Most people think it's the losses that keep a gambler at the table. Chasing what's gone. That's part of it. But in all my years, on both sides of the counter, I saw something stronger: the wins. They're far fewer than the losses. And yet they're what keeps the gambler trapped.
Proof that you were right
In Nobody is born a gambler I wrote that people are, for the most part, proud creatures. We don't admit our mistakes easily. We keep insisting on moves that don't protect us and don't do us any good. Gambling is exactly that kind of case.
The player recognises early on that this passion is a mistake. And still he carries on, with the same intensity or more, “convincing” himself that he's doing the right thing. So when a big win comes, he feels proved right. Vindicated, for being a gambler.
He can't stop and think that one short-lived big win is a drop in the ocean next to everything he's lost in all that time.
And on the floor, everything helps that feeling along. A big win gets celebrated: by the staff, by the other regulars, sometimes by the whole room. For one night, you're the “big player”. Those two or three nights stay in the memory for years, and they become the fuel that stops a gambler from ever getting tired of gambling.
“Luck is on my side now”
But the harm doesn't stop there. Most players, and I was one of them when I was still gambling, do the same thing the moment a big win arrives: almost without noticing, they start to believe that luck has turned in their favour, and that they can now carry on with big amounts.
That's a belief. A wish. Something they'd very much like to be true. But it doesn't reflect reality. A big win doesn't change the odds of the next bet by a single point. As I wrote in The house edge, every form of gambling keeps a share of what's played. The size of that share changes from game to game, but no game gives it back over time.
What counts as “big”?
A “big win” is a completely personal thing. For a player who plays $20 a day, a big win might be $200. For someone who plays $1,000 a day, a big win might mean $10,000.
The amount changes. The effect on the mind is exactly the same.
Over time, nobody escapes
One thing is certain. Whatever the win, over time nobody escapes. How much a player loses depends on how he plays. But he will lose. That's the word to keep: loss.
I've seen cases of players who, early on, won large amounts in a short time. Where doesn't matter. What matters is that in the end, they were ruined. They didn't just lose the “winnings”. They lost far more on top, sometimes huge amounts. And the losses weren't only about money.
Greed: ego, plus the feeling of being unbeatable
Why do so many people lose fortunes after a big win? There's an explanation, and it comes from one more human weakness: greed.
Greed is the product of two things. The ego I wrote about above. And the belief the player builds after the win, that now he's unbeatable. Put them together and the stakes go up, the visits get longer, and every win becomes the start of a bigger bet instead of the end of the night.
I'll say it once more: nobody can beat the maths. The game is set up so that, in the end, only the house wins.
If you're still holding on to a big win
Maybe there's a night you still remember: the one you walked out of with your pockets full. If that memory is what you think about when the urge comes, now you know what it really is. It isn't proof that you can do it again. It's the hook. And a hook you can see is already a little easier to let go of.
