Gambling News by House of Odds

Stick to your system, find games with the highest payouts and go for a
barrage of singles rather than the home run. And learn how to take your
losses without panicking. That's mostly the advice coming from big-time
gamblers to those who want to win in Las Vegas, Atlantic City or with their
local bookies. Unlike the lottery, a steady stream of revenue is more
realistic than a life-changing win. The limit on how much one can lose is
different for everyone--it comes down to the magic number that would swear
you off gambling for life. "When I lose, I sleep like a baby. My thoughts go
right to the next game," says John Patrick, a veteran gambler who has
authored several books on blackjack and other games. Winning a couple of
hundred dollars during a night at the casino is nothing to be disappointed
about, he says, even if a gambler had his sights set on thousands. "People
want to change their lives, and too many don't stick to the rules when they
lose," he says of the panic that sets in with too many novice gamblers.
"They try to make it all back at once." Bob Dancer, a professional gambler
since 1994 who claims to have made as much as $1 million in a year, agrees
that playing within your bankroll--that's not the amount a person brings
into a casino but the magic number representing the maximum loss he can
tolerate without his life changing--is imperative. It's largely a
psychological issue that differs for everyone. A video poker specialist,
Dancer says a key to winning is staying on top of which machines on display
at various casinos offer the best payouts. It's a lot of work, since
gambling houses are constantly tinkering with the machines in an attempt to
stay a step ahead of the professional players. Those willing to put in the
time to constantly network and peruse Internet bulletin boards are generally
the most successful. "There are maybe 300 people out there who can really
make a living at it," Dancer says. Proficient sports bettors, in some cases,
see advantages in sticking to events like boxing matches and Nascar races
over games tied to point spreads, like football and basketball. R.J. Bell,
who holds a finance degree from Ohio State University and runs the sports
gambling Web site pregame.com, writes on his site that the betting public
often overrates "big name" boxers and race car drivers, bidding up the odds
in their favor by a wider margin than the talent gap dictates. That creates
an inefficiency that can be exploited by betting on a lesser-known underdog,
on whom the payout will be artificially high.

Some gurus even claim knowledge of special tricks that can affect the
outcome of a game. Frank Scoblete, author of Golden Touch Dice Control
Revolution, draws to his seminars thousands of people who are eager to learn
how to hold and throw dice in a way that will tilt the odds of a craps game
in their favor.

The key, he preaches, is avoiding the amateur's penchant for a big, dramatic
shake-up of the dice before each throw. Instead, he says, hold the dice
together in your hand as if they were glued to each other, with the
corresponding numbers lined up together (the two ones, two two's, etc.,
facing outward while aligned next to each other). That way, each die needs
to flip over at least twice to maximize the chances of rolling a seven, the
most common result of a dice throw and the one that needs to be avoided to
win. A soft throw with backspin that bounces the dice gently off the back
wall theoretically minimizes the number of times the dice will turn over,
cutting the chances of rolling a seven and crapping out.

"A backward spin slows it down; you can absolutely learn how to control the
dice throw to reduce the house's odds," says Scoblete, who claims he's been
banned from every casino in Mississippi and a couple in Las Vegas by
managers leery of being taken by his method. Some gambling veterans think
Scoblete's system is mostly a lot of bunk, but that hasn't stopped people
looking for an edge from forking over $1,495 apiece to attend his seminars.

Meanwhile, the fastest growing gambling Mecca, and home to the young gurus
of tomorrow, is the exploding online poker arena. Just as a blind person
often develops superior senses of hearing and smell, an online poker player
learns to read opposing players without the benefit of seeing their faces.
Patterns like how fast or how big a player bets are often a precursor to
whether they're holding a good hand or bluffing, according to Ryan McLane,
an avid player who also writes about the game for casinocitytimes.com.