It happens. It certainly happens. Probably to all of us. If you play more than just infrequently, I am guessing it has definitely happened to you.
Casino playing is not without its negative aspects. Sure, you can lose a little. Few casino players let small losses bother them (much) because that is the price we pay for bucking the house edges. Every casino player bucks an edge; that is the way it is. That is what it certainly is.
I have been there. You have been there – I am guessing about that but I am guessing that you have indeed been there. Regular players have taken beatings at times. Casino players are boxers of chance and often chance destroys us.
I once lost – hang on to your hats! – my whole bankroll. This was in the beginning of my second year of play over 33 years ago (or the end of my first year) – ah, time, it does go fast that some things oh so long, long ago are lost in the rush of our lives and everything about it.
Were my disasters caused by me? Yes, two of them definitely were.
The first took place at roulette. This occurred at the long ago and now defunct Sands in Atlantic City. What did Sands become once it closed? A garbage-strewn lot once the building was demolished.
My Roulette Horror: Scobe’s Perfect Roulette System!
The oldest game in the casinos, roulette. The youngest player, at least this evening, me. A clash of titans! Uh, actually, one titan and one something else altogether. That something else was me again.
I had developed a special way of beating the game, a guaranteed way – without a doubt a guaranteed way. I wondered why no one had ever thought of this method before. It was so obvious and so obviously a winner. That showed me how stupid people could be. The winning system stared everyone in the face and players ignored it. So sad, so very sad.
This system (Scobe’s Roulette System) would be used strictly on the even-money bets of red/black, odd/even, or high low. I had 18 chances to win one of those bets and 20 chances to lose it. I was playing the American double-zero (0, 00) wheel.
I picked the red/black bet. I liked that it was colorful. I take red first and enjoy that color as it was the color of the casino blood I would spill.
I grew up in a cold water flat my first five years of life. Three of our rooms had no heat in winter and from what I could remember my mother had to boil water for our baths. But now I would become a millionaire, maybe a billionaire. Oh, yeah!
And here was the plan:
You see, you bet, say $10 and if you lose, you double your bet to $20, and if you lose that you double your bet to $40. Lose again? Just double to $80. Another loss? Just go to $160. Lose that and you make a $320 bet. That gave me six chances of hitting my selected color. The casino might even allow me to bet double the $320, making the bet $640. A breeze.
That $640 would make seven straight bets. Seriously, what were the chances that I would lose seven straight bets? I was thinking about a zero chance. In no movies did any player lose seven straight bets at roulette. Never saw something like that. It may have never have happened in the whole history of roulette.
I had not read a book about roulette, or an article and there was no Internet to look stuff up – at least I didn’t know about the Internet. I was a young man; just old enough to go to the casinos. Maybe brilliance was in the young.
Did it really matter? Nope. The casino belonged to me. Seven straight losses? Ha!
[Please note: I know exactly what you are thinking now, my friends. Yes, I do. I was playing the famously infamous betting strategy called the Martingale. I didn’t know it then but I soon learned a very important lesson that stayed with me forever more. Many other players have played this system as well and learned the same lesson I was about to learn. Probably most of these players also thought they had invented the strategy.]
I bought in for $640. I knew I would never get to that level but I was arrogant about my genius in discovering such a foolproof way to beat the casinos. I even kind of felt sorry for the Sands. I was about to destroy them. That $640 buy-in made me feel like a super-gambler. The game seemed comforting for me at this time.
Place Your Bets: Friday Evening
I bet red and sat back in my chair. I was sitting right in front of the red/black bets. I just had to slip my chips out there and wait for a win.
And the win?
It came on my third spin. I had a bet of $40 out there. Winner! Winner! Winner! The first money toward my first million dollars. Scobe’s unbeatable roulette system!
I could visualize the Sands Hotel and Casino as an empty building once I had destroyed it. I felt kind of sorry for the employees that would lose their jobs. Still, management should have seen this technique in action and realized that it would be a disaster for them to allow players to play it.
That night I won $200. That would be 20 wins at even-money. Wow! I went up to my room and slept the sleep of the conqueror. That was Friday night.
I was tired from my long trip from New York and I slept like the opposite of a baby; a deep, wonderful sleep. I never once had to go past four steps in the Scobe roulette process.
Place Your Bets: Saturday Morning and Afternoon
I had a great breakfast and I then headed to the roulette tables. I sat across from my special bets of red/black and I continued my $10 play on red.
