Page 25 - August 2012 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Bob Dancer: Video Poker
OIne of Those Phone Calls
’ve been asked to lend money to gamblers perhaps 50 times. I almost never say yes. Of the times I’ve said yes, it’s always been to somebody I believe had an edge at gambling. Players without an edge are a bottomless pit money-wise. Even if they pay you back the rst time (which they
usually do), they’ll be back to ask for more later. And then more still later, yet.
I got such a phone call from a woman, “Janice.” In her family, it’s her husband, “Archie,” who has the gambling problem. Janice and Archie have attended my classes over the years, and we’ve become friendly. Janice believes in her husband, but every time
more are down the road. I don’t know whether the GA program will work for Archie or not, but enabling him to avoid the inevitable decision that he’s not somebody who can gamble is not going to help him — although Archie
beatable game. While that statement is unquestionably true, there are some caveats that not everybody picks up on.
e truth of the matter is that video poker is only a beatable game if you play it close to the way I recommend.
ere’s no way I can correctly evaluate how much my students learn, or how disciplined they are going to be outside of the classroom. At the best, all I can do is o er an educated guess as to what their fate will be. And even if they did learn to gamble a little better in my classes, they were gambling before they came to the classes, and the longer it’s been since they took the classes, the more likely they are to regress to the ways they’ve always done it.
My educated guess for Archie is that gambling isn’t a good idea for him, and that if he wants to keep from falling further, he needs to stop gambling. I’ve told him this. He always thanks me for my advice. And it doesn’t change anything.
Gambling addiction demons are very real for some percentage of players. I wish them success at dealing with those demons. We like Archie and Janice, but Shirley and I truly believe that helping problem gamblers is a bottomless pit. We can give them hugs. We can listen to their story.
We can take them to dinner sometimes. But we can’t save them.
Listen to Bob’s radio show Gambling With An Edge, on Thursday evenings 7 to 8 p.m. Pacific Time on radio station 1230 AM in Las Vegas online at klav1230am.com. Dancer’s products may be ordered at bobdancer.com or at 1-800-244-2224 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
I see her, she looks more and more distraught. e money they had set aside for their retirement is gone. Archie has gambled it away. ey used to own their home free and clear. Now, they owe more on it than it’s worth.
“The truth of the matter is that video poker is only a beatable game if you play it close to the wayIrecommend.There’sno way I can correctly evaluate how much my students learn, or how disciplined they are going to be outside of the classroom. At the best, all I can do is offer an educated guess as to what their fate will be.”
and Janice might disagree with Shirley and me at the moment.
I teach people how to gamble successfully. Relatively few of the students are smart enough and diligent enough to become successful gamblers from taking the classes. Many of the students pick and choose what parts of the lessons they are going to follow. And at least some of the time, people who take my classes get a false sense of how good they really are.
Archie is like that.
Archie thinks he gambles
intelligently. He doesn’t. He
Janice wanted to borrow
$10,000 from me, using
some jewelry she says has
been appraised for $22,000
as security. She promises
to pay me back, $500 per
month, plus interest. Archie
doesn’t believe he has a
problem: he’s just been
unlucky for the past seven
years. But he thinks he plays
well and his results will turn around if they can just get by this tough spot. Archie thinks Gamblers Anonymous is for losers, and that he has nothing in common with them.
doesn’t pay much attention to pay schedules or what promotions are in e ect. He is going to gamble when he wants to, not when it’s a good
deal for him to do so. A casino o ers him a $500 television, and he plays a game where his expected loss is $2,000 in order to get it. And as we all know with expected losses, sometimes they are quite a bit more than we expected.
I ask myself if I’m responsible for Archie’s fate. After all, I was the one who told him that video poker was a
e phone call where Janice was literally begging for money was heart-wrenching. I had her on speakerphone and Shirley was almost in tears while listening. But we still said no. I don’t think this “tough spot” is unique for them. I suspect they have already had plenty of these, and plenty
AUGUST 2012
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
PAGE 25