Luck and Skill is the Just: Gambling Lessons Practiced in Casinos and in a Meaningful Life

We live striving to become the best possible versions of ourselves. If we buy-in this, inspirations are everywhere.

Professional sports and the military are great sources of mindset and habits to extend limits. Business insights can reveal unknown angles of devotion and determination. Classic literature is a timeless stimulant for the inner spark of growth, no matter who we are. Life stories of people that overcame great challenges and expectations are undisputable testimonials of what we really can or cannot do.

Gambling is no exception. It’s a never-ending classroom with unique features.

First off, there are instant costs of choices on given chances. Whereas in life the consequences of our decisions can take time to shape themselves, the outcomes in gambling are immediate. Lessons and rewards can be intense or mild, gentle or harsh, short-lived or long-lasting. Regardless of their nature, casinos are insanely efficient lecturers.

Secondly, a number of life lessons converge at casinos in a single experience. Gambling halls are the iridescent junction of teachings from all domains. Classes border academia principles and empirical wisdom, from applied mathematics and humanities to insights of experience that only comes with a certain age. Casinos’ lessons are extremely diverse.

Their voluminosity depends on students’ propensity to adopt. As long as players are open to observe and listen there is much to be learned.

Studies are not only about how to play, make or lose money. That’s taught on freshman, maybe the sophomore year. On junior and senior level…

Gambling lessons are about life, how to become a better person and grow.

Luck and chances, choices and balances — those are just administering mediums.

Thirdly, casinos offer the possibility to earn as we learn. Kind of an enticing incentive by no means guaranteed, it’s actually a test. As it turns out, chances always have something to do with our choices, not the other way around.

Finally, we can apply teachings from other walks of life as we gamble. For instance, we learn Sticks and Stones as kids, or later in life, as a valuable tool to ignore the taunt, to refrain from a negative reaction, and to remain calm and positive.

Sticks and Stones can also be a useful tool for gamblers when on losing streak.

Let’s try it in choir: stick and stones may break my bones but streaks will never hurt me. Responsibility and safety first, buddy — stop when you’re losing and live to fight another day.

On an advanced level of gambling studies, the very same lesson is applied to greed and a winning streak.

In fact, an argument can be made that…

Gambling learnings and life teachings are reversibly intertwined like no other educational fibers.

Will classes make you a better player? Yes. Will teachings give you more fun? Probably. Will you earn more money? Only future knows that answer.

However…

If you take gambling lessons seriously and use life teachings responsibly as you gamble, you make the choice to progress as a person and increase your gambling chances.

It’s a fact. Whether we believe it depends on how much we’re into perpetual improvement in the first place.

You’ll say that you don’t gamble to become better but to make some money. You’re right. But first, you have to become better at what you do before money follows. It’s just the way things work. In any walk of life.

On the other hand, if you don’t make money while gambling but excel at casino teachings, life will compensate. All of sudden you’ll realize that such earnings are significantly larger than any jackpot.

Unique setup, them gambling classrooms. Let see their true colors as we illuminate lessons.

Do We Gamble Like We Live?

#1You are your play. Chances roll you, you rule choices.

What we do with chances is up to us. We face consequences whatever they may be. No other person or entity can be responsible for this. Sure, it’s easier to blame others, though funny thing happens when we do so — bad things just keep coming. “Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.” Instead, own your mistakes, fix them and go on to be better for it.

#2 Don’t focus on gains but on the way you play. If the process is sound, the results will come.

In gambling, just like in life, we’re often focused to win so much that we forget tactics and disregard basic principles. Notwithstanding luck, it is not a sustainable long term strategy. Put potentials of gains aside when deciding how you will play. You’ll have plenty of time to think about what to do with money later.

#3 Don’t compare yourself to others. Compare to only what you can be.

We’re the creatures of imitation. To compare ourselves with others is instinctive. While it works in professional sports, in gambling, just like in life, it’s always misleading. Instead, take that ‘comparison’ energy and invest it in your improvement. Imagine what you can be and go for it. In time, you’ll notice that others compare to you — usually the first sign of success.

#4 Decrease unfamiliar and familiar shall increase.

Everybody remembers the first time they stepped out of the comfort zone. Despite the fear of new, we conquered the challenge, overcame, and effectively enlarged the area. The reduction of unknown reduces fear; the extension of safe zones amplifies possibilities. In time, a safe zone will grow from an island into the continent and keep enlarging. That’s what learning’s all about — growth. Complement with #2.

Or We Live Like We Gamble?

#5 Your attitude towards luck changes the attitude of luck towards you.

Knowledge, effort, and dedication invested in plays we make are, in effect, our offerings to luck. She is there, observing, trying to see how much are we’re willing to chip ourselves in before she’ll intervene. “The more I practice, the luckier I get”. If you work your ass off and show her the length you’re willing to go to be better, luck will show up. Don’t expect it, though. Don’t think you deserve it nor take it for granted. Just work hard — that’s the only thing you can really do. Not only in gambling.

#6 Satisfactions with achievements should never become self-satisfaction.

We should enjoy our accomplishments, recognition, and success by all means. However, they should never be the basis for hubris. Ever. Instead, cherish them for an hour or two, maybe even a day, and then go for more next time. And more. And more. Where is your limit? Only you know that answer. But, when you let your arrogance and self-importance fulfill the space reserved for efforts, the stagnation and punishments are inevitable. The only question is when.