The morning was a good morning. I had as my longest losing streak a mere three bets in a row. I had to bet $80 a couple of times. My system worked like a charm. I wondered if the Sands knew it was in the process of being taken for all it was worth? I was ahead that morning/afternoon $80.
My total win so far was $280. Not bad.
The afternoon saw my longest losing streak of four losses in a row. I had to bet $160 three times over the course of four hours until I broke for a nap. I was tired. But I was prevailing over the casino. That was the key thing.
Yes, when I had four losses in a row, I will admit I felt a little nervous making the next bet. Could such a losing streak keep going? If I lost $160, the next bet would be for $320. That was a lot of money for me. Still, my system had worked so far. I’d keep going. Come on, my system was unbeatable, wasn’t it?
I was now up $280!
Place Your Bets: Saturday Evening
The Sands was packed on Saturday night. A weekend in Atlantic City brought out the crowds, as did the shows and superstar performers. I really wasn’t interested in going to a concert. I was there for one purpose and one purpose only – to hammer the Sands.
A necessary aside: You may wonder why I was in Atlantic City that weekend. It is a huge part of my casino playing and writing career. That trip was my first trip to the casinos.
At the time I was co-owner of a theater company in New York and we were doing a revival of the play The Only Game in Town by Frank Gilroy. The play had been a total flop on Broadway but I loved it. What did the critics know?
It was the story of a losing craps player, Joe, who had something of a gambling problem, and Fran, a Las Vegas chorus girl. They fell in love and thus the play proceeds. The ending was a happy ending where Joe tells Fran about one magic night at a craps table. I had no idea of what he was talking about. It was the conclusion of the play and I didn’t know what the heck Joe was talking about.
So off to Atlantic City to learn the game and how the players played it so I could perform it properly.
Fran was played by the actress who would become my wife, the Beautiful AP. Love was in the air in the play and in my life. But I was not in Atlantic City for love. I was there to learn about craps and what my big monologue at the end of the play meant. When the Beautiful AP came to town on Monday we’d check out the craps play at the Claridge Hotel Casino which had a reputation, according to my casino-playing friends, as a great craps casino.
I met the Captain there and my casino-playing life started that weekend despite the disaster that was about to happen at the roulette table.
Out of the Aside: It was now Saturday evening, a crowded casino with packed roulette tables. I had to stand up and reach over those sitting to place my bets. I did not enjoy that but still the lure of money drove me to play.
Things went fine for the first couple of hours. Four was still my longest losing streak. Until…
Five losses in a row; five! My next bet would be for $320. The most I ever bet in my life up to that time, which wasn’t too hard to imagine since I had never played in a casino in my life. Since I had never been in a casino in my life!
How much had I lost in that sequence? Let me add it up:
- $10 plus a minus $20 plus a minus $40 plus a minus $80 plus a minus $160 and if I lost that next bet of $320? Oh, man, I’d be down $640!
I was now betting $320 to win a mere $10 which was my original bet. If I lost that would I ask the casino to let me bet $640? The maximum bet at that table was $500.
I could actually feel my heart beating in absolute terror. How could I lose so many spins in a row? That wasn’t in my plan. How could this happen?
I didn’t see the sheet of paper on the wall that indicated the table limits were going up to a $25 minimum to $1,000 for the maximum bet. That was happening right now.
I could bet that $640. Should I?
The floor person came over. “Hey,” he said. “You doubling again young man?”
I looked at him. I looked at the players happily playing roulette. “Yeah, sure,” I said, putting out my huge bet. I hope no one could see my hand shaking.
“You got a winning system there, hey?” he said. “A winning system, right? I’ll be working for you next week.”
“I hope,” I said.
“Well, this spin will tell if you are right,” he said.
“I hope,” I said.
The dealer called out, “No more bets” and shot the ball around the wheel.
“Good luck,” said the floor person and he stepped back somewhat.
The ball went around and around the wheel and then the dealer called out, “No more bets. No more bets!”
The ball hit a bumper and bounced and then it bounced in and out of various pockets. I was saying to myself, “Red! Red! Red!”
“Thirty-three, black!” and then I heard nothing after that. Just blah, blah, blah coming from the whole casino. I had taken a beating. I had been destroyed. I looked up to see the floor person’s back as he walked away from the table. Maybe he was happy that he wouldn’t become my employee.
It was soon I learned what I had done. I had played one of the oldest systems in the world, the Martingale. Many new casino gamblers played this early in their careers until they learned the lesson I had just learned.
Sometimes learning can be hard on the player. It was for me.
All the best in and out of the casinos!
