Page 10 - March 2005 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
Page 10
March 2005
Do You Know When to Quit?
by Bob Dancer
There is a slogan by a major beer manufacturer that says, “Know when to say when.” A slogan by one state’s Council on Problem Gaming says,“Winners know when to quit.” e attitude expressed by the two slogans is virtually identical—that is, to drink and
gamble responsibly. And there is no doubt that problem drinking and problem gambling are both serious problems today, and anything that can be done to reduce these problems is a good thing.
Drinking and gambling, however are not the same. I believe using the same slogan for both activities is very misleading.
ship comes in. Usually they end up drowning. For people that steam, it is impossible to go home a small loser. They either win or lose everything they have.
Sometimes when to quit gambling is clear cut. If you are playing because of double points on Tuesday, then midnight Tuesday is the deadline. If the reason you’re playing is that the progressive is high, and somebody hits it (hopefully you), then most winners would quit. But often it isn’t so clear.
Shirley and I were recently playing a $5 8/5 Bonus Poker game with the royal progressive over $33,000 and a half percent cash slot club. At the speed we play, this is a $150 per hour opportunity. The game was good, but we’d been playing twelve hours and were tired. If we gave up the machines, we’d likely never get them back because we saw video poker team players loitering about. Once we left, their group would trade them back and forth until somebody hit the royal.
So how tired do we need to get in order to leave? I certainly don’t know any firm rule of thumb I can pass on. It’s always a guess. Often Shirley or I will announce something like “next 4-of-a-kind and it’s hasta la vista, Baby.” Or sometimes, “when these credits either double or disappear, we’re out of here.” It’s not a science. It’s frequently arbitrary. I truly don’t even know what the phrase“Winners Know When to Quit” even means.
Most casinos display signs with slogans similar to “Winner’s Know When To Quit.” And on the sign is a telephone number to help you with gambling addiction or gambling-related problems. Such signs are required in some jurisdictions, and other casinos
just plain think it’s a good idea to have them.
In my own writing I sometimes include a version of “if you can’t afford to lose, don’t play.” I have no idea if
my slogan is better or worse than any of the others.
Bob Dancer is America’s best-known video poker writer and teacher. He has a variety of “how to play better video poker” products, including Winner’s Guides, strategy cards, videos, and the award-winning computer software, Bob Dancer Presents WinPoker, his autobiography Million Dollar Video Poker, and his recent novel, Sex, Lies, and Video Poker. Dancer’s products may be ordered at www.bobdancer.com
Column: Video Poker with Bob Dancer
In drinking, how much a person responds to three glasses of beer, for example, is fairly consistent from episode to episode. It changes over the course of time, of course, but very gradually. However much three beers impaired your performance at anything a month ago is a very good predictor of how much it will impair your performance today.
When I “learned” to drink beer in college, it didn’t take me long to discover that I could handle three beers with “essentially no effect,” but with four or more there was a noticeable effect. The way I learned my “limit” was through
In gambling, however, it is different—at least in video poker. For a quarter player, sometimes investing an extra $20 will lead to a $1,000 royal flush, although usually it won’t. Perhaps a month ago, the extra $20 might have paid off very well. That is a lousy predictor of whether that is going to happen today.
With alcohol, every drink makes you a little more intoxicated. It is never the case with alcohol that taking one more drink will all of a sudden make you cold sober. But with gambling, one more hand can make you financially whole. This makes “knowing when to quit” more difficult to
“With alcohol, every drink makes you a little more intoxicated. It is never the case with alcohol that taking one more drink will all of a sudden make you cold sober. But with gambling, one more hand can make you financially whole. This makes “knowing when to quit” more difficult to determine in gambling than it
is in drinking.”
experimentation. I didn’t set out to gather that information and I certainly exceeded that three- beer limit numerous times back then, but after a while I just “knew” from experience what my limit was.
determine in gambling than it is in drinking.
In gambling, you have the phenomenon called “steaming.” This is behavior where somebody gets behind and then bets bigger and bigger in the hopes of a miraculous recovery. Sometimes their