Commentary | Medicine for Gambling Addicts

XingCai latest webpage is about scientist training rats to be gamblers. From the surface of it, the concept sounds interesting but it is nothing like the making of the God of Gamblers movie kind of stuff.

Scientist custom made a slot machine for these rodents to gamble to see if they will end up being landu (pathological gamblers) just like humans. Now, this is beginning to sound comical. Yes, it tickles me too but researchers were trying to find a drug to cure the landu rats. Hopefully the same cure could be used for humans.

Like SavySeph, I believe in a mental cure for mental addiction, so this cure still has a long way to go. Ironically these rats turned out to be as landu as humans. The rats even knows how to chase near wins. These research know that the real slot has near wins as the inherent features and they custom made their research accordingly.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary | Gambling Addicts Sue Casinos

It is amazing that the Australian courts was convince that Kakavas "was able to make rational decisions in his own interests and the Crown did not knowingly victimize the appellant by allowing him to gamble." I want to cry foul play here as Kakavas's past shown that he is desperate enough to resort to crime to get money to gamble. This for us at GGC is a severe landu (pathological gambler) that is beyond redemption. As we like to say in Chinese, "no medicine could cure him."

As for the Norwegian case, not much had been mentioned about Baasland's pathological state where gambling is concern. On the surface of it, he did not seem like the type who would break the law to get money to gamble. It is unfortunate that his borrowing from friends and family had turn out to be a scandal. If you ask for a loan to gamble, nobody will give you one. Baasland's hiding the reason for his loan is common.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary: Underage Gambling Violations

Protecting the vulnerable from being addicted to gambling is enshrined in the gambling acts to make the act look responsible. In practice it is loosely enforced. SavySeph noticed underage frequenting gambling and shared the 36 Casino Gambling Tips to keep the youth well informed. Since she is not able to beat the rapid growth of the gambling industry creeping into the lives of the vulnerable, this was her way to do her part.

* This knowledge came from our first encounters.

Today people are no longer concern about underage having access to gambling. Back in the dark ages, they had Socrates put to death for corrupting the minds of the young. Our illegal betting shops here in Malaysia are regularly frequented by high school students. A small group of them had found our forum to coddle our veteran gamblers for gambling tips.

XingCai had uncovered more cases from different parts of the world on her Webpage.

P/S: Here is wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year.

Commentary: Gambling Addicts Murderer

Gambling addicts had now become a very dangerous set of people. When they need to get thier fix for a stake they will kill you for your money to get their wager for the stake.

Rakesh Bhayani had been well known as the "mad Indian gambler". He decided to waste Carole Waugh because she is loaded.

For Bhayani, Waugh's death has only one meaning to him and that is to feed his gambling addiction. After killing Waugh, he hid her body in a car. He called his gang to assist him to dig into Waugh's wealth. A fellow con artist and an impersonator was the make up of his team to to pull off the scam.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone.

Commentary | Ladbrokes Murder Trial

Crime rate was zero in the casino when the mobs were running the show. Be it the ancient time of bows and arrows to the age of technology, the little gambling shacks in Chinese populated areas enjoys gambling without violence. Any form of violence will be broken up by bouncers or security forces before it can happen. They can take violence outside the premises so that business goes on as usual. Perhaps Ladbrokes think they can do the same by channeling all the distress call to their head office instead of the police. As a result of their negligence a life had been loss.

The murderer, Shafique Aarij 21, was a homeless man in the United Kingdom. He gambles regularly at the Ladbrokes betting shop branch at Aberconway Road. This is the place he killed the branch manager with a claw-hammer. He would bet up to £100 on cricket matches and smaller amounts on dog racing at this branch. If was not clear if his intention was robbery or murder but the courts found guilty of murder. He tried to plead leniency by claiming he suffer from psychotic schizophrenia. The judge had postponed the sentence until conclusive medical report substantiates his claim.

This murder case revealed the inefficiency of Ladbrokes security system. They tried to play police without a badge. If they had the reputation of the mafia they would have some success but they did not and a life was taken. They played police to filter things (especially the violence) out from the public eye. It is ridiculous to think that no footage of the violence was recorded when the have a clip showing the assailant's back.

XingCai has pointed more inconsistencies on her Webpage.

Commentary|Gambling Shops Laundering Money

Whenever bosses declare certain words as taboo, employees will be curious about the rationale behind the move. Ladbrokes, the biggest bookmaker in the United Kingdom, banned the words "children", "smashed" and "money laundering" in their company papers. Being in the gambling industry the rationale here was obvious.

Many times we had our adolescence fans from the forum claim that they can't get pass the security check to get into the casino. Yet, others have said the security just need the right motivation in their pockets to let them in. People would sell their consciences if the price is right and that happens anywhere in the word. XingCai's article show the a few place who were slag in this area.

When covering bad financial year due to bad weather, XingCai used simple arithmetic and plain English to expose the possibility of high vandalism cost that the bookies were hiding. The "smashing" part of the article confirmed her doubt.

