Let’s face it. Look around the typical craps table and you won’t find a lot of rocket scientists. The game pretty much plays to the lowest common denominator. You’ll see doctors standing next to drop-outs. CPA’s next to crack heads. Mechanics next to morons. Average Joe’s next to crack ho’s. All of which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – especially if you are a first time player. Let’s face it. Odds are, no matter who you are, you are going to fit right in.
Remember that first time you played craps? If you were like most of us you circled the tables half a dozen times trying to gather the nerve just to step up and just watch. Then, when you finally decided you’d like to play your hands trembled as you tried to hand your money to the dealer – who promptly told you in no uncertain terms just to drop it on the table. By the time your chips were in front of you, you had weak knees and the cold sweats as you tried to decipher the layout. What did all that stuff MEAN?
It’s not that you were afraid of losing money, you simply worried about making some sort of mistake and looking foolish. That, of course, is one of the reasons for the popularity of slot machines and on-line casinos. For many players – they are simply less threatening to play.
A few years ago I had a student in one of my classes who had never played in a brick-and-mortar casino. Instead, he played the on-line casinos. Why? Because he enjoyed the anonyminity of the Internet. He told me didn’t smoke, seldom drank, and didn’t like crowds. Why then, I asked, are you taking a precision craps shooting class when you only play with electronic dice? And then the truth came out. “Because I’d like to go someday,” he said, “and I don’t want to look stupid at the table.”
Fear of embarrassment is a powerful deterrent. But it can also be a costly one. Every day around the world thousands of players plop down in front of slot machines with poor pay-out tables and start dumping in their bankroll. Many of them will tell you they enjoy playing slots. Perhaps some of them do. But I don’t recall every seeing a slot player exchanging high-fives with the person at the machine next to him, and you’ll seldom see one of them smile. Still, for many of these players table games are simply too intimidating. They’re just too difficult to play.
Remember, the easier a game is to play, the more you can expect to pay. Casino slots and on-line versions of table games may only pose a minor threat to your ego, but they are a major threat to your bankroll. You can reduce the casino’s edge by playing table games and playing them correctly. But first you have to step up the table.
