Hey Look at Me - I'm Playing with the House's Money!

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

How many times have we all heard this one? I really don't know any statement that represents more of a misinterpretation of the gambling experience than that.

Nor do I know a statement that is more indicative of a losing mentality (well, maybe if I thought real hard, I could find one). It's just a ridiculously stupid thing to say.

Pay attention, because I want to tell you something very fundamental to anything that comes by way of my pen:

• It's only the house's money when it's on the other side of the table, in the dealer's rack of chips. When it makes that grand transition from the dealer's rack to your pocket, it is YOUR money. Please don't ever misunderstand that.

It's not simply a matter of semantics either. It goes deeper than that. It's reflective of a mindset on the part of the player in general that has a way of giving the house an even greater long-term edge than it already has.

When you take the attitude that the money you win is really the house's money, that's exactly what it will eventually become again. That's because you are basically giving yourself permission to lose it back. You have conceded that the laws of nature will send it all back to the other side of that table.

There is also, in a strange way, a false sense of complacency at work here; that somehow it is "okay" to lose that money back because the worst that can happen is that you wind up even. Anyone who has been around people in a casino knows that it rarely works out that way.

Players take it on the chin enough in the casino to willingly do things to artificially perpetuate it. When you finally have a leg up, it's not a condition that should be taken so lightly.

Remember, only the loser feels that it's alright to lose. The winners in this game are the ones who come to know when their efforts are justly rewarded with profit.

By Charles Jay

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