Pearls of Wisdom... and Luck: Gambling Quotations

Behind gambling, casinos, games and luck is an entire universe and a whole philosophy to go along with it. Since the first casino-style bet ever made, probably between two cavemen betting how many spears will it take to bring down a wild boar, there have been people who tried to understand the laws (or lack of) of luck and what makes us all dare fate and guess the future.

Before you are 28 quotes ranging from "mere" poker players such as Nick Dandalos to geniuses such as Albert Einstein. All of them encompassed, each in his own way, an aspect of the gambling world and even of the gambling concept. Together they offer an insight into that strange twist of fate that we call luck and to the timeless universal phenomenon which we call gambling.

• Albert Einstein, famous physicist: "You cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it."

• Jack Yelton: "There is a very easy way to return from a casino with a small fortune: go there with a large one."

• Owen Felltham: "By gaming we lose both our time and treasure - two things most precious to the life of man."

• Simon Noble, an Austrian-based internet bookmaker: "Gambling is the future on the internet. You can only look at so many dirty pictures."

• Kin Hubbard: "The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket."

• Jim Jones: "A man's gotta make at least one bet a day, else he could be walking around lucky and never know it."

• Steve Allen, entertainer: "I used to be a heavy gambler. But now I just make mental bets. That's how I lost my mind."

• Dean Martin, singer & actor: "When your opponent's sittin' there holdin' all the aces, there's only one thing to do: kick over the table."

• Former US president Bill Clinton: Commenting on his mother's visit to Las Vegas on the weekend before she died: "She got to go to heaven four days early."

• Franz Rosenthal, Gambling in Islam (1975): "The subject of gambling is all encompassing. It combines man's natural play instinct with his desire to know about his fate and his future."

• Roger Fleming: "Why otherwise would that dignified fellow dressed like a banker be sitting at a machine murmuring; "Talk to me baby, I know you understand my needs."

• Chico Marx, comedian: "If I lose today, I can look forward to winning tomorrow, and if I win today, I can expect to lose tomorrow. A sure thing is no fun."

• Richard Albert Canfield: "They gambled in the Garden of Eden and they will again if there's another one."

• Mario Puzo, Author, Inside Las Vegas: "It can be argued that man's instinct to gamble is the only reason he is still not a monkey up in the trees."

• Andrew Beyer: "I've learned the lesson that the worst thing that can happen to a gambler is to let his recent losses or wins knock him off keel emotionally."

• Timothy L. O'Brien, Bad Bet (1998): "Judged by the dollars spent, gambling is now more popular in America than baseball, the movies, and Disneyland - combined."

• Mark Pilarski: "The smarter you play, the luckier you'll be."

• Pope John XXIII: "Italians come to ruin most generally in three ways, women, gambling, and farming. My family chose the slowest one."

• Ralph Waldo Emeerson: "Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect."

• Nick Dandalos, casino poker champion: "The house doesn't beat the player. It just gives him the opportunity to beat himself."

• Nick Dandalos, casino poker champion: "The only difference between a winner and a loser is character."

• Annabel Davis-Goff, The Literary Companion to Gambling: "When a gambler picks up a pack of cards or a pair of dice, he feels as though he has reduced an unmanageable world to a finite, visible and comprehensive size."

• Mark Twain, author: "Fortune knocks at every man's door once in a lifetime, but in a good many cases the man is in a neighboring saloon and does not hear her."

• Jean Cocteau, artist & poet: "I believe in luck. How else can you explain the success of those you dislike?"

• Amarillo Slim: "Nobody is always a winner, and anybody who says he is, is either a liar or doesn't play poker."

• Benjamin Franklin, former US president: "Diligence is the mother of good luck."
  

• Orson Welles, actor & director: "Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck."

• Wilson Mizner: "The only sure thing about luck is that it will change".

• Phil Hellmuth, casino poker champion: "If it weren't for luck, I'd win every time."

• Yiddish proverb: "Better an ounce of luck than a pound of gold".

• Swedish proverb: "Luck never gives, it only lends."

• Harold S. Smith Sr., I Want to Quit Winners: "Gambling itself will only end when human nature has changed completely and there are no more bets to win."