A good gambler is one part skill, three parts luck.
Sure, it takes steel nerves to go all in and smile while holding your three and seven close to your vest. But more than anything else, you have to be lucky.
Some think it’s just random elements that align together in some gloriously unplanned moment. Some believe in fate; in those who are charmed from cradle to grave while others can’t catch a break if and when their lives depend on it.
Some believe you make your own luck, as if all in the human experience can be controlled through will and sheer effort. Others fear offending the powers-that-be so they superstitiously cling to a certain pair of socks or rabbit’s foot or pre-event ritual.
Personally, I believe that certain elemental forces in the world, like love or magic or yes, even luck can not be controlled or explained within the confines that is me.
So I don’t bother trying.
But whatever brings luck to the table is obviously hard at work at Presque Isle Downs, Erie’s shiny new slots casino and soon-to-be horse track.
Are the proprietors good at what they do? There’s no reason to believe otherwise.
But more than anything else, they have gotten lucky, to the tune of fifty million dollars bet in just five business days plus two test runs.
Consider:
The PI Downs business plan took into account that Ohio voters would approve slots, meaning that competing business would exist in nearby places like Youngstown and Cleveland. It didn’t happen after Ohio voters rejected slots, opening the flood gates for gamblers from the west to pour into Erie County.
Consider:
A smoking ban usually cuts 30 percent of revenues from a casino short term as fewer smokers go and those who do spend less time in the seats and more time outside puffing. It didn’t happen here after Judge John Bozza granted a permanent injunction against Erie County’s smoking ban.
Consider:
A competing casino planned for Pittsburgh was to open late this year.
It now won’t happen until late in 2008 or later as competitors line up in court.
When I mentioned these observations to Presque Isle CEO Richard Knight, it drew a wry smile.
“Do you know what he (PI Chairman Ted Arneault) went through over the past five years? Maybe that’s why they call it the law of averages.”
I don’t gamble much, but whether it was pull tabs or daily drawings or lottery tickets, I haven’t found a winning number in twenty years of occasional trying.
But I have a great wife and healthy kids. I’d still call that pretty lucky.
Maybe we all get our share of breaks both good and bad.
Maybe lucky people are just the ones who point out what they have instead of dwelling on what they’ve missed.
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