The Casino Business

The reason a casino is the best and most successful entertainment business is one simple fact:

It's very difficult to leave the casino when you are winning.

When you're winning you want to stay and continue to gamble. Especially when you are playing with "house money." Dude, that's not house money. You won it, it's YOUR money.

A friend of mine theorizes that you could have every game in the casino favor the player over the house mathematically, and yet the house would still make money because of the unlimited bankroll and the psychology involved in human decision making. I think he may be right about that.

I only say this because I had a really good trip to the Casino this weekend, and it was tough to leave because I was winning and having so much fun. This meant I only got an hour and forty-five minutes of sleep before driving back to Oklahoma City.

Ironically, when I arrived home at 11pm Sunday night, knowing that my alarm clock was going to beep at 4:30am the next morning, I still could not fall asleep.

I'm not sure why I couldn't fall asleep. I arrived home to find out that one of my dogs was having health problems and was unable to walk. She was obviously uncomfortable because she whined every few seconds. I felt really bad for her, and it's very frustrating when you try to communicate with an animal that is OBVIOUSLY trying to tell you something but you just cannot get it. (She felt better and was walking by morning.)

But most of all I didn't feel tired. I drove to Kansas City Saturday afternoon, played in a home game until midnight, played poker at Ameristar Casino until 7am, then played video poker and ate some comped food until just after 2pm. I got to sleep at KingLucky's house at 3:15 after watching the end of the Kansas City Chiefs game and awoke at 5pm to head back to OKC. I assumed I'd fall asleep before my head completed contact with the pillow, but that wasn't happening.

But I arose this morning, without any difficulty. This isn't unusual since I normally don't start feeling the effects of these weekend sleepless trips until the middle of the week.

The good news is I stayed ahead of the gas/tolls nut I had to cover. I lost in the home game but not a significant amount, and thanks to a perfectly placed AA in a capped hand pre-flop, I finished way up at $3/$6 limit at Ameristar. Even Video Poker was profitable. That makes six straight live poker experiences that ended in positive figures. A few more and I'll start thinking I'm pretty good at donkey poker. Maybe a few dozen more.