Luck is something you cannot touch. However, people from all walks of life and from all countries have an idea of what it feels like to be lucky or not. For some, it could mean finding a banknote on the pavement, for some, it could mean a continuous streak of negative events happening to them in one day.
Casino games such as card games, and lotteries are activities where you supposedly need some luck. Same goes for live casino games. Experienced players and bettors sometimes experience a period of time when they win everything. Sadly, they tend to believe that luck has abandoned them when the truth is the opposite.
Is it true that some people are luckier than others? As a social construct, luck doesn’t seem to be distributed to everyone in equal measure. Are some people born with the ability to strike positive events in their lives, while others are stuck in bad situations? Let’s have a brief analysis of what luck is supposed to mean for casino players.
Bad Luck or Good Luck: Common Superstitions in Casino Games
If any author in recent times represents man chasing his luck in casino games, it is Fyodor Dostoievski. His book, The Player, warns against compulsive gambling. As Russian culture is filled with old superstitions, it is not uncommon to see people blowing the dice prior to throwing them at a live casino, for example. This type of gesture is supposed to bring good luck and is widely used in many cultures.
Casino players pass through all kinds of feelings that keep them engaged, and losing could be interpreted as luck failing them. Seasoned casino goers could have a streak of winning. If this changes, they could easily begin to believe that luck isn’t on their side anymore.
There is no scientific conclusion that luck truly exists. In fact, each casino game has odds and probabilities that make it easier or harder to win. It is believed that blackjack offers the best probability of winning against the dealer, if a player follows certain basic strategies.
For every casino game, there is a house edge that can be evaluated precisely to increase your chances or luck. Some might say that luck is just randomness. You can also win the lottery out of sheer luck or spend several years studying the probabilities before finding a winning combination.
This being said, each card game also requires a certain amount of skill. In poker, for example, a player knows that he will have to trick his opponent if he doesn’t have a better hand. The same goes for blackjack, which is a game where you have a good chance of winning if you can count the cards.
Superstition – The Do and Don’t of Casino Games
You can find superstitions in every area of life. Casino players have their fair share of little rituals that supposedly help them win. You might have heard that wearing green on stage is a bad omen for theatre performers. It is pretty much the contrary for casino-goers as it is considered good luck to wear red clothes. This superstition is prevalent in Chinese culture. Lucky charms are also a big thing in every culture, and we can name rabbit feet, four-leaf clovers and horseshoes that are supposed to bring you luck.
On the other, some gestures could bring bad luck, such as crossing your legs or even using the front entrance of the casino. These superstitions are rooted in folklore and it is uncertain whether they will work or not.
Instead, many people use this kind of belief in an attempt to control their fate and destiny. To do these things only to have every chance at your disposal is reassuring for many. As most of us know for certain that life is entirely unpredictable, we still enjoy hanging on to these rituals to reassure ourselves that fate will follow as we want it to.
Luck Only Exists If You Push It
If you are strictly a science man or woman, you might argue that luck is a fictional concept invented to give humans some sort of hope. But, tell that to somebody that has won the lottery three times in his life, or got struck by lightning more than two times in his life!
Some people say luck is something you can bring to yourself by being positive and optimistic. You should at least wake up, embrace the day and think that the universe will bring good things to you. This mindset has a lot to do with auto-suggestion, which is a subconscious technique where an individual talks positive things to himself.