Visit a golf course and meet the golf pro.
Go to a tennis club and consult the tennis pro.
Join a health club and chat with an array of attractive fitness instructors eager to offer tips on living a better life.
The above illustration is drawn to illustrate businesses providing customer education to promote a happy, healthy experience within their environs.
Unfortunately for gamblers, we rarely experience quality customer service, let alone basic customer education.
Worse yet, gambling operators are more interested in distraction than education.
It starts with casino chips, a wildly-profitable creation of the gaming industry.
Chips create a mental separation between the gambler and his hard-earned dollars.
Unlike coins, gaming chips are one standard size regardless of their value, a subtle piece of deception.
And if the house doesn't fool the customer by serpentine means, they do it more overtly.
Sexy cocktail waitresses are casino employees who not only offer free drinks to casino players, but they also divert a gambler's attention, whether intentionally or unintentionally, from the game at hand.
Reward programs, on the surface, appear to benefit a casino player with token rebates of their gambling action through complimentary food, drink or hotel accommodations.
However, player tracking cards also provide the house with a detailed scouting report on a gambler's strengths and weaknesses.
What's more, the concept of earning reward points sometimes influences confused gamblers to accumulate points rather than profits.
Sports bettors also fall prey to making poor choices.
Betting options from a perilous menu offered by cunning operators are made available to entice gamblers who desire to bet a little to win a lot (parlays), lack confidence in their handicapping ability (teasers) or crave constant action (in-game wagering).
These alternatives cause gamblers to select betting pools with higher hold percentages than the traditional 4.54% available with straight-bet pricing of 11/10.
Howard Schwartz, former marketing director at Gambler's Book Club, once provided insight on the casino industry's view of customer education when asked about his store location in downtown Las Vegas at 630 South 11th Street.
Schwartz said, "We researched a retail location inside a Strip casino but the rent was expensive and the casino expressed little or no interest in educating losing gamblers. And I don't blame them."
Joe Lupo, one-time Director of Race and Sports Book Operations at the Stardust Hotel and Casino, delivered a funny response about educating his customer base.
He reacted to questions about housing a library inside the sports book where scores, stats and injury reports were supplied by a company called Computer Sports World.
Lupo claimed, "If sports bettors use the information posted in the Stardust Sports Handicappers' Library to beat us, then more power to them."
He then cracked, "Besides, we keep the good stuff in the back."
With Major League Baseball's All-Star Game upon us, let's ask 10 questions to a sports bettor with all the answers, the type of bettor who ideally would be employed by a sports book to man an information desk.
1) To gauge a team's performance during intermission of the 2019 MLB season, should a handicapper compare a team's projected number of victories to the regular-season win total at the beginning of the season OR track the units won or units lost versus the daily betting market?
2) Which MLB team wins more often, the team that scores the first run of the game or the team that scores the last run of the game?
3) True or False: The single most important factor in handicapping a baseball game is the historical performance of today's starting lineup against today's starting pitcher.
4) Discuss the following weather conditions and their impact on MLB scoring: Temperature, humidity, wind, precipitation and barometric pressure.
5) In this age of swing-and-miss baseball, should we assign a greater value for a pitcher who records a called-third strikeout rather than a swinging strikeout?
6) Which pitching stat is more significant: A pitcher's career performance against today's opponent or a pitcher's historical performance at today's site?
7) Are there ways to identify pitchers or position players who are struggling with drug addictions or steroid abuse?
8) What's the best piece of available information to judge the tendencies of home-plate umpires?
9) A popular baseball axiom says to forget what happened yesterday and ignore what took place last season. How much truth lies in that old saw?
10) If given only one choice, would you bet against MLB opening numbers or MLB closing numbers?
Next month, I return home to the States where I plan to visit a sharp sports bettor who usually provides answers to all my questions.
He's a wizard at math, logic, probability and problem-solving with a special feel for the sporting world.
Everyone should have a friend like EOG ombudsman ComptrBob.