Before the computer age, keeping track of money laundering rely solely on the eye in the sky. There is simply not enough manpower to keep track of everyone. I am amazed that the United Kingdom can let people get away with it during the information age. With the fixed odds betting terminal being computer based, tracking is simpler. I guess when is comes to corruption, these developed countries are not any better.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary|Gambling with Borrowed Money

At Guerrilla Gamblers Club's forum, we are aware that using sure win system to con people is the oldest trick in the book, yet many suckers fall for it time and again. As they say in Chinese, "don't worry about using old tricks - the effectiveness of the trick is all that matter". This indicates that human nature had not change over time. It is using the same old stuff to appeal to the ever quenching greed.

XingCai covered a story about Michael Garner. This 53-year-old self-employed financial and pensions adviser abused his expertise to mislead people into his scam. He broke our enshrined rules by gambling money in his custody. As the gambling problem elevates, he had to steal more from the funds.

Like SavySeph, I too apply the similar skill set from trading into gambling. Garner had broken the golden rules in trading and that is to keep your losses small. As your guys know, I had posted in the forum many times that the best test for a trader's ability is the gambling table.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary | Gambling Addiction Traps

XingCai's blog on the "Destructive Force of Gambling" is the same old story of every gambler with a gambling problem. Reasons to turn to gambling may differ from one individual to another but the progression and result is the same.

A student's dreams had been shattered when he turn gambling because of a relationship breakdown. As he dabbles deeper into gambling he started to gamble beyond his means. This as you guys know had broken our enshrined rule in the Way of the Guerrilla.

Getting messed up with gambling problems because he lost his girl would be something that you guys would just faceplam and shake your heads. I guys these are things we no longer feel sympathetic to anymore.

Catch the details of the crime on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary | Chinatown Becomes Betting Strip

Betting shops invade Chinatown in London. From the recent bad publicity created by these outlets, Chinese businesses are moving out due to their presence.

After covering Fixed Odds Betting Terminal (FOBT) for some time, Xingcai finally commented on their exorbitant minimum bet of £100. Here in Malaysia's only resort class casino, the minimum bet is RM50. At peak hours minimum bet will be raised to RM100. £100 will give approximately RM500. For casinos in other parts of the world, it may to 5-10 times the minimum bet.

Looking at the pictures of these betting shops, I believe their comps is nothing to shout about. At the very least they would have a coffee dispenser. Junk food is likely but perishables like sandwich should be out of the question unless it is house at an adjacent bar. I would just look at the betting shops in UK and cry ... "RIP OFF!"

More on Chinatown's despair and anger on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary | Ivey Admits Edge Sorting

In May 2103 Phil Ivey sued Crockfords to get his winning of £7.8millon paid up. Crockford withheld Ivey's payment by accusing Ivey of cheating and edge sorting began to make big news among gambling fans. With Ivey admitting to being an "advantage player" in his recent court submission, SavySeph covered some legal points that favor Ivey.

Casinos will always see edge sorting as a scam because the foreknowledge aspect gives gambler with good strategy a superior winning edge. Specialized gambling consultants do not see any foul play in being an advantage player. The outcome of the case will depend on which of these two sides the court takes. SavySeph uses a clear cut edge sorting scam to separate cheating and players possessing a winning edge.

While Genting Group or Crockfords thinks they could get away with not honoring bets due to faulty equipment, SavySeph cited a classic case where the casino should be responsible for their own equipment. I could only shake my head in disgust in the disgrace that Genting Group, my homeland casino, had landed themselves into.

More on SavySeph's Webpage.

Commentary | Serial Casino Cheaters

Small time serial casino cheaters are trial before the Hamilton County Municipal Court. They four men who were charged pleaded not guilty.

Judge Bernie Bouchard slap a bond of $40,000 on casino fraudsters. That is kind of heavy considering they are pulling off a small scam of $4695 but the judge used their extensive history of casino theft to justify it.

Small in amount the con-men think it would go undetected but eventually time catches up.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

SavySeph's 36 Casino Gambling Strategies

+XingCai Zhang had made a good summary of the 36 Casino Gambling Tips to justify the tips as The Psychology of Gambling. I will justify them as tactics or strategies so that our guerrillas can use them at the battlefield. Let's revisit old master strategist Sun Zi's, "know yourself, know your enemy, know the terrain and the sky and victory is complete" ideology.

Gambling Emotions

We can view Gambling Emotions as knowledge of inner self.

• Control of Impatience (tip 13)
• Use Fear to Gain Balance (tip 14)
• Curbing of Greed and Pride (tip 15)
• Understanding the Nature of Indecision (tip 16)
• Suppress Covetousness (tip 17)
• Seek out Inner Intuition (tip 18)

Knowing how these elements work in use will better equip us for the battlefield.

Gambling Tools

To complete knowledge of self we need to know our tools or weapons.

