If you enjoy this post, please retweet it or boost it.

Here’s a war story from last Thursday night. I was working in Charles Town, WV across the street from the casino. I can see it from my office window. I was commuting back and forth from home (55 minutes each way) all week. I finally broke down, got a hotel room, and spent Thursday evening at the casino. In 3-1/2 hours, I made $465, and the casino paid for my dinner through comps. After work on Friday, I went back, and in 2 hours and 40 minutes, I won another $265 (and had another free dinner). As always, everything worked out for me.

But Not for Everyone

On Thursday night, someone who certainly should not be gambling was at my table. This is hard to describe in writing, but here you go: He was sitting in the first seat with a $15 bet and was dealt two 8s. After everyone’s initial hands were dealt, the dealer is showing a 5 (i.e., absolute crap), and of course he split the 8s (“always split aces and 8s!”) such that he had two $15 hands to play.

So, the guy indicates he wants a hit on the first hand. The dealer accidentally drew two cards at once, a 10 and a 9, and gave him the 10 on the first hand (total 18), then the 9 on the second (total 17). The next card drawn to the next player was a 4, and the one after that was a face card (10).

The dealer winds up getting a 20, which is not at all what you’d expect considering he was showing a 5, so the dealer’s 20 beat both the 18 and the 17. This is the guy’s beef: He claimed that he never indicated “stay” for either hand and therefore should be given a victory on both hands.

Now, if you’re not following the details, here’s the bottom line: You’d have to be incredibly stupid to hit either hand against the dealer’s 5. There’s no way he would have done that. Because he didn’t, he lost. But even if he were daring and had hit on the first hand, his 18 would have become a 27 — a bust — and his second hand would have been a 22 — another bust. No matter how they explained it to him, he couldn’t get it. When we (the players) did, he accused us of working for the house. I finally raised my voice and said “I just want to play, and your attempt to cheat yourself to a win $30 is getting in the way of that.”

But hey, if he had hit, the dealer wouldn’t have gotten a 20, so maybe the rest of us would have won, but he would definitely have lost either way. That’s the important part. Nevertheless, the pit boss gave him two options, both of which had the same effect. Either take a win on one hand and a loss on the other (effectively a tie), or take a push on both hands (neither win nor lose, also a tie). That’s the best he could offer, and it was the right thing to do because in fact he wasn’t given the opportunity to wave off his 18. But this guy was stubborn. He demanded they review the video to see what happened.

And here’s the twist. He did wave off the hand to indicate a stay. I saw that and was trying to help him avoid the loss, which is why I lost my temper when he gave me shit. When they reviewed the video, they saw that, so they had legal grounds to take his money on both hands. He stubbornly tried to cheat his way to winning under circumstances in which he couldn’t theoretically win either hand, refused to take the draw as compromise, and as a direct result, lost both hands. Of course, his explanation was that they were liars.

The Point

All of this is to say that there’s a very sad side to gambling. Losing isn’t a bad thing if you’re having fun. There’s no difference between losing $1,000 on the blackjack table and spending $1,000 to go scuba diving. The cost is the same, so if you’re having fun with whichever you choose, neither is a problem. But I’d bet good money 🙂 that this guy lost his phone payment last night, and maybe more. He made an incredible stink over two $15 bets. The table minimum was $15, so you can consider those as “small.” He should not be gambling, and neither should you unless you’re willing and able to lose everything you bring to the table. The first (but not only!) requirement is to assure you’re not playing for the wrong reasons; you must have a legitimate enjoyment of the game. It should never be seen as a source of income unless, like me, your victories far exceed you losses. Put another way, if you’re declaring gambling victories on your tax returns, then it’s (by definition) income, so you can treat it that way. But even I can lose, and I have. I’m prepared for that every time I sit down at the table.

You should be too.

Follow me on Twitter @gsllc