DISCIPLINE (Part 2)
To offer the easiest guideline, discipline in gambling simply means to remain conscious of the value of your money and conscious of your desired goals and objectives. It means, mostly, not to allow yourself to be drawn into the very comfortable, but financially deadly, “why not, it’s only money?” syndrome. Once you have experienced the casino lifestyle a few times, you will often hear many people say things like that. These people, trapped in the losses they have incurred, are now trying to rationalize. They don’t actually expect anyone else to be listening to them, or to really understand what expressions such as this really mean. They have just resigned themselves to the loss of all their money, and to the “I no longer care” attitude. That’s the danger sign. Once you stop caring about the value of the money you are using to play—or are winning—then you have lost the discipline which comes with realizing that this money isn’t just coins, tokens, or gaming chips. This money actually spends, the same as it does when you are buying food, gas for your car, paying bills, and so on. It is real money, and it has real meaning. Discipline means to remember this, and play accordingly.
This doesn’t mean that you must be, or should be, a miser. Playing too carefully is also a prescription for disaster. I have already mentioned that “scared” money flies away quickly. Don’t play that way. To win, you must play aggressively and with a sufficient bankroll to justify your level of action. All of this is covered in the other Keys to Winning. Discipline is the glue that holds it all together. Once the glue stops holding, it all falls apart.