• Stewardship to Recordkeeping (tip 19)
• Usage of Varying Bet Size (tip 20)
• Discover Strength & Weakness (tip 21)
• Usage of Timeout (tip 22)
• Capitalize of Opportunities (tip 23)
• Do not Neglect Luck (tip 24)

These are weapons at our disposal. To use them effectively we need to be familiar with it.

Casino's Perspective

Casino's Perspective is seeing things from your enemy's point of view. By doing so, you will have knowledge of the enemy.

• House Edge is Enemy's Advantage (tip 7)
• Randomness is Enemy's built-in Weapon (tip 8)
• Casino Makes Use Gamblers for Publicity (tip 9)
• Casino Protects Itself with Maximum Bet (tip 10)
• Beware of Distraction Tactics (tip 11)
• Casino Uses Black Magic (tip 12)

These are weapons at the enemy's disposal. Watch out for them.

Gambling Essentials

Gambling Essentials deals with knowledge of the land. It help in determining what you can or cannot do to get the position of strategic advantage.

• Fight with Humility (tip 31)
• Allocate for Losses (tip 32)
• Never Reinforce A Losing Battle (tip 33)
• Watch for Sign of Defeat or Victory (tip 34)
• After Hitting We Run (tip 35)
• After Winning Plunder the Enemy (tip 36)

These points addresses the dos and don'ts while in the casino.

Gambling Pitfalls

Gambling Pitfall is knowledge of the sky or factors beyond your control.

• Rage Consume You(tip 25)
• Chase Loss Kills You (tip 26)
• Discontent Agitates You (tip 27)
• Desperation Makes You Vulnerable (tip 28)
• Gambling Beyond Means Destroys You (tip 29)
• Gambling for Trill Enslaves You (tip 30)

These obstacles are ever present in the casino and can trap the most season gambler.

Gambling Myths

Gambling Myth comes under psychological warfare.

• skill or luck (tip 1)
• casino will mark winners (tip 2)
• leave the casino easily (tip 3)
• trends and probability works (tip 4)
• high drawdown (tip 5)
• casino cheats (tip 6)

By accepting the above you will not be easily swayed by the enemy to switch camp.

With these new strategies in addition to the Way of the Guerrilla Gambler, I wish all GGC good hunting.

Commentary | About 36 Casino Gambling Tips

This blog is not needed but I just want to point out that I was right from the start.

1. Similarity to the 36 Strategy
2. Appling Trading Methods to Gambling
3. SavySeph is a Trade and Gambler
4. JJ is related to the scheming engineer

I guess it is human nature to crave for recognition when they are right about someone or something. Okay, I know my vanity is showing.

Commentary | Sounds in Casino Slot Machines Deceive

Twenty years ago casino slot machines make a bell ringing sound when you hit a winning combination. With better memory capacity today, these machines store an average of 400 different sounds.

Sounds had been used to deceive gamblers. These sounds are classed three different type known as wins, losses and losses disguised as wins.

Gambling rage can be triggered by this deception which would problematic gambling behavior.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary|Epilogue to the 36 Casino Gambling Tips

SavySeph concludes the 36 "Strategies" of Casino Gambling with a finale by examining the lives and method of the white and black hats of famous gamblers.

Guerrilla Gamblers Club sure could adpot these 36 Casino Gambling Strategies in their attack on the casino.

Commentary | Polarization of Gamblers

Polarization of gamblers as described on SavySeph's Webpage. had taken place in Malaysia.

Let me bore you with some background before going into the Malaysian scenario. The Genting Group had enjoyed the monopoly as the sole casino in the country for half a century. This gives them a high-brow attitude to gamblers most of the time. If you do not know the Genting Group they had been famous for the wrong reason lately. The two links will give you an account of the arrogance.

1. Ivey Versus Genting Group
2. Genting played into Ivey's Hands

Some 3 to 5 years ago, Genting decided to do away with "top-up bets". These are bets made by other parties in addition to the original bettor. These various third parties place top-up bets because they wanted to bet below the table limits. By topping up their bets on a legitimate bet that meet table limits, their less than minimum bet qualifies as a legitimate bet.

It is common to get top-up bets of RM5 from several parties and it would be a real pain (RM5 could barely get you a MacDonald's combo meal). By doing away with the top-up bets Genting had driven the smaller punters away to online casinos. Genting had always been arrogance about punters having nowhere to turn since they are the only legalized casino in the country. They thought that they managed to educate their patrons to adhere to their min bet policy. To take it a notch further they double the betting limits on their table to get more profitability out of a game. Still maintaining their high nose they did not realized that they had driven more patrons to online competitors. Many UK based online casinos were quick to capitalize on this market and had been flexible to accept bets in RM (notation for Malaysian Currency) and speeding up deposit and withdrawal by tying up with local banks.

SavySeph’s justifications the polarizations of gamblers are a bit different. It from a business perspective and would make an interesting read. The link is on the first paragraph.

Commentary | Phil Ivey

Poker megastar, Phillip Ivey is also a good baccarat player. His ability to perform magic on the baccarat table is as good as printing money.

Ivey's money printing machine brought him a huge win of £7.3 million in two nights at the Crockfords, casino in London.

