Moscow player’s diary.

Any gambling is a duel.  The loser gives the gaining, the winner takes it. Game for money is illusion, because there is no any duel in fact. The outcome has been determined beforehand – casino always wins and player always loses. If it hadn’t been this way, there wouldn’t be any casinos. It’s clear to everyone, but people keep coming to play in casinos. Again and again. Over and over.

Why?

Let us assume that you tried alcohol for the first time. Did you like it? Sure, you liked it. You were overflowed with such a feeling of lightness, liberation and euphoria. All the negative emotions are going away. Joy and confidence are coming. After your first drink you take one more. Then another. And one more again.  If you don’t stop at the right moment, the alcohol will take essential part in your life. Then you can’t imagine your weekend without it. You can’t relax truly, if alcohol doesn’t run through your veins. Without alcohol you are quite changed. You are slack, boring and sullen.  You need this catalyst. The more the better. It’s a drug. The longer it goes on the harder it is to stop.
Really, it’s almost impossible.

Ardor is a very strong drug. It’s easy to hook on.  There is no pain like during withdrawal or hangover. It’s difficult to get the monkey off.  It’s easier to get rid of alcoholism than stop to play.  For the reason that gamblers don’t realize their addiction. What they are sick can see their relatives, friends and colleagues.  All around them, except themselves. Ardor is a noble cause. Faint heart never won fair lady. Everything is true. Ardor is an illness of strong and courageous, intelligent and noble, beautiful and lonely. Alcohol and drugs mow down softies and losers.

Ardor takes away the best people. It’s the most awful.

It is known, that the theater begins at the cloakroom; the casino begins at the cashier. A few long-legged girls are on duty near the cashier.  If it’s your first time in casino, they will show you the house and will explain the rules of game. Usually there is a cover charge to enter. It can vary from fifty dollars to several thousand. You get your chips, called lucky chips, in exchange for this money. You could just play on it; it’s not allowed to exchange it back for money.  But the winnings will be already paid in cash chips, which you could exchange.  There are roulette, blackjack and poker tables in the house. The slot machines stand by themselves. Also there are bar, restaurant and concert hall.  As long as you are playing everything is for free. As regards food, drinks and cigarettes. If the entrance isn’t expensive, it will be better not to drink alcohol. On the whole, it’s not worth eating too.

If you sit at the table, then you enter the game. It’s not allowed just to sit and watch. There is one dealer on the one side of the table and there are gamblers on the other; the dealer assistant is little to the side. The dealer distributes cards to players and manages the action at a poker table. His assistant watches the game and solves the problem situations. If there is any dispute between the dealer and the gambler, the assistant call a pit boss. The pit boss over his walkie-talkie said the casino employers to examine the moot point in the record. There is a camera above each table which shoots the game.  In order to play and don´t look like a clown, you should remember the specific gestures that show the dealer what you want to do. There is its own gesture for each turn. Play silently, think fast, drink moderately. It’s a good form. No one will like it, when at the table is sitting a drunken dull freak who thinks for half an hour before make a lead.  At the same time he swings his arms, throws alcohol on the table and cusses out.  The worst thing is that he will be hardly thrown out of the casino. Because such clients bring a huge profits. They lose tons of money, but at the same time they behave disreputably. On the one hand they could be understood. You came to the casino, lost unplanned a couple of thousand. Of course, it’s a pity. On the other hand if you are a man, than you should behave like a man.  But not like a cattle. Nevertheless, it’s for you to decide.  I personally think that if you play fine, then you will have a good cards. If you behave rude, than you will be skint and will have a hangover in the morning – that’s the sad result of your outing.

The gambler and the dealer are two sworn enemies. You shouldn’t forget about it. The dealer will never be on your side. His job is to win, otherwise he would be fired.  If the dealer prompts you, it’s not because of he wants you to win. He wants you to win today, so that tomorrow you will lose ten times more for sure.

One day I was playing blackjack at the Bally’s casino. A Nice girl-dealer was gently flirting with me. We were joking and teasing each other. I won. My mood was good. Without noticing it, I started to play more venturous. It’s the male effect. My stakes have increased in five times for some reason. When I came to myself, it was too late. I lost everything. The dealer is the enemy.  You shouldn’t forget about it.

