9 out of 10 "hustlers" are called that because they are better players. I love playing pool.
I agree about card counting. One would think, however, that it you are smart enough to do it, you would know the casinos make the rules.

Anyone who gambles in a casino (or sports betting) is statistically guaranteed to be a loser.  Casino, et al must have odds that make everyone (but the exception) a loser.  The exception is important for propaganda purposes.

Counting cards is not legally illegal.  But would harm their profit margins.  Purpose of gambling is to steal (ie tax) the arithmetically naive.  Nothing is produced.  Money is legally taken from an easiest mark.

Then they lie. Promoting it as fun.  I periodically walk thru casinos to see what is going on.  If it is so much fun, then why is nobody smiling?  They know the mark.  He kept having a hard time.  And still keep gambling.

The game is so rigged that even supercomputers in the basement monitor each gambler.  Even tell a waitress when to give him a free alcohol drink.  So that he will keep losing.
 

Last edited by tw (12/31/2023 1:13 pm)

monster wrote:

I still fail to see how using your brain can be considered cheating.

Purpose of a casino is not understood.  Only to enrich top management.  Do nothing productive to get rich.

They don't want customers who think.  That would harm profits.  And might even educate other customers.  Profits, when running a scam entertainment, can be harmed by thinking people.

Got to love what Anon did.  Today, they have computers to block such thinking. They do not want thinking customers.

Purpose of a casino (and sports betting) is to cheat the customers; not the casino. To play a customer as a fool.  Even hype a rare winner so that everyone will think they too can win.

Casinos do not want thinking customers.  Banning them is quite legal.  And increased profits.  The mark is a human who makes decisions from emotions (brain of a child).

Its legalized theft. So the mafia will always be first getting into it.  To make profits without doing anything productive.

Last edited by tw (1/01/2024 10:25 am)

Any technique (technical or mental) that affects profit for the Central Committee (top management) is always considered evil in corporations that exist only for profits.  That do not contribute anything to society and mankind.

Best profit centers are consumers with poor reading skills.  Who make conclusions using an emotional brain that children use.  If 'Rain Man', then the company considers you evil.  Since you do not enrich the "Central Committee of the Party".

People who cannot read anything longer some character on a playing card or video machine, or who cannot count - those are profit centers.  Are welcome.  As long as their emotions also do not justify need for a gun.

Full disclosure, leaning into the "Rain Man" trope, but if "card counting" is representative of some neuro-divergent, savant ability, then it's in the same category as things we consider valued job skills, such as just being "naturally good at" reading database schemas, or arcane network syntax. We don't question someone being a "human cheat code" when calculating their salary, we just hand over the money.

And come to think of it, it plays out the same way whether card-counting/job wizardry is a "natural talent" or a skill acquired through hours of torturous study and discipline.

We let people "card count" at their jobs because it benefits "the house"
 

Last edited by Flint (1/02/2024 1:16 pm)

Went to Atlantic City with $1000 and a friend who had $80.
I paid for gas, tolls, parking, lunch, dinner, push chair on the boardwalk, and 2 cartons of cigarettes on the swing through Delaware on the way home.
I ended up at home with $1500, my friend had $0, so I gave her $750 plus the two cartons of butts.
Never went back to let them get even.

Welcome Home Meph.