More on SavySeph's Webpage.

Commentary | Demand for Gambling

XingCai use the growth of illegal gambling dens to prove the robust demand for gambling.

One of the stories covered was the hosting of a cockfighting ring on a ranch by a Romanian princess and her husband who was an ex-lawman.

Gambling profits are so lucrative that those who know the law would be willing to do something that is illegal.

More on illegal gambling dens on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary | Ashley Ravell

Most of us had casually talk about the ultimate all in. By that we mean selling the house, car and everything we own right down to the undergarments. Since this is an idle chat, we would add more to the drama by getting more money through applying for several personal loans with banks. Then we will add applying for a few more credit cards to exhaust out the cash advance. If we win then we will quit gambling. If we lose then we will just run away for the creditors. Nobody will actually go to this extend as these are chats to pass time.

On April 13 2004 at the Plaza Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, one crazy Ashley Ravell actually took this ultimate all in to wage it on a single spin of a roulette wheel. He even went to the extend most Chinese would never do and that was to change his name after a sponsor to get more money for this one final wager in his lifetime.

More on SavySeph's Webpage.

Commentary | Akio Kashiwagi

Akio Kashiwagi would play it for hours wagering a hundred or two hundred thousand per hand. He raked in $6 million within 10 hours. It was the highest win ever in baccarat.

He also holds the record the biggest single loss in the history of baccarat with a loss of $10 million. His tragic death hints at his involvement with the Yakuza.

More on SavySeph' Webpage.

Commentary | Casino Sued for Deception

Like SavySeph I too believes that a casino never cheats Tip 6 or need to resort to dirty tactics (Tip 9 and Tip 11).

Gambling is difficult enough. Having to watch out for caveat will make it unfair. They can have all the caveat in their comp but not when it comes to money and gambling.

Winning in a game of chance is hard. Adding the need to watch for foul play is unacceptable practice. This matter should not even be taken to court. The gambling commission should revoke its license. Of course here in Malaysia our one and only casino would not dare to try such stuns but a few stock brokers here were on the chopping board for using tricky caveats.

More on SavySeph's Webpage.

Commentary | Lip Service to Treating Problem Gambling

XingCai address a concern that treatment for gambling problems does not commensurate with the growth rate of casino.

The scenario appeared to me like pass the ball around which we Malaysian like to refer as the tai-chi game. Tai-chi is the art of diverting the opponent's energy. In the context of our usage, we meant diverting the blame to another party.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary | Charles Wells

With an initial bankroll of £4,000, Charles Wells came to Monte Carlo Casino. He brought along with him two two weapons which was his incredible system and his "perfect" gambling mentality.

In July 1981 he broke the bank at Monte Carlo 12 times in 11 hours. Wells won more than 1 million francs in 3 days. Many people would push and shove to observe his system.

More on SavySeph's Webpage.

Commentary | Joseph Jagger

Joseph Jagger used 9 numbers to break the bank at Monte Carlo Casino. He took home a total winning of £400,000 for an eight day session.

The uncanny part is many people believe Jagger's numbers still works. I know that WildCat and Billy uses a variation of Jagger's numbers as his betting system. There are also many people out there selling roulette betting systems based on Jagger's numbers.

More on SavySeph's Webpage.

By the way I was right about the initial JJ see my previous blog for this coming blog when commenting on SavySeph's Expense the Winning's Blog.

Commentary | Online Gambling on Facebook

Facebook had turned into online casino without people knowing. You can play the game below. It plays like the real baccarat. In casino you take money out and change them into chips. On facebook online casino you use money to buy credits.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Supplementary | Trending to Baccarat

Instead of writing a commentary to Savyseph's webpage Trending to Baccarat, I decided to supplement it.

For most people from the western side of the globe, casino started 1698 in Venezia but betting shops in China had been growing rapidly before recorded history. Dice and pai-gow were the popular games then. Other games were not so easily traceable. The history of betting houses in China is largely based on myth and speculations. In his explanation of pai-gow, Michael Shackleford said that it is the oldest of the casino games that easily pre-dates roulette and baccarat. Pai-gow is similar to baccarat as both games had nine as the high score. Any amount that with a sum that is more than 9 will be subtracted by 10 in order for 9 to be the highest score. With this scoring feature baccarat is easily identified with pai-gow. In pai-gow you get two chances to beat the dealer. In baccarat the second chance is forfeited if there is a natural score to quicken the game. Shackleford calculated that 41% of hands result in a push. Baccarat recognized the letdown of push bets and creatively came up with a high payout in the event of a tie. Pai-gow was addictive because of the skill element to beat your opponent. SavySeph is wise to conclude that baccarat may have developed with inspiration from pai-gow.

