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Casino Times
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01 August 2005
Lucky For Some - Gambling
Superstitions (Part 2)
Gambling
in online
casinos doesn't
make you immune from superstitions. These irrational beliefs
are in evidence in UK casinos, and there's no reason to
think that players in internet casinos are any less
susceptible to them than their offline counterparts. Our new
series looks at the weird and wonderful things that gamblers
believe bring them luck.
Numbers And
Patterns
Despite stories about the
superstitions that prevail in UK casinos and even in online
casinos, the fact is that while many gamblers are
superstitious, most are not outlandishly so. Our series for
online casino fans on gambler's superstitions continues with
a look at common casino superstitions that almost seem
logical, such as those involving numbers and patterns.
Almost, but not quite.
Number
Games
Not surprisingly, it is
numbers that are the main sources of superstition for
gamblers in UK casinos, internet casinos and elsewhere. This
is particularly true of casino games such as
roulette.
All roulette players have
their favourite numbers that they will always bet on. They
might have chosen these numbers for personal reasons - they
may be the date of their birthday or the birthday of one of
their children or a special anniversary, for example, or
simply because they've won on the number before.
General numerological
superstitions also hold sway in the gambling world. You
won't find many 13th floors in Las
Vegas casinos, for
example.
The number four is
considered very bad luck in Chinese culture because the word
for "four" sounds like the word for death. To adapt to this,
some casinos have removed the number four chair from the
gaming tables and many casino hotels are dispensing with
room and storey numbers with four in them. In one Las Vegas
hotel, for example, the floor numbers go from 39 straight to
50.
Lucky
Patterns
Casino gamblers are
superstitious about where they play and who they play with.
They often have dealers whom they consider to be lucky or
unlucky - again, usually because they've won or lost with
them on previous occasions, and they will be sure to seek
the lucky ones out and steer clear of the unlucky ones.
Sometimes the superstition involves not the dealer, but the
table itself; again, the player will seek out his "lucky"
table, or her "lucky" slot machine.
A lot of gambling
superstition is based on what has gone before - the roulette
number that come up trumps, the person you were out with
last time you won big, the table you were at, the meal you
ate, and so on.
From this sort of mild
superstition it's a short step to attaching that elusive
quality of "luckiness" to less obvious symbols, with more
superstitious gamblers becoming convinced that an article of
clothing is lucky or even that an action is lucky. There's a
story about a gambler who once patted the head of a statue
before entering a casino and having a big win. Of course,
the gambler then felt the need to carry out this action
every time he entered the casino. It was associated with his
win, so had become "lucky".
Luck And
Logic
Feelings of being lucky or
unlucky - on a roll or on a losing streak - while playing a
game are deeply ingrained, but alas, they don't have a
logical basis. Nor does the idea that you are more likely to
win because you've been losing, or that you should avoid a
slot machine that has just paid out a jackpot because it's
less likely to do the same thing again.
In all these situations,
the probability of winning or losing stays the same, no
matter how many times you've won and lost before. The
majority of gambling games follow objective mathematical
probabilities, and superstition can't influence the outcome
one iota.
As famous Deauville dealer
Nico Zographos said: "There is no such thing as luck. It is
all mathematics."
Everyone who gambles knows
this, but still people carry on believing.
Do you have an unusual
gambling superstition? Drop
us an e-mail and
tell us about it!
Click Here
To Read Read Part 1 Of This Series
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