Kevinlfpdw wrote: "After learning that Bob Dancer is the owner of a
casino consulting business- <http://www.compdance.com/>
http://www.compdance.com/ and the fact that he obviously sells books to
players, someone might question the ethics of burning both ends of the
candle."
Jean Scott has questioned my ethics in two separate posts (including
once for the "unethical" practice of finding it humorous that the
software they call "Frugal" (which means thrifty or cheap) is the
highest-priced one on the market.)
Although I don't perceive either of these posts as friendly, I'm glad
they brought up the subject. The main reason I joined vpFREE
approximately one month ago is to confront these charges head on.
I understand that there are several people who have a firm opinion about
me --- plus or minus. For some, any defense I make will be like George W
Bush trying to convince the Democrats that he's a good guy, or on the
other side of the spectrum, Bill Clinton convincing the Republicans that
he's pretty cool. I have nothing in common with either of these men
other than some people have strong reactions to me. For those of you who
are interested in hearing my take on this, here goes.
I am very knowledgeable about video poker and I sell video poker
information to all potential buyers. In a nutshell, that's who I am and
what I do.
I sell information to players, casinos, game manufacturers, game
designers, and I've appeared as an expert witness in various lawsuits.
I've appeared on dozens of television and radio programs as an expert. I
write (sometimes for pay and sometimes to advertise my products) for a
number of publications --- including some for players and some for
casinos. I do not see any contradiction in selling to a variety of
buyers any more than an automobile dealer should care whether the people
who purchase his cars live on the north or south side of the tracks.
Just because certain players see things in black and white (that the
players are the good guys and the casinos are the bad guys), I do not
feel bound by that perception. Where ethics comes in here is that the
information I sell is the best I can produce. And I continually work to
come up with new information. There are well over 100 articles archived
on bobdancer.com. Go ahead and look for duplicates. And then go look at
a sample of articles by other writers and see how many of their current
articles are rehashes of old ones.
In the past week I was contacted by a casino (not in greater Vegas) who
wanted me to help them have the loosest video poker in their particular
geographic area. Once they changed their machines appropriately, and
adjusted their slot club (with my help), they wanted an advertising
campaign of something like "Bob Dancer says that xxxxxx has the best
video poker in yyyyyy." They want me to come in and teach some classes
to their players, and while doing so explain to these players why this
casino is the best place to play.
My fee for this is in the $10,000 - $15,000 range --- depending. I feel
qualified to do this task, and the casino feels they are getting good
bang for their buck. (Is there anyone here who seriously believes that
if Dan, Jean, or Skip were offered $10,000-$15,000 to do this that they
would refuse?) I see nothing unethical in this. Perhaps you do. But me
allowing you to make these decisions for me is analogous to you letting
me decide whether you should drink, smoke, what games you should play,
and who your friends should be. I don't know anyone who would want to
let me make these decisions for them --- and I don't see why I should be
bothered about whether you think I should help this casino or not. Most
of the consulting I do for casinos is similar to this.
The main reason people pay me for my knowledge is that they think that
what I have to say is valuable. That's the same reason players buy the
Winner's Guides (of which I'm a co-author) or my books. It is very
common for writers to be hired by the industry. Skip and Jean have both
cashed checks from Compton Dancer for doing work to and for casinos. If
we thought Dan was qualified to do this kind of work, we'd offer him
some money to assist us. But we don't, so we won't.
It is one thing for someone to say they'd never take money from casinos
as a matter of principle when they've been asked by a number of casinos
to do work. It's another thing altogether to say you'd never do work for
casinos if it is unlikely that a casino would never want you to. This is
like me taking a self-righteous position saying that if the Los Angeles
Lakers wanted to hire me to play center, I would refuse to do so on
moral grounds. (Never mind the fact that I'm 58, not in particularly
good shape, and was never a strong basketball player even when younger.
I'm still refusing to play for the Lakers on moral grounds).
In the casino, there is mostly a competition between players, but also a
competition between the player and the house. The idea of "gamesmanship"
often means doing things to gain an edge over the other players (such as
crinkling your tickets in a drawing --- arranging to give a scarce
machine to a friend at a particular time rather than
first-come-first-served, etc.). Sometimes it means doing things to gain
an edge over the house (such as pulling your card on jackpots, or
cashing one "limit one per day" coupon on one side of the casino and
then doing it again on the other side, or maybe letting a friend pick up
your free play even though the casino wants each person to do it for
himself/herself.) There are a number of these "tricks". Many successful
players have used one or more of them. It would surprise me if there was
a successful player who never did any of these things. What makes me
different from others in this regard is that I've admitted to these
things in print. Does that make me a worse offender than others? Or
merely an easier target because you know about some of the times I've
done it and you don't know about some of the times others have done it?
(I personally find Jean's admission in print that she used to leave the
shower on all night long in casino hotel rooms to keep her skin moist to
be far less ethical than anything I've ever done in a casino --- given
that Vegas is in the desert, water is scarce, and throwing away tens of
thousands of gallons of water a night is an extremely selfish thing to
do).
In the month I've been here, I've been quite surprised with the relative
lack of personal attacks against me. Several friends have forwarded
things said about me here previously, and I'm sure there are fewer such
attacks now that I'm regularly contributing. And I thank you all for
that --- and especially the administrator, whoever he/she is.
One definition of ethics might include fraudulently pretending to be
something you're not. And that's not me. I tell you who I am. You might
now like it, but I'm honest about who I am. I'm quite surprised that
Jean appears to be leading the attack on my ethics. It wasn't too many
years ago that I heard Jean quite fearful that her cover story (i.e.
she's a retired schoolteacher from the Mid-West, loving wife and mother)
would be unraveled and people would find out that much of that cover
story isn't true.
I've never been seriously tempted to "out" Jean on these things. But if
she actually wants to talk about ethics, I'll be happy to discuss hers.
If she's willing to let sleeping dogs lie, so am I.
Bob Dancer
For the best in video poker information, visit www.bobdancer.com
or call 1-800-244-2224 M-F 9-5 Pacific Time.
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