To work as a dealer is really heavy and very ungrateful. Not everybody will work that way. You must have really strong nerves. The dealer has no right to be rude if the gambler is boorish. The gambler can do whatever he wants, but the dealer can’t. Keep silence and tolerate bullying – that’s what the dealer’s work consist of. I wouldn’t be able to do that. Long time ago in the casino Four Seasons worked one Sergey. He was a tall, thin and unattractive man. Haggard face, eye tic. He felt very worried. Each card was like a new trial for him. His hands shook. Cards flew to the side, the columns of chips crumbled when he was counting out the winnings. The gamblers laughed at Sergey. Do you know what it looks like when the dealer distributes unprofessionally? If someone at the table loses, then he let off steam at the dealer. He finds fault with every trifle. He humiliates the dealer in every opportunity. When somebody loss, he shows his true face. If you are a strong person, you will go away in silence, without losing your face. You will crack a couple of jokes about yourselves and will leave. It’s hard to be noble. It’s much easier to be cattle. You lose, trying to hold your emotions in and in a moment you let your anger out at the table. Of course, the dealer gets into hot water.

Dealers work for twenty minutes at the table and then they change. For example, the cart dealing starts. You play a deck of cards for fifteen minutes. The dealer shuffles the cards, the second delivery begins. When you have already played a half of the deck, a new dealer comes, and the old one go to the next table. And so on. They are changing regularly. After about an hour the first dealer will come to your table again. The main idea is to eliminate the possible conspiracy of dealers and gamblers. When Sergey changed a dealer at the table and began to deal the cards, the gamblers just removed their bets and waited until he leaves. They didn’t want to play with him. Everybody laughed at Sergei including the pit bosses. I couldn’t understand why he didn’t change his job. It was obvious that the casino

– it is not his vocation.

– Place your bets, gentlemen, -in a faltering voice saying Sergey and shuffling cards with shaking hands. He couldn’t
shuffle cards in right way, so they were scattered on the table. Sergey become more nervous. – Place your bets, gentlemen,  – he repeated, trembling.

-First you, faggot, will leave this table and then we will place our bets, – answered a man with a plain spotted face.

-Place your bets, gentlemen, – Sergey helplessly called upon the gamblers to start the game.

-Learn how to distribute card, clown, – answered a young man. He had a thin hair and a small forehead. On the face of it you could understand that he was an asshole.

-I will not play with you, I don’t like the way you distribute cards, – a woman who looks like a toad, pouted her lips.

To tell the truth, I didn’t want to play with him too. If any of the players had made a bet, then I would have missed the distribution. However, no one wanted to make it. So I started to play. Just to relieve the situation. Then I wasn’t sorry for him. It was out of the question – just in twenty minutes I lost three hundred. All the casino’s employees were my sworn enemies.

I started to play with him one on one. The gamblers relieved. The situation at the table was relaxed. Sergey looked at me gratefully. That distribution I played alone. And, by the way, I won. Play fine and the luck will not pass you by.
A few days later I was playing at one of the Arbat’s casino. A man, sitting next to me, put a hundred dollars in the box. It was a lot for him. The dealer, a young girl, handed him four and seven. It is eleven points. Anyone who knows a little bit the blackjack could understand that you need to double, because the dealer has a crappy card. A five. The man doubled, he took out another hundred bucks and put it in the box. It was all his money. The girl handed him a nine. In total, he had twenty points. Almost one hundred percent gain, taking into consideration that the dealer had a five. It’s almost impossible to score twenty-one with a five. But there is still a small chance. And so it happened. The girl won twenty-one. The man lost all his money. He blushed, then turned pale, then took a sip of water, and then blushed again. And then he grabbed an ashtray and with all his might flung it at the dealer’s head.  Lucky, he missed. The ashtray flew very close. The guards fastened his hands and thrown out into the street.

The gambler and the dealer are two sworn enemies. You shouldn’t forget about it. However, you have to remember, that you should treat with your enemy with respect. Respect the work of other people. Especially if it’s ungrateful and hard work. And the success will come.

P.S.: for security purposes, the names of former Moscow’s casino were changed. These notes were posted in the Russian segment of the Internet a few years ago, before the prohibition of gambling business in Russia.  On July 1, 2009 gambling was made illegal in whole country, except 4 regional subject areas.