Ian Sutton mentioned fan-tan which is in no way similar to pai-gow. Fan-tan overtook pai-gow in popularity due to the high rate of push bets especially when all opponents are equally skilled. This bummer caused people to seek other games where their skills would make the difference and fan-tan was such a game. Chinese had always pride themselves with the skill of the eye. The hand should never be too quick for the eye to avoid being cheated. Fan-tan is a good game to put this skill to practice. The ability to predict the number of straws or beads within a margin of 4 by looking at the stack or pile is the very essence of the skill of the eye in the case of fan-tan. This is the element that makes fan-tan addictive during the days that Sutton was studying.

For Malaysia trending to baccarat already took place in the mid-1980s. In the 70s punter would give an account on how they fared at blackjack. At that time blackjack tables were the majority in the casino. During the mid-80s when I was of age to enter the casino, baccarat tables were became the majority and blackjack tables were almost extinct. The main reason was good players would not like weak player in the same table. Decision of inexperience players to hit or stand may lead to the banker getting the highest score. Shackleford noticed that Caucasian sitting on a pai-gow table would cause other players to leave the table because it is deemed as bad luck. This is just a diplomatic explanation for Shackleford’s ears only. Chinese would know that it is based on the assumption Caucasians wouldn’t know this predominantly Chinese game that well. If they could recognize Shackleford as the Wizard of Odds they would definitely not leave when he sits down.

Supplementary | Casino Accepted Widely

I shall continuing from Xingcai's concluding remark, "the casino is a gun" on Casino Accepted Widely.

You can draw the horse to the water but you can't force it to drink. The Chinese had a similar saying but cows were used instead or horses. Cows are known to be more stubborn than horses. This made me think of the picture below.

The picture was part of a manga from SavySeph's webpage entitled Gambler Jailed for Life which she subsequently pulled out to illustrate the Irish's New Casino Law.

Here is where most people including gambling rehabs bodies or councilors get the wrong idea. It is not the casino or gambling that need to be blame but the individual rotten gamblers who are to be blame. Responsible gamblers with proper self-control do not hand their entire fortune to the casino. They know their limits. Gambling rehabs bodies or councilors should treat the rotten gamblers and not stereotype the casino and gambling. Thankfully, XingCai did not fall into this common misconception.

Commentary | Expense Winning from Gambling

SavySeph is right. Most of use don't know how to spent winnings the right way. Those who had followed the thread would remember that I (faceless) had the same conversation with pinkie and manU two years ago. It is kinda similar to the last of the 36 tip. Check them out on SavySeph's Webpage.

The webpage did cover a few things that we did not touch on. This is a typical last chapter of a trading book. Once you know how to make money, you need to spent it right. Hah, there is no doubt that SavySeph is a trader and a gambler. The first tip is a typical first chapter of a trading book. Now the last tip is a typical last chapter of a trading book. Bravo to SavySeph for sharing her ideas.

Although this may be the 36th Tip SavySeph promised more in an appendix that she had titled as follow.

1. the scheming engineer,
2. the scamming gambler,
3. a Yakuza's death,
4. one lucky shot will do,
5. the magician.

If you like trivial then you should be able to figure it out. In order not to spoil the surprise, I will just make one guess. The initial JJ will be tied to the first item.

Commentary|Firearms at Gambling Shops

Violence at the betting shop had been escalating recently. Robbers are getting more daring by using firearms to rob betting shops.

XingCai pointed out that security measures are bad at these betting shops. In Malaysia nobody even dare think of robbing the illegal betting shops here.

While our betting shops are not physically guarded, they are protected by the triads and gangs. Robbers know they will be hunted down like dogs if they try such a daring venture. In addition, they also keep minimal amount of cash on the premises. I guess the mostly public companies of UK betting shops could not really engage the mafia to protect them.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary | Gambling Wise is Managing Risk

The is what we at GGC call hit and run. The main problem is we do not know when to run.

We are usually face with the issue that we had not cause enough damage and it is not time to run. For this is always comes down to greed as we always think we done too little damage.

It is not about making enough damages. It is about knowing when it the time to leave. SavySeph had outline situations on where you could not go much further. More on SavySeph's Webpage.

Commentary | Casino Supports Politicians

With the Americans it is the Republican and the Democrats taking turns at the helm. In Great Britain the Tories and the Labor Party alternates to control parliament. Supporting either party does not matter in the long run.

As Malaysian we have the tendency to think politics is dirty. The two cases of casino supporting politicians would easily be interpreted as corruption by most Malaysian.

More on XingCai's webpage.

Commentary | Gambling Warning Signs

There are many warning signs around you in the casino. These sign comes in comes in ways you never imagine. You need to be very observant to spot these signs. Unfortunately by the time you sniff them out, it is usually too late.

I knew that science experiments had develop my skill for this. When I eventually acquired a nook for detecting these warning, I was happy. Later I found out that I had to deal with another problem. More on SavySeph's webpage.

Commentary | The Lonely Turns to Gambling

By this confession "That's because I've got no money, I'm a drunk, I'm feeling not very well and I'm a gambler. I've been living on the street," Sansom had indicated that he had enough of gambling and drinking. The next step is to seek professional help.

From living in a £1m mansion, Kenny Sansom went to being homeless. Many people could help Sansom but his children's support is lacking. More on XingCai's webpage.

