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Many people around the world are great believers in superstition. Superstition can best be described as a state of mind that encompasses a whole range of irrational (albeit perfectly rational to the beholder) beliefs in the power of supernatural or otherworldly forces to be able to influence events and instances in our lives.

The truth is that superstitions are still surprisingly strong in areas we don’t generally imagine they are. This becomes more apparent when you observe people walking along the pavement and stall when faced with a ladder in their path then deliberately walk around rather than underneath it. The logic says that if you walk under a ladder you are risking an item such as a paintbrush or whatever the workman atop the ladder is working with dropping on your head. Superstition says that walking underneath a ladder brings bad luck. Is it logic or superstition which causes most people to avoid walking under the ladder?

Similarly, many superstitions exist in the gambling world. This is not surprising when you consider what gambling entails and the heavy reliance on luck that the gambler places in order to beat often insurmountable odds to take money from the house. The vast majority of gamblers have a wide variety of lucky and unlucky superstitions which can and often do affect their semblance of luck in any one gambling session.

Beliefs are often as strange as the characters themselves. Some will plant themselves close to another gambler who is on a winning streak in the belief that some of their luck will rub off on them. Others are deeply affected by external occurrences and the superstition can even be country specific. Take the superstition about black cats. In England, if a black cat crosses your path, good luck will follow. On the Continent of Europe however, the reverse is true and a black cat will bring you bad luck if it crosses your path!

Take certain numbers. The number seven is associated with good luck, but the number thirteen is very strongly associated with bad luck. This anomaly with numbers seems to be almost universal across countries and cultures. How many people simply refuse to place their chips on the roulette table’s number thirteen? Indeed, most hotels do not have a room numbered thirteen, because too few people would take that room. In fact in Las Vegas this is taken to an even greater extreme by there being a noticeable absence of an entire thirteenth floor in almost every hotel there!

Craps players are similarly superstitious without really knowing they are. Shooters will almost always blow on the dice “for good luck” before shooting. A pair of ones is called snake eyes because of their resemblance to a pair of eyes and snakes are often associated with betrayal and deceit. Their appearance in craps means the majority of players who play the “pass line,” will lose if snake eyes is thrown first. Strangely, the fact that a three or twelve will also cost them their chips is neither here nor there!

Many gamblers carry with them lucky talismans of one sort or another. The St Cayetano (St Cajetan) talisman is said to be lucky due to him being the patron saint of gamblers and wearing this is said to bring prosperity and good fortune. Other gamblers will carry a lucky rabbit’s foot or horseshoe about their person for good luck.

There is a more serious side to gambling and superstition. Recent studies have concluded that gamblers who are superstitious are far less likely to become compulsive gamblers or suffer from other psychological gambling disorders due to their attention being otherwise engaged on their superstition.

Superstition in gamblers also appears in varying degrees. There are some who will knock on wood or rub the palm of their hand on wood for luck whereas others will go to more elaborate extremes to attract luck to them. Some have a lucky item of clothing that they will always wear when gambling. Similarly some sportspeople have things like a lucky golf club or a lucky snooker cue without which their form suddenly takes a noticeable dip.

If you view gambling in its many forms from a rational, logical point of view you see a pastime that is governed by a set of odds and probabilities that factored together will determine how often a gambler will win and lose. But there is nothing scientific or logical at all about watching a hot shooter at the craps table throwing seven after seven simply because he blew on the dice and had his fingers crossed behind his back!