More than thirty years ago, country music artist Travis Tritt recorded a song called “Lord Have Mercy on the Working Man.” The song is about the social injustices suffered by blue-collar workers.

One of the lines in the song is, “Why’s the rich man busy dancing while the poor man pays the band?” Today I’d like to apply that line to the gambling situation.

In gambling, it’s not so much the rich man versus the poor man, but rather the knowledgeable player versus the rest of the gamblers. While knowledgeable players sometimes have money, earning money in a casino and being wealthy are not the same thing at all. Casinos make most of their money off of well-heeled gamblers who buck the odds and lose.

Video poker is not a game where the losing players give money to the winning players. At least not directly. Indirectly, however, casinos take money from the losing players, give that money to the winning players, and hold out a percentage of that money for expenses and profit.

My goal in a casino is to be the player who is “busy dancing,” both literally and figuratively, while the losing players end up paying for my ride. I want to enjoy winning, dining, hotel rooms, cruises, and various other goodies while actually accumulating money during the process. It doesn’t always work out that way, of course, but that’s my goal.

Obviously, only a relatively few players manage to do this over time. Casinos need to make money overall in order to stay in business. But if losing players lose enough, that leaves enough for the knowledgeable players to enjoy the fruits of the game while still keeping the casinos afloat.

There are problem gamblers whose addiction causes considerable pain and hardship for their families. While I know these people exist, and their losing contributes to the money from which I’m paid, I largely ignore this aspect of gambling. I don’t know anything I can do to ease this problem.

I’ve been questioned periodically whether or not I feel guilty letting others pay for my good times, and my answer is always, “No.” I believe that players, problem gamblers aside, have a choice as to whether or not they gamble. 

Players know that overall, casinos win. Not from every player. Not all the time. But most players realize the odds are stacked against them. Some of us believe we have a system that works. Some of us are correct in this belief. Most aren’t.

Many players who wish to join the ones receiving these benefits can join the ranks by studying. Not everybody is up to learning how to play well, but many are. Even if you are intellectually capable of learning how to play well, it takes effort and discipline — and many aren’t up to that.

For me personally, I’ve tried backgammon, blackjack, poker, and sports betting. I’ve become convinced that I don’t have what it takes to succeed in those games — except sometimes when lucrative promotions are in effect. For whatever reason, I can do it in video poker and can’t do it in the other games. 

Each person has to work out which game, if any, is his/her path to gambling success. If you can do it— great. If you can’t, you are going to be a person who donates money to more successful gamblers. If that idea is offensive to you, then your choices are to get better at one of these games, quit gambling altogether, or learn to live with big losses in the casinos.