Commentary | Gambling Reinforcement

Rules on gambling reinforcement is an essential casino survival skill. It is also part of the Way of the Guerrilla. We need to live to fight again so we try to limit our losses to our bankroll.

Trying to adhere strictly to this had not been easy for most of us. We have internal conflicts to deal with because of our gamblers' mindset. After we had depleted our bankroll, most of us have to fight discontentment. If we failed in this task then we fearfully meet the fire eating session.

Commentary | Gambling Shops Profit Down

The largest bookie shop profit decline by half and justify it by putting the blame on the heat wave the Independent reported on 12 Aug 2013.

The boom times of the past three years with 40% profit jumps are not achievable. Ladbrokes told investors that the FOBT is now performing way below expectation as the heat wave a keeping people indoors.

With revenue declining by less than 10% but profits cut by 50% something is not right somewhere. More on Xingcai's webpage.

Commentary | Gambling Expectation

The concept behind Expecting to Lose is taken from trading. I myself had brought this idea from trading into the gambling table. Traders call it cutting your losses. It involve allocating a small amount to lose in the event that your decision is wrong. Should it turn out that you are wrong then you accept this small loss and try again next time.

If losses are kept small it would be easier to recover later. If you allow losses to run the amount maybe too high and it would require several consecutive winning sessions to cover it back. I am not talking about chasing losses. Traders must try to end the day with profits. Failing which, they must try to end the week or month with profits. If you keep losses small, it will manageable. Other winning sessions will cover it to end your week in the plus territory and there will be no losses to chase.

Since we are coming to the ending of the 36 Casino Gambling Tips, I just like to record a side note on my suspicion that SavySeph is also a trader and gambler like me. I had made this reference a few times in the comments on her blog pages but she had been silent on it.

FOBT Gambling Crime

Betting Shops Violence Spread out of UK

After losing €5,000 a punter took an axe and smashed up 7 machines. The crack cocaine of gambling moved over to Italian soil to cause trouble.

It is only a matter of time that FOBT related violence may get as ugly as this manga.

Would you believe he was let off the hook? Find out why on XingCai’s Webpage.

Commentary | Irish New Casino Law

Would you hold people or machine accountable? People do have a tendency to blame the machines especially in taking away jobs.

This is the situation in the recent decision on the Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) in the United Kingdom. More on SavySeph's webpage.

commentary|studentsturntogambling

Save the Student's Survey

Save the Student, a website on money management, conducted a survey on 2,300 students to find out how they fare deal with the mounting cost of living in the UK.

The alarming findings were

• 80% do not have enough money to live
• 20% turn to gambling to resolve money problems
• 25% would consider taking a job in the adult entertainment industry
• 2% thought about going to a payday loan firm.

More on XingCai’s Webpage.

Commentary | Humility at the Table

The 30th tip is about humility. Good old Confucius’s thoughts had been embedded in Chinese even until today. He taught Chinese the value of humility. The irony is Chinese are not good gamblers even though they love gambling.

Humility is the key to controlling all emotions setbacks mentioned in the table below.

Tip C ~ Gambling Emotions	Tip E ~ Gambling Pitfall
Tip 13 ~ Impatience Increase Urge	Tip 25 ~ Rage’s Rampage
Tip 14 ~ Fear Restrain Desire to Gamble	Tip 26 ~ Chasing Losses
Tip 15 ~ Over Confidence Backfires	Tip 27 ~ Post Loss Discontentment
Tip 16 ~ Indecision Causes Regrets	Tip 28 ~ Gambling on Borrowed Money
Tip 17 ~ Coveteousness Increases Greed	Tip 29 ~ Gambling Beyond Your Means
Tip 18 ~ Don't Ignore Intuition	Tip 30 ~ Gambling for the Thrills of Gambling

Commentary | Gambling Essentials

Here are the last set of six tips from SavySeph's 36 Casino Gambling Tips.

• Maintain Humility Always
• Expect to Lose
• Reinforcement is Unnecessary
• Observe Warning Signs
• Prudent Cash Management
• Expense the Winnings

Two of these are in common with our Way of the Guerrilla.

Gambling for Trills

Gambling can sidetrack you into acquiring the thrill of having a stake. You will meet your doom if that happens. As we say in GGC “no medicine can save you” if you continue on that path. This is the gambler’s highway to hell.

Re-examine your goals and priority when you get derail. This will help set you right again.

Commentary | Legalized Loan Sharks

In Malaysia we are familiar with dwelling places being splashed with red paints as a gift from the loan sharks to humiliate the dwellers to pay up their dues. They would also send people to their clients' work place to tell everyone about their lavish spending habits for those with credit cards debts or their landu attributes for the incorrigible compulsive gamblers.

Since loan sharks are illegal in Malaysia they operated on a very low profile and use the method of a credit card debt collector. They certainly would not accidentally beat their client to death as they used to in the long past because that will not recover their loans. Mental whipping in the form of humiliation in every conceivable form is the usual routine these days.

