Illusory Personal Control as a Determinant of Bet Size and Type in Casino Craps Games1 (original) (raw)

2000, Journal of Applied Social Psychology

Sociologist James Henslin (1 967) noted many what he labeled magical or superstitious strategies of back-alley craps players that, in particular, appear to reflect belief in the controllability of the outcome. They threw the dice softly for a low number and hard for high numbers. They talked to the dice, and rubbed them on themselves, the floor, and other people, both to enhance their own control and to take away control from others. They believed that effort ("workin' at it") and concentration would have positive effects, and that luck would rub off from successful other gamblers. They touched gamblers who were doing well, and avoided those who were not, and attempted to control the outcomes by the size of their bets. Henslin's (1 967) craps players also believed in a kind of reverse gambler's fallacy, known as "knocking the points off the dice." This referred to the belief that if the previous shooter had won too many points, there would be no more points available for the next shooter to win. More modem casino craps players appear to have similar magical strategies and superstitions, as we observed in the course of this research. Some concerned magical strategies to try to personally control the outcome, such as: (a) Players would talk to the dice, asking for numbers (or yell out the desired number or combination); (b) many players would wait to take a turn shooting the dice until the dice "warmed up"; (c) players would place dice to their forehead and concentrate, blow on them, or knock them on the table before throwing; and (d) they would stack the dice on top of each other with the desired digits both facing upward and hold them in this position to throw. Others could more accurately be described as superstitions (beliefs concerning the relationship between certain events and the next outcome). For example, players expressed beliefs such as: (a) When a die leaves the table, the next roll will be a seven; (b) when the dice hit someone's hand, that roll will be a seven; (c) never mention the number seven when someone is rolling (or the next roll will be a seven); (d) a woman who has never rolled the dice will have a hot roll the first time out (the "virgin" principle); (e) men who have never rolled the dice