Keeping our Balance during a Crisis

Everything is relative these days.  I battle allergies every spring – and that hasn’t changed with our move from Las Vegas to GA.  That same yellow pollen covers our car and the table on our porch.  I go from sneezing and coughing and runny nose to a sinus infection that goes to a sore throat and an inner ear problem that causes dizziness.  What is different this year is my reaction – and my attitude:  I don’t complain as much – I feel grateful that at least I don’t have the Coronavirus.  (At least I don’t think I do!)

For years I have talked about balance in one’s life, particularly for regular casino gamblers, which we were for many years before we recently retired.  I always reminded people that there is a danger if your gambling negatively affects the other parts of your life or makes you self-centered and uncaring for those around you.  I wrote how Brad and I down through the years, until we had to deal with failing health concerns, were active in volunteer activities.  And maybe some of you got tired of hearing me talk about our children, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.  But our family was always our first priority – and we wrapped family activities into our casino activities constantly.

So now, I was wondering what I should write in this blog.  Some would say that with the seriousness of this pandemic people shouldn’t be thinking about gambling at all, that they should be concerned about serious medical subjects.  But I go back to my belief in balance in life.  You are heeding the advice to stay at home, but that does not mean you need to just sit around worrying.  That is not good for your mental health.  The TV is sending out tons of information about how to keep yourself and your family occupied.

Each person has special interests that can keep them from dwelling on the negative.  For some of you, reading about gambling subjects can be your way of coping with this crisis.  So that is why I will try to keep writing this blog.

We need to keep the faith that life will eventually go back to “normal,” although it may be a “new normal.”  If you were a VP player and casino visits were an important part of your life before, then I see no problem with you doing things that will help you be a smarter gambler when they re-open – whenever in the near or distant future that will be.

We have no idea what casinos will be like for the VP player when they re-open.  Some of the extreme tactics they used during the last recession seemed to hang on, like downgrading VP paytables and cutting comps.  That may happen again – but on the other hand, they may need to make some positive changes to get players back.

I predict that they will need to run more and stronger promotions.  With that in mind, now might be a good time to expand your skills.  Learn a new VP game.  Maybe you said you were sticking to Jacks or Better because that was the only game for which you knew the strategy.  Get a software training program and learn NSUD (Not-So-Ugly-Deuces) which was probably the most common “good game” when the casinos closed.

Here are some of the other ideas you might consider:  You may get out those gambling books you have in your personal library – some you never read or some you may decide to re-read to refresh your memory.  You may want to order some new titles.  Here on this website many of them are available at a discounted price.  If you are a newbie VP player, you might want to go back and read some of my blogs of the last couple of years since I have been covering the changing VP scene.

There is another resource I want to suggest, for all skill levels and all games – “Casino City Times.”  They have a ton of information on their site, much from old files, but there is also up-to-date writing, by many of the experts in the gambling field.  I especially recommend the writings of John Robison, who covers both slots and VP as he relates many of his own gambling experiences.   A very good up-to-the-minute article, covering some of the same things I am discussing in this blog for gamblers to do, is by Gary Trask.

Social distancing doesn’t mean social isolation.  We can still reach out to each other virtually if not physically.  Feel free to use the “Comments” below to share:  your fears, your hopes, your desire to stay connected.