Here I go again with my schadenfreude tendencies. I think loan sharks being illegal here is bad but I have not seen the UK. These guys are legal but they operate above the law. They really hit below the belt by approaching those who are drunk. There is more on XingCai's Gambling Tales.

Commentary | Gambling Beyond Means

From the last blog, I mention that our GGC thread had been around in a general affair forum since 2007. Not only have we received request to help recover money they assign for other purpose but also to recover money they had borrowed. Some were even desperate enough to admit they borrowed from loan sharks hoping to get our sympathy to put some urgency to their cause. All we could offer were words and nothing more. SavySeph would just ask them to go to the rehab centers. We should be doing that from today since we had YC (our in-house rehab worker).

Commentary | Desperate Gamblers

As a gambling-fan topic on a general affairs forum, GGC's activity had drawn a lot of attention. With the thread opened in 2007 and continues to remain active until today, many readers in the forum think we are some invincible gambling gurus. It is common for us to hear people come to the thread seeking our help to recover money they can’t afford to lose as if we have some miraculous ways to do it.

SavySeph discuss the process of gambling when you are desperate for money. As a seasoned gambler, she covered the typical BR of people who had gamble to solve their financial problems. It is similar to the various sorry cases who had come to our thread for help. We can only point these people to the Way of the Guerrilla and tell them gambling must be free from cares.

Commentary | Gambling Addicts to Hell

XingCai’s article “Addicts To Hell Is One Goood Article. It Opens Up And Speaks To The Whole Realm Of Human Need”, John Wakefield's comments at facebook on 2 Aug 2013 at 9:56am. I love the way XingCai attacked Singapore’s Casino Policy. Perhaps it is my schadenfreude nature to see Singapore come under heavy criticism. I am sure Malaysians are laughing their ass off to find Singaporeans being more landu than us. They are so desperately landu until they can use their mum’s identity card to enter the casino. When the price is right I am sure they will sell their mothers to get a chance to gamble.

Commentary | Gambling Discontented

Many times we are hesitant to leave the casino. We think that we just need that one more chance and we can even things up. We have not willing surrendered to the session. We can’t accept the defeat.

We still harbor discontentment in our hearts. “Who care”, you will say but little did you realize that the “big ear hole” or the loan shark is watching your every move. He is just waiting for the right time to make his approach to maximize his sale.

Commentary | Casino Cheated 500k

Two con-men from New York Leonard Hu and Hung Leung collaborated with two dealers Jian Ng and Bong Louie from Norwich to cheat the Mohegan Sun casino. They had scammed $500,000 by using edge sorting over five months period. If edge did not come into the limelight due to Genting’s stupidity for being caught by the same trick, the scammers would likely to have continued undetected. Here is XingCai’s Analysis of the event.

Commentary | Even Nations Bow to Casino

Genting started with only one miserable casino hall some 50 years ago. Today it houses resort facilities and several massive casino halls. It is a common joke among many Malaysian as well as GGC members to say they had contributed to the development in Genting. The casino resort's contribution to the economy over the years had been so significant that its founder had been conferred "Tan Sri" by the Malaysian Regent.

XingCai's Nations Bow to Casinos looks at Cyprus having this aspiration as they planned to build a casino in the next 12 months. While Genting's development was contributed by gamblers over the bad and good economic cycles, XingCai raised an important question on the ability of bankrupted Cyprus to pull it off.

XingCai's Landu Tales

I had decided to blog on XingCai’s Gambling Tales. Over the time that XingCai had been blogging on Google’s Blogger I found her content would be of interest of GGC members. Many times we get spammer dropping gambling news on or thread which are of no interest to gamblers. Details such as casino’s extraordinary profits or operations reports are stuff we do not even bother to take a second glance at the heading. News of this nature would only interest the economist and equity market traders. Another turn off would be the introduction or review of online casinos. These are no news to us since most of us had googled them up already.

GGC is interested in Battle Reports (BR), gambling strategies or landu stories. The term landu is not listed in our terminology page because it is a common Chinese word. At our localized Malaysian forum this word need no introduction. Coming on to Blogger our audience is more international and the word landu will now be defined here. Landu is a compound word consisting two words; lan and du. Du is translated as gamble or gambling. Lan had various usage but in the context of landu it means compulsive behavior or fan as in obsession. Depending on context landu can be a “gambling fan” or the more negative connotation “incorrigible gambling addict”. Malaysians would use a coined up English word rotten-gambler to describe the latter. Due to the tonal nature of Chinese, lan has the same sound as rotten or broken.

XingCai’s Gambling Tales could actually be renamed Landu Tales. From XingCai’s comments on SavySeph’s 36 Casino Gambling Tips, she strikes me as a newbie gambler. After seeing her Home Page, I learned that she aspire to be a gambling counselor. I believe she gambled for the sake of understanding gamblers so that she will be of relevant help to the rotten gamblers. I now begin to understand her switch from gambling-fan to anti-gambling voice. At any which case XingCai’s Gambling Tales would certainly be of interest to GGC.

