that result, he should either learn to play a winning game or quit gambling. That's an easy suggestion to make, but a tough one to follow.

The facts of life are that most slot players are not capable of playing winning video poker (nor are most video poker players, for that matter.) Beating the house has always been reserved for relatively few people. And it will continue to be that way.

Casinos are not in the business of supporting professional players, so over time they will eliminate many of the ways to beat the house. The smarter players will find new ways to succeed. The not-so-smart players will complain about the "greedy casinos." That's also a fact of life.

It probably takes ten losing players to support one winning player. Obviously one big enough loser could support hundreds of winners, but usually it doesn't work that way.

So if you ARE a winner, you are really taking the money generated by the losses of a lot of losing players. Many of these losing players can't afford their losses. For many, these losses create misery, lead to broken homes, and otherwise wreak havoc.

As a winner, can you ignore where the money came from? I don't know. Usually I don't think along these lines, but when I do it saddens me. I've known strong players who have stopped playing because they can't stop thinking about the misery underlying where their profits are coming from.

Usually I don't write such "downer" articles, but sometimes I think it's important for us to think about these things.