Go to a tennis club and consult the tennis pro.
Join a health club and chat with an array of attractive fitness instructors eager to offer tips on living a better life.
The above illustration is drawn to illustrate businesses providing customer education to promote a happy, healthy experience within their environs.
Unfortunately for gamblers, we rarely experience quality customer service, let alone basic customer education.
Worse yet, gambling operators are more interested in distraction than education.
It starts with casino chips, a wildly-profitable creation of the gaming industry.
Chips create a mental separation between the gambler and his hard-earned dollars.
Unlike coins, gaming chips are one standard size regardless of their value, a subtle piece of deception.
And if the house doesn't fool the customer by serpentine means, they do it more overtly.
Sexy cocktail waitresses are casino employees who not only offer free drinks to casino players, but they also divert a gambler's attention, whether intentionally or unintentionally, from the game at hand.
Reward programs, on the surface, appear to benefit a casino player with token rebates of their gambling action through complimentary food, drink or hotel accommodations.
However, player tracking cards also provide the house with a detailed scouting report on a gambler's strengths and weaknesses.
What's more, the concept of earning reward points sometimes influences confused gamblers to accumulate points rather than profits.
Sports bettors also fall prey to making poor choices.
Betting options from a perilous menu offered by cunning operators are made available to entice gamblers who desire to bet a little to win a lot (parlays), lack confidence in their handicapping ability (teasers) or crave constant action (in-game wagering).
These alternatives cause gamblers to select betting pools with higher hold percentages than the traditional 4.54% available with straight-bet pricing of 11/10.
Howard Schwartz, former marketing director at Gambler's Book Club, once provided insight on the casino industry's view of customer education when asked about his store location in downtown Las Vegas at 630 South 11th Street.
Schwartz said, "We researched a retail location inside a Strip casino but the rent was expensive and the casino expressed little or no interest in educating losing gamblers. And I don't blame them."
Joe Lupo, one-time Director of Race and Sports Book Operations at the Stardust Hotel and Casino, delivered a funny response about educating his customer base.
He reacted to questions about housing a library inside the sports book where scores, stats and injury reports were supplied by a company called Computer Sports World.
Lupo claimed, "If sports bettors use the information posted in the Stardust Sports Handicappers' Library to beat us, then more power to them."
He then cracked, "Besides, we keep the good stuff in the back."
With Major League Baseball's All-Star Game upon us, let's ask 10 questions to a sports bettor with all the answers, the type of bettor who ideally would be employed by a sports book to man an information desk.
1) To gauge a team's performance during intermission of the 2019 MLB season, should a handicapper compare a team's projected number of victories to the regular-season win total at the beginning of the season OR track the units won or units lost versus the daily betting market?
2) Which MLB team wins more often, the team that scores the first run of the game or the team that scores the last run of the game?
3) True or False: The single most important factor in handicapping a baseball game is the historical performance of today's starting lineup against today's starting pitcher.
4) Discuss the following weather conditions and their impact on MLB scoring: Temperature, humidity, wind, precipitation and barometric pressure.
5) In this age of swing-and-miss baseball, should we assign a greater value for a pitcher who records a called-third strikeout rather than a swinging strikeout?
6) Which pitching stat is more significant: A pitcher's career performance against today's opponent or a pitcher's historical performance at today's site?
7) Are there ways to identify pitchers or position players who are struggling with drug addictions or steroid abuse?
8) What's the best piece of available information to judge the tendencies of home-plate umpires?
9) A popular baseball axiom says to forget what happened yesterday and ignore what took place last season. How much truth lies in that old saw?
10) If given only one choice, would you bet against MLB opening numbers or MLB closing numbers?
Next month, I return home to the States where I plan to visit a sharp sports bettor who usually provides answers to all my questions.
He's a wizard at math, logic, probability and problem-solving with a special feel for the sporting world.
Everyone should have a friend like EOG ombudsman ComptrBob.
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