#1: Winning Today Does Not Mean You Will Win Tomorrow
I have many friends who would brag about winning thousands of dollars yesterday when they visited a casino over the weekened, but what you rarely hear is them telling you that they have lost tens of thousands of dollars over the years.
The truth is, it does not matter if you win today unless this was your last day gambling. In life, you win some and you lose some. If the former is true, the latter will bite you in the butt sooner than you expect. All it takes is 1 losing streak and your bank account could be hurt badly.
“It's hard to walk away from a winning streak, even harder to leave the table when you're on a losing one.”
- Cara Bertoia, Author of Cruise Quarters (a novel about casinos and cruise ships)
#2: You Gamble With A Cost But Not The Casino
When you change your money into cash chips, you are literally telling the casino that I will now fight you with my blood, sweat and tears in return for an unknown sum of money. You have worked hard over the years for this sum of cash and you are about to go wage a war with someone with unlimited ammunition that is meant to destory your financial life - is this not a lose-lose situation?
A player could be on the table for hours, fighting with his life and health by consuming free alcohol and breathing in 2nd hand smoke from someone else's cigarettes. Slowly, the player will subconsciously grow weary, but due to the adrenaline rushing like an uncontrollable burst water pipe within him, the player could hardly feel that his body requires rest and might make very irrational decisions costing him his entire bankroll.
"By gaming, we lose both our time and treasure - two things most precious to the life of man."
- Owen Feltham, English essay writer (1602-1668)
#3: Humans Are Not Perfect
Many professionals started out gambling professionally because they believe that they are able to outsmart the casino. Unfortunately, they have failed to see that they are merely human and as a human being, they are not perfect.
Quoted from a professional gambler friend:
"In the midst of my gambling career, I was also going through a roller coaster ride with my family and girlfriend. I allowed emotions to take over my mind. During a very bad breakup with my ex-girlfriend, I was taking revenge on the Baccarat table. What started out as a simple S$200 bet became a S$2000 bet and eventually S$20,000 per hand. I lost S$90,000 in 2 hours. This was the beginning of my downfall."
A professional gambler cannot have people around him, he must lead a very individualist life. You cannot show compassion to a friend, you cannot entertain someone while at the tables and you cannot be hit so hard emotionally that you start to do stupid things while fighting with the casino. Many thought that they were strong enough to carry the perfect formula into the battlefield, but because of their imperfection, they died.
"In gambling the many must lose in order that the few may win."
- George Bernard Shaw, co-founder of the London School of Economics
#4: Distractions
The casino is designed to kill. Look at their beautiful majestic interior. Billions of dollars were spent to make sure you are consumed in totality by their beauty, it was meant to hypnotize you so that you will willingly empty your wallets or even better, your bank accounts to them. The Marina Bay Sands integrated resort cost US$4.7 billion, the world's most expensive building - where do you think they are going to get their money back from?
Alcohol. You are entitled to free alcohol if you are considered a mid-range roller in the casino. If you have obtained VIP status, you are entitled to a variety of alcohol for your consumption pleasure. Why would the casino be so kind towards you?
According to the USA National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcholism, alcohol messes with our brain's communication pathways causing it to work out of the norm. Our mood and behaviour would be disrupted, affecting the way we think and make decisions. These inhibitions could also produce an illusionary effect of bravery - "Let's kill the casino, I'm all in!" and then in a moment's time, you are all dead.
Sex. "Why don't we make enough money tonight to have some fun? After all, we have fought so hard at the tables - it is time we pamper ourselves after the massive amount of stress, life is short! Let us try for another S$1,500 so that we could have a big blast later tonight!". This extra S$1,500 would often cost gamblers their profits and capital.
In addition, entertainment at night places would most definitely cost you a bomb. A simple mid-end night session in a Macau nightclub could cost you S$2,000 for a mere 4-hour session, this is not including the tips you would like to pay your hostess(es) for them to spend the night with you.
Patrons. Some players are carry the "smarter-than-god" attitude, they teach you what to do and where to place your bets. If you do not follow their call and if they happen to be right, you'll get a lashing from them -
"see I told you so, you should have listened to me!" You start to get really annoyed and increase your bets to win everything back to prove your intelligence and sooth your ego - this situation often gets you from the frying pan into hell fire.
I know of friends who were mesmerised by the "pretty girl effect" - straight from my friend's mouth, he said:
"I remember once I was playing BlackJack and my calls were causing the whole table to take a beating, including this gorgeous girl who was sitting beside me, she died a terrible death, I soon tried to be the hero and got myself into an S$8,000 trouble. On other occasions, I did not want to lose in front of another pretty girl - bets then became irrational and soon enough, me, being the girl-pleaser ended up in a lot of pain."
Member Points. I call this the casino pointing you to your death. So many people try to fight for a complimentary night's stay at the hotel - the points system is designed to keep you playing at the tables, the longer you stay the higher the chance for you to lose it all. We want that free air ticket, accommodation, dinner, concert tickets and that nice little gold plated souvenir, but in return for all those things, you could lose a house and even your entire life.
Remember, the casino is designed in a way to obliterate your financial health - in the casino, there are no windows and there are no clocks for a reason, because they have got no mercy. This reminds me of a song - Hotel California:
"you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave."
"Casinos and prostitutes have the same thing in common; they are both trying to screw you out of your money and send you home with a smile on you face."
- VP Pappy, Las Vegas professional Poker player
#5: Unfair Advantage
In a game of Baccarat, the chances for you to win on the Banker position is 45.86%, chances for you to win on the Player position is 44.62%, chances for you to win a tie and pair bet is 9.51% and 7.47% respectively. This means that the casino has got a 55.38% chance of slaughtering your bets every time you wager something.
In a game of Roulette, the chances for you to win on a number straight up is 2.63%, in a game of BlackJack using an automatic random shuffler machine, your chances to win is only 45.72% and in a game of Jackpot, your chances of striking the ultimate Jackpot is astronomical (statistics are from
http://wizardofodds.com/).
Singaporeans are legally offered 2 games even before the casinos were in place, they are 4D and ToTo. The odds for you to win are 23 in 10,000 and 1 in 13,983,816 respectively. But you still get long queues especially during the Lunar New Year period. We need to open our eyes to see that what we are doing is far from taking a calculated risk, it is more like taking a calculated suicide.
In an interview, Warren Buffet said:
"On my honeymoon I traveled out west. When I visited the casino and saw all these smart well-dressed people participating in a game with the odds against them, it was then that I realized I won't have a problem getting rich!"
Buffet also said:
"These weren't dumb people -- they had money to blow in Las Vegas, after all -- but they weren't playing to win. They were playing games of chance where they were almost guaranteed to lose."
I have seen many people losing their lives from gambling. Some people tried to make it big all these years, but in return, they became the ultimate loser with bank loans, moneylenders' loans, personal loans from friends and other gambling debts. Don't walk in these footsteps, you'll experience a lot of pain, tears and thoughts of suicide. The joy obtained from gambling is short-lived but the negative effects are there to stay for the long term.
My wish is for you to read this write-up and then make a decision to walk away. Do not approach the banks or moneylenders any further to fuel your gambling problem - you will get yourself into deeper trouble, I can guarantee you that.
You need to make a conscious decision and quit from your heart. Stop, right now.
Yours truly,
Notary