Commentary | Chasing Losses

In GGC we had heard people chase losses, yet some of us still continue to do it. Chasing losses is only attractive to a newbie. Some of us who had chalk up catastrophic losses would tell the thread they want to join QGC but they would not take the first step to see YC (our in-house rehab worker). This is all about pride. They do not want to admit they need help but their action tell everyone that they are just amateurs.

Commentary | Gambling Rage

Rage mode does not need a long definition for us here at GGC. This term is also easily understood by our younger players who are combat games fans but our average gambler prefer to use the term “eat fire”. We are totally familiar with this as it is often describe by “flame covering the eyes”. When the fire or anger comes it is so great that is had completely covered our sight. It is also common for us to hear people put the blame on witchcraft using spiritual beings to cover their eyes with flames. I must say this is the one time I must follow +Abby Zhang  and +xingcai zhang  to say I want to give the picture a fb-like. The flames covering the eyes in the picture is completely in accordance to Chinese description of this behavior.

Commentary | Gambling Pitfalls

Avoid these six bad habits.

• Rage’s Rampage
• Chasing Losses
• Post Loss Discontentment
• Gambling on Borrowed Money
• Gambling Beyond Your Means.
• Gambling for the Thrills of Gambling

To some extend these are unwritten rules in GGC. Even though we do not include the negative elements of gambling in the Way of the Guerrilla, we know what they are and try to avoid them. What is more ironic is knowing they are bad we sometimes get carried away and do it.

Commentary | Gambling Luck

This tip on relying solely on luck is a bit tricky. We know of the times when luck is not good, every which way we go we will lose. This is a “buy what lose what” case as we say in GGC. How then can we count on luck when it was not present in the first place?

After giving it some thought, I realized that we did not rely totally on luck when we started out. The element of skill is always present in our decision making. It is a skill and luck combination that we started off with. The skill part is usually in the form of trend reading for the baccarat players. The roulette players would likely use some form of ballistic projection in their prediction.

The main key as SavySeph pointed out is to go to the game you had zero knowledge. You would of course need to know at least house edge to avoid going for sucker’s bet. This zero knowledge would throw skill out of the picture so that anything which remains is purely luck.

Schadenfreude Refreshes Parts

I first came by the word schadenfreude recently in SavySeph’s Tip 17. It means to rejoice in the misfortune of others as stated in the website. Now I am puzzled as I was read that “schadenfreude refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach”. I checked the online dictionaries and Wikipedia and these sources confirm that SavySeph used the word correctly. If anyone knows how schadenfreude refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach, please leave a comment. Thanks.

Commentary | Exploit Bias Moments

Our fight with randomness is never ending in the casino. Without must success the frustration get the better of us. Sometimes we will be bless because in all the randomness, there will come a brief moment of biasness. Most of the time we are caught up with our frustration and missed this moment. These are the time we come back pissed then log in a BR with the phrase "buy what, lose what" or whatever we bet on we end up losing.

Commentary | Abstain Gambling

In Malaysian's slang water refers to money depending on the context. This tips reminds me of a superstition we discussed on our forum a few years back. It requires drinking a lot of water frequently especially the moment you get in the casino. Since water is a comp provided by the casino without fuss, there is no problem getting it. It is good symbolically to take water (money in this context) from the casino the moment you enter. That way water/money will flow in from the start. The constant intake of water will ensure that money keeps flowing in.

Enthusiasts who tried it reported an expected biological side effect. They keep visiting the toilet. I actually buy this superstition for scientific reason. People usually don’t drink enough water and the trips to the toilet act as force breaks. The exercise will also do you good.

Commentary | Post Gambling Analysis

SavySeph have some useful tips on things to include in the Post Game Analysis. When someone post a Battle Report or BR (a summarized account of our gambling session - for detail account of GGC BR format please see our terminology page), others would response with a congratulatory message. We should be looking at the strength and weaknesses and some of the pointers SavySeph mentioned in a fellow comrade's BR. If other could spot something that needed correcting, we should also shoot it out. This way we could help a fellow comrade. The the typical congratulatory message is still good to give encouragement.

Commentary | Bet Size

The issue of bet size had been a topic that is frequently discussed in our GGC forum at lowyat. SavySeph used an individual's income to determine bet size. I believe this way of determining bet size would resolve our issue of bet size at GGC. A bet size that is too small will give 'no kick' when winning. Conversely a bet that is too big may cause problems when losing that may lead to irresponsible gambling.

Commentary | Keeping Gambling Record

SavySeph urges people who are serious about gambling to keep records. To some extend GGC also encourages the keeping of records by posting BR or Battle Reports (a summarized account of our gambling session - for detail account of GGC BR format see our terminology page.) One of the problems with our BR is the tendency for members to only report winning BR and withhold the losing ones. It is okay to withhold your loosing BR from the thread. Some losses do make you feel stupid and you do not want to share it. As long as you have discipline to keep good records that you can easily retrieve you will learn from your mistakes.