#7 Say ‘never’ to all things that don’t make you better.

When you spot something that is positively doing you nothing good, put it in a drawer with a sign ‘never’ on it. Don’t buy-in “never say never” notion. We believe in it because we don’t like to jump in our own mouth. Well, in gambling, just like in life, it’s better to jump there than in some hole of irrational behavior, not to mention debts. ‘Never’ does not become ‘never’ just like that — it takes time for a thing to evolve to such level; when it does, it always stays there.

#8 Be your own hero.

Don’t go around looking for others and try to emulate them. What works for them might not work for you. Instead, envision your best version, work hard on it, and educate yourself on all there is to know about gambling. (Compound with #2.) You’ve read that successful gamblers are great with numbers and statistics? Learn that. Saw someone take a big win somewhere? Study it. (Complement with #3.) Saw something that should never be done? Exactly, #7. Make your habits based on proven guidelines of winners. They’ll work differently for you but will make you your own hero. When you get there, never forget #6.

Or We Live and Gamble as We Like?

#9 Proper Preparations Prevents Poor Performances.

Of course, it’s a military thing (thank you, British SAS)! Know gambling games by heart. Learn history and traditions, pay attention to trends, read books (a lot!), understand odds. Check casinos you plan on visiting, explore gaming experiences of others but don’t buy-in any Cinderella stories (see #3 and #8). Most importantly, play free games or practice somewhere without money. When you think you’re ready — repeat it all over again. When you finally reach the casino, you’ll notice that chances somewhat increase proportionally to your educated choices.

#10 Don’t believe everything you think.

Just because our autosuggestion is so powerful doesn’t mean we should always trust it. Nor does it mean things will happen. Leave those positive thoughts you send to Universe for him to hear and shower you with your wishes out of your gambling picture. We are what we think, we are our thoughts. If they are rational, benevolent, and well balanced with a healthy dose of hope, they can make us not only better players but better persons too. Otherwise, they may be our own experiment with an unsound roll to nowhere. (Besides, Universe only respond to hard work and dedication. If it responded to wishes, we would be having this conversation on a ketch cruising southern Pacific.)

#11 Govern yourself at all times.

There are only four things in life we control — our opinions, impulses, desires, and aversions. Everything else is out of our control. If you want to control the uncontrollable you have to absolutely control the controllable. “Anytime, anyplace, any device”. It’s immensely hard and equally beneficial. Otherwise, the spiraling helter-skelter of gambling and life awaits for us patiently.

#12 Never comment on luck and be impolite to other players.

Don’t make rude or awkward remarks on plays of others or think that they didn’t deserve what they got. Particularly when they win. (Look for #3 and #8.) As Georges Mabardi, Vanity Fair’s backgammon columnist in 1930s writes in his book describing how Egyptians approach this game: “They play well, they play rapidly, they play quietly; they smile and talk a little and they never complain of their luck. They believe that luck and skill is the just, the inevitable, the reward of the skillful.”

#13 Nothing happens without great fun.

If you’re not having fun you’re not trying hard enough. If you’re not trying hard enough, you won’t have fun. It may sound counterintuitive, but here is how it works. When you focus and work hard you master whatever you’re doing and become relaxed. When you’re relaxed, you can have fun. When you have fun, nothing is impossible — “the better [you] feel spending time there, the more awesome job [you’ll] do”. After all, if these people didn’t have great fun we wouldn’t be here in the first place.

Or We Like to Live and Gamble?

Ultimately, no one gets Vince Lombardi or Lord Stanley’s Cup without pushing their limits, revealing unknown angles, inflaming their inners sparks, without being ready to experiment with what cannot be done, and without having an outstanding fun particularly when there is nothing funny about anything.

Same goes for any big casino win or jackpot.

It’s not a question of luck. It’s the result of lessons in never-ending classrooms. When an attendee — open to learn and explore what’s under the hood of success — is ready to consider instant consequences of its choices in a multi-dimensional and balanced manner, the reward eventually comes.

In life or gambling? Where’s the difference?

There is, although, one fundamental prerequisite for all of this to happen. Classrooms have to be legal and regulated. We are yet to see an illegal, unregulated schoolhouse.

Thankfully, with gambling legalization and regulation initiatives in full swing across the globe, we can remain optimistic that casino learnings and teachings will not be forgotten and will continue to thrive in lawful and well-regulated environments.

Because at the end of the day, any lesson on chances and choices, stakes and balances, in any learning place or space — is a useful one. It enables us to be better gamblers, to grow as persons, and live a more meaningful life. When implemented wisely and responsibly it can be quite rewarding.

We are not the sole beneficiaries, though, and therein lays the altruism of the whole concept.

It’s posterity.

As we look forward and see so many things to be learned in a perpetual process of life education, we also see future generations. If we provide them with our lessons and knowledge, just as our ancestors gave us theirs, we’ll gift them with the chance to be better than we were. Whether they’ll use it is a question of their choice.

In doing so, we will also leave something ours behind.

Like Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor and philosopher fittingly wrote and Russell Crow so gallantly interpreted: “What we do now echoes in eternity”.

So…

What gambling lessons and life teachings would you like to leave behind, echoing your time on Earth?

Tell us in comments so one day, in a distant future, when people come here they’ll have a chance to make a choice to be better.

Persons or gamblers? What’s the difference?