
There is an old saying, You can't cheat an honest man. I'm sure we all understand the general meaning of this phrase, but how does it pertain to "honest" gamblers?
Let's see, an honest gambler would be a gambler that does not cheat. Obviously it is possible to cheat such person, so does that mean that it is, after all, possible to cheat an honest man? It depends whom you ask.
We should probably first define the word honesty. Honesty is a human characteristic of being fair, just, truthful, sincere and morally upright. What is morally upright is subject of much debate but in my opinion gambling cannot be fair, just or sincere. In any gambling endeavor there is always an element of greed. A fair way to make money is to earn it by producing a product or providing a service. A just way of beating an opponent at a contest is by surpassing the opponent with superior skills, not by the luck of random event purely dependent of chance. So, because of the lack of fairness and justice and because of the presence of greed, an honest gambler does not exist. What some may call an honest gambler is actually just a naïve sucker. The fact that the actions of such person do not involve deliberate deceit does not make that person honest.
In my earlier blog post, Are Casinos Cheating?, I already discussed why casinos are in fact engaged in a form of cheating. So, honesty can be ruled out.
What about card counters and advantage players?
As far as advantage players go, I can simply state that there is noting honest about it, by any stretch of the imagination. Advantage players are basically looking for weaknesses that can be exploited to their advantage. As a general rule, an honest person would feel the moral obligation to alert an opponent about a weakness. If I play tennis against you and I notice that someone threw a banana peel on the court, I should tell you about it before you step on it and trip. But if I steer you into that direction, hoping that you break your leg, I am not honest. Of course, reporting a weakness to a casino may make a person honest, but it also makes him stupid and naïve. But the bottom line is, an advantage player cannot possibly be honest.
So, that leaves us with card counters. It is a commonly accepted philosophy that card counters are neither cheats nor advantage players. But I will argue that card counting is actually a form of advantage play. The reason is simple. The game of blackjack has one weakness and that is precisely the weakness that card counters are trying to exploit. So, exploiting a procedural weakness is the textbook definition of advantage play. But that form of advantage play is not the same as trying to catch a glimpse of the dealer flashing the hole card.
In my opinion there are no honest gamblers and there is no way to gamble honestly. The "honesty" in gambling is just ignorance.