So, you think that you are a lucky winner, that you are lucky enough to be holding the winning ticket to something or another. Well, first, Pilgrims, let me say that before we talk about luck in gambling, one should first consider the probability theory, the precise principles formulated by Galileo, Pascal, Fermat and Newton. They espoused what results can be expected to happen when one takes a chance on anything. And of course Lady Luck was not figured into their equations. And what does Lady Luck have to with gambling? Why, nothing at all!

But that doesn't stop the gambler from believing that the fall of the dice or the turn of a card is controlled by some supernatural force. I've seen gamblers bet on numbers seen in dreams, so they shout as they toss the dice. And if they crap out they demand new dice and a crew substitution to "change their luck". Idiotic superstitions runs high in gamblers, from never betting on anything on Fridays to demanding a "certain spot" at the table or they won't play! Me? I'm superstitious about gambling too. I won't gamble against adverse odds!

Luck, the dictionary says, is defined as a person's apparent tendency to be unfortunate or fortunate. Anyone who believes that he has a better chance at winning in gambling just because he feels luckier than another is no smarter that the customers of the sorcerers and witches of the Middle Ages, the African voodoo doctor or the gypsy fortuneteller who reads tea leaves. It's useless for you to think that the odds on dice or any other gamblin' game are not different for different people at different times and that some supernatural force is working for you simply because you carry a rabbit's foot.

One of the first things we know as professionals is that the marvelous run of luck you had yesterday or last week isn't always as astonishing as it seems. Even though you hear that some rare bet only pays once in a million and a half throws that doesn't mean only your throws. There are thousands of guys out there eating up that statistic so, by the time you come along, that statistic is ready to pay off!

One evening, on January 8, 1952, at the Caribe Hilton casino in San Juan Puerto Rico, my pit boss told me he was thunderstruck to see a woman set a worlds record, one that still holds today, at the Craps table by making 39 consecutive passes. That, Pilgrims, comes under the phenomenal statistic of one trillion to one that the ivories would roll that way. But, when you think of the millions and millions of players who rolled the dice billions and billions of times in hundreds and hundreds of gamblin' joints in America during the past fifty years, then that feat is not as miraculous as it sounds. What is even more peculiar is that my pit boss was there to witness it. The odds against that are many times greater!

But don't get excited, Pilgrim, and expect to walk up to a Craps table tomorrow and throw 39 straight passes. The odds are still one million to one that you won't.