Page 21 - March 2013 • Southern California Gaming Guide

by Anna Tennant
Do you believe you’re lucky?
Luck is relative, like all things. Consider the Arkansas couple who set out for a day of shing in their state last month, and went home with quite a catch: two winning lottery tickets. e rst was a $1 million winner; the second $50,000. e odds for two lottery wins in a single day are astronomical, right? But it’s happened before — right here in California. In November last year, a married couple from Belmont had separately bought tickets in two di erent California lottery games on the same day, and won $17.1 million!
don’t see themselves as helpless. ey get to work to take charge of the situation they nd themselves in.
So how can we apply these luck factors to our gaming experiences? We can recognize that luck is what we think about it, and what we make it. We can walk into the casino with an upbeat, positive, winning attitude. We can be open to experiences, and be relaxed enough about them to pay attention to everything that may present itself as an opportunity. As one man who had won a number of contests said,“You’ve got to be in it to win it.”
What about chance?
Dr. Wiseman says that there’s a di erence between chance and luck. Chance events, like winning the lottery, are situations in which we have no control, other than buying a ticket. As a rule, they don’t happen again and again to the same person. (Tell that to the two couples in Arkansas and Belmont.) People who consistently experience good luck do so because of what they are doing. ey create their good fortune, in other words. Chance plays a much smaller part in our lives than the things we think and do to create and attract good fortune. According to the hundreds of lucky people Dr. Wiseman interviewed, being in the right place at the right time is all about being in the right frame of mind.
It also means being open to the possibility that we won’t always win, but being willing to try again. And it means paying attention to our intuition and gut feelings, and knowing when to hold and when to fold.
Finally, it means looking at every visit to the casino as giving us value. At the end of our experience, we should be able to total up the positives, all the enjoyable encounters, events, the large and not-so-large wins, and the fun that we’ve had. Each time we do that, we are adding to the occurrences of good luck in our lives, and soon we’re not only seeing ourselves as lucky people, we are lucky people!
Anna Tennant has played in Southern California and Las Vegas casinos, and says she’s very lucky.
And then there’s lucky Seth MacFarlane. Yes, he’s made millions laugh (and millions of dollars) as the animator, writer, producer, director and voice of cartoons such as Family Guy, American Dad! and e Cleveland Show, and creator of the lm, Ted. However, if it hadn’t been for a mix up in his travel itinerary on September 11, 2001, MacFarlane would never have had the chance to create anything. He was scheduled to return to Los Angeles from Boston on American Airlines Flight 11. He arrived at the airport a few minutes after boarding was stopped and was told he’d have to wait for the next ight. An hour later, Flight 11 was own into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing everyone on the plane.
Is Luck an Attitude?
Before you knock on wood or start looking for that special charm to carry around with you, think about this: Luck may be an attitude that you and I can develop and cultivate like any other behavior or habit. at’s what a British psychologist, Richard Wiseman, suggested after studying the habits of hundreds of
people over eight years — people who consider themselves lucky and have the experiences to prove it.
Dr. Wiseman wrote about his research in The Luck Factor: Changing Your Luck, Changing Your Life: The
Four Essential Principles. He found that lucky people expect good fortune, and
as a result they receive it. ey have a positive attitude going into any situation, and they are ready and receptive for the good stu coming their way.
e four essential principles he identi ed determine living a lucky or unlucky life. Simply put, they include maximize chance opportunities, listen to your intuition, be positive, and put bad experiences into perspective.
“Am I lucky? De nitely.” Joe B. talks about the positive feeling that begins for him when he has decided to visit the casino. He’s relaxed and ready for an enjoyable time that may or may not include a big win.“I have a winning feeling, and I’m excited, anticipating the fun I’m going to have, because that’s an important part of what I’m receiving when I go.”
Lucky people are also open to new experiences. ey’re relaxed enough to notice and act on positive situations and conditions that happen around them. Further, those
who consider themselves lucky pay attention to their gut feelings.
ey act on their hunches and boost their intuitions by clearing their minds of
distractions.
Lemonade from Lemons
Lucky people tend to see that what looks like a run of bad luck is something that they can learn from, deal with, and even gain from. ey are able to make lemonade from lemons, and they
MARCH 2013
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
PAGE 21