Dice and the Devil
20 December 2004
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
You might find this a bit weird, but my brother
is obsessed with the number six and its
religious implications. He never plays the six
in roulette, the lottery, six or 66 in keno, nor
will he play place the six in craps (as you
often recommend) because of its association with
the devil. Have you ever heard of such a thing?
Daniel S.
It's tough, Daniel, switching hats from a Math
Guy to an amateur Psychologist, and while I have
never known anyone with just the obsession you
describe, it is not uncommon for someone to
ascribe magical properties to something
numerical. Your question does remind me of a pit
boss I once knew who when deciding on how the
shift was going to go for the casino that night,
would roll three die; if they came up all sixes,
and the date was also odd, bad spirits
surrounded the pit, and all hell would break
loose that evening.
While numerology has different meanings to
different people and situations, it is my
impression that people tend to find magical
properties and wisdom in things they really
don't understand very well; like numbers: no
13th floors in casino hotels; don't light three
cigarettes on a single match; the 666/Satan
foolishness; numerology; astrology; it's a long
list.
As for 666/Satan numerology, the number 666 is a
sign in the Christian Bible's Book of
Revelations that supposedly says that the Beast
or Satan is named, can be identified with, or is
connected to it. Yet, as Isaac Asimov pointed
out with charming clarity, in ancient Hebrew the
same symbols were used both for letters and for
numbers, so that a given series of symbols could
be read as a word or as a number. It so happened
that the three-consonant (vowels were not
written) word standing for the devil could also
be read as the number 666, which is still
promoted among the credulous as the number of
Satan or of the Beast. People, still, and quite
sincerely, find ways of deriving the number 666
from the name or other features of a person or
thing, thus proving its association with Satan.
The assigning of values to the letters of
person's name and totting them up to discover
some significant fact will always be popular
with people who probably dropped out of eighth
grade math and have never been concerned with
logic. I say, Daniel, keep placing the six in
craps, unless of course at your next Tarot card
reading before a casino visit the 15th card in
the deck appears. It is the Devil card, which
can stand for a warning against the destructive
consequences of your actions when motivated by
greed.
Dear Mark,
Is there any difference between baccarat and
mini-baccarat? Muriel S.
Baccarat and mini-baccarat are very similar with
but a few exceptions. On a mini-baccarat table,
a dealer deals all the hands and the players are
not allowed to handle the cards. The other
difference is that the betting minimums are
always lower on mini-baccarat table. Other than
that, the rules are virtually the same.
As for betting opportunities, both games carry
the same house edge on all three wagers. The
player bet has a 1.36% casino advantage, the
banker bet, a 1.17% house edge, and the tie
wager, a bet you should never make, carries a
hefty house advantage of 14.1%.
Gambling quote of the week: "His luck was so bad
that when he caught the ace of spades it had the
funeral parlor logo on it." Tex Sheahan, Tales
out of Tulsa (1984)
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