Common Sense And The Casino

I have heard so many things about common sense that I take it for granted – I took it for granted. Despite the countless things that people say about common sense and how we should all have it, I have come to think that common sense just might not be that common after all! If you like going to the casino, though, you might want to make sure that you do have common sense – the right kind at least.

According to Andrew Scott (some of you might recognize that name – he is a famed blackjack player), common sense might not be the best thing that ever happened to you. Sometimes, common sense dictates something opposite to “casino” common sense. He writes:

Cause and effect - it’s just common sense!
The problem with using your “common sense” is that using our normal human perceptions and feelings is a disastrous strategy in a casino. The human brain always wants to link things together - to find cause and effect. When something happens, we think to ourselves “why did that happen, what is the cause, what is the explanation?” You can see this in everyday life all around you. When something goes wrong…we try to find out the cause and correct it for next time. When someone gets murdered, we find the murderer and put him in jail. When a bridge falls down, we have an inquiry to discover who is to blame. Similarly, when something goes right, someone always is ready to grab the credit, often when no credit is due to anyone! As humans, we absolutely love this cause and effect relationship. We love it so much, that when there is no cause and effect relationship, we invent one! This often happens in casinos. Since gaming trials are governed by random numbers, there often is no specific cause for an observed effect. So we make one up anyway.

The morale of this? Common sense is useful in the casino JUST don’t make up reasons for your “common sensical” reasons.