Page 10 - July 2004 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
MistakesWeMake Tby Jean Scott
wenty years—that’s how long Brad and I have been frequenting casinos. We de nitely know the ropes. We’ve become very experienced in getting a mathematical edge. Shoot, I’ve even written books on how to play smart when you gamble. So, it stands to reason that we should always do the
rarely used a slot host. Although we quickly reached the point where we could get all of our rooms and food comped inde nitely, to do so required a tremendous amount of time and e ort. I kept elaborate les of casino o ers and endlessly juggled dates. I knew about slot hosts, but I thought we weren’t “big enough” players to merit their special attention. What I didn’t realize until after we graduated to dollar machines was that a quarter player who plays long hours may be putting just as much money through the machines as dollar players who play for shorter periods of time.
We’re certainly more knowledgeable than 20 years ago and we gamble a lot smarter these days. But mistakes? Despite our best e orts, we still make them.
Jean Scott, the “Queen of Comps,” is the author of the best-selling book The Frugal Gambler, a casino guide for thrifty low rollers, plus the sequel, More Frugal Gambling, now available at www.FrugalGambler.biz. Featured on “Dateline NBC,” “48 Hours,” and The Travel Channel, she stresses sensible, responsible gambling and shows how to stretch out casino fun time whatever your gambling bankroll.
Column: Jean Scott: The Frugal GamblerTM
Page 10
July 2004
right thing at all times when we’re in a casino. Right? Wrong!
I may be called the “Queen of Comps,” but any statue of me would de nitely have feet of clay. Perfection in any area of life is impossible. We’re all human, after all. But nowhere is this more evident than in the complex world of the casino. First of all, this arena is constantly changing. Just when you think you know all there is to know about a particular game or policy, the casino changes it! A player has to constantly scramble to keep up.
And more importantly, smart gambling has a never-ending learning curve. You cannot “do a Popeye” and swallow a can of casino knowledge to become an instant gambling strongman. We’ve been studying this whole 20 years and we continue to learn. Every day I read gambling magazines, or talk to other gamblers who have new information, or go online to read casino news. Smart gambling demands the ultimate continuing- education program.
Obviously, we made more mistakes in the rst years of our casino visits. Back then we did all the wrong things that pikers do when they rst come to Vegas. We played too many hours a day and lost too much sleep. We chose the marathon- session technique and didn’t take bathroom and meal breaks until
our stomachs and bladders were crying out in pain. We soon found out we couldn’t play games of skill accurately, and therefore pro tably, when we were tired and hungry. So we learned to extend our Vegas visits as much as possible—staying longer, but actually gambling fewer hours in a day. After shopping, sightseeing,
became to tell what was right, as opposed to merely slick. I looked for information that was based on sound mathematical principles. I quickly learned to dismiss any information that claimed to be “easy.” Smart gambling is never easy.
Probably my biggest mistake lasted for the many years when we were quarter video poker players. In those days, we
“...smart gambling has a never-ending learning curve. You cannot ‘do a Popeye’ and swallow a can of casino knowledge to become an instant gambling strongman. We’ve been studying this whole 20 years and we continue to learn.”
exercising, show going, napping, we went to the games with the physical freshness and mental sharpness required to be successful nancially.
Another early mistake we made was to take everything we read about gambling at face value. Like all gamblers, we really wanted to win— and those “sure- re” systems that promised big pro ts with little e ort sounded good to us. Fortunately, I’m an avid reader, so I read every book and magazine on gambling I could lay my hands on. I found out that the more I read, the easier it
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