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White Lies can Hurt Your Gambling Record
ANDREW N.S. GLAZER: Little white lies can alter lives
BY ANDREW N.S. GLAZER
Detroit Free Press
Gambling in places where it is illegal is frequently lumped with prostitution and drug abuse as a victimless crime, an act that violates the law of a particular jurisdiction but injures no one other than, possibly, the participant.
We could spend a lot of time and space discussing the various arguments about whether gambling is truly victimless. But I'd like to zero in on one aspect of gambling that almost inevitably accompanies losing and usually involves much more harm than the perpetrator realizes.
I'm writing about the white lie.
Even regular old bald-faced lies aren't illegal unless one is under oath, but most people recognize the moral and ethical wrongs involved in telling them. Many people consider white lies to be morally acceptable, believing they do no harm: A husband tells his wife he likes her new haircut, or a friend tells an aspiring artist that his paintings are outstanding, when neither statement is true.
If you think out possible scenarios that could arise from those white lies, you can probably come up with ways either of those statements could wind up doing harm.
The classic gambling white lie involves telling your friends your gambling results are better than they are. For example, a $600 losing night becomes a $100 losing night.
There are two categories of people you can hurt with such lies: yourself and others. Probably the greatest danger is that you will start believing your own tales.
If you're not honest with yourself, you not only figure to lose more money than you are willing to lose, you also figure to avoid spending the time necessary to improve your play. In most games, improving your play can help you lose more slowly and less often.
When you tell white lies to your friends about your performance, you're not only starting down a slippery slope, you are also performing far more effective casino marketing than any casino has ever managed.
Put another way, your inaccurate reporting is likely to encourage your friends to gamble more than they might otherwise and to keep gambling when their common sense tells them to go home. It even could cause them to start gambling when they otherwise might not.
You might not believe you have this much influence over your friends, but you'd be surprised. People want to believe they can win when gambling. That desire is what makes the con artist's job so easy.
I know that when you artificially enhance your casino results, you're not trying to be a con artist; you're just trying to make yourself look successful. I urge you to consider, though, the potential harm those harmless little white lies might inflict on people you care about. The next time you begin to report your evening's results, I hope you'll choose either to say nothing or to tell the truth.
BY ANDREW N.S. GLAZER
Detroit Free Press
Gambling in places where it is illegal is frequently lumped with prostitution and drug abuse as a victimless crime, an act that violates the law of a particular jurisdiction but injures no one other than, possibly, the participant.
We could spend a lot of time and space discussing the various arguments about whether gambling is truly victimless. But I'd like to zero in on one aspect of gambling that almost inevitably accompanies losing and usually involves much more harm than the perpetrator realizes.
I'm writing about the white lie.
Even regular old bald-faced lies aren't illegal unless one is under oath, but most people recognize the moral and ethical wrongs involved in telling them. Many people consider white lies to be morally acceptable, believing they do no harm: A husband tells his wife he likes her new haircut, or a friend tells an aspiring artist that his paintings are outstanding, when neither statement is true.
If you think out possible scenarios that could arise from those white lies, you can probably come up with ways either of those statements could wind up doing harm.
The classic gambling white lie involves telling your friends your gambling results are better than they are. For example, a $600 losing night becomes a $100 losing night.
There are two categories of people you can hurt with such lies: yourself and others. Probably the greatest danger is that you will start believing your own tales.
If you're not honest with yourself, you not only figure to lose more money than you are willing to lose, you also figure to avoid spending the time necessary to improve your play. In most games, improving your play can help you lose more slowly and less often.
When you tell white lies to your friends about your performance, you're not only starting down a slippery slope, you are also performing far more effective casino marketing than any casino has ever managed.
Put another way, your inaccurate reporting is likely to encourage your friends to gamble more than they might otherwise and to keep gambling when their common sense tells them to go home. It even could cause them to start gambling when they otherwise might not.
You might not believe you have this much influence over your friends, but you'd be surprised. People want to believe they can win when gambling. That desire is what makes the con artist's job so easy.
I know that when you artificially enhance your casino results, you're not trying to be a con artist; you're just trying to make yourself look successful. I urge you to consider, though, the potential harm those harmless little white lies might inflict on people you care about. The next time you begin to report your evening's results, I hope you'll choose either to say nothing or to tell the truth.
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