You can’t keep sticking it to the house forever

Everyone loves a winner.

Until that winner keeps winning too much and too often. Then everyone hates them.

It’s this bizarre facet of human nature. Repeated victories don’t provide inspiration, they breed resentment. They elicit groans from the rest of the world about how these victorious jerks are annoyingly good and, frankly, an irritating presence.

It’s like, dude, we get it, you’re really talented at this thing you do. Congratulations. But my relative lack of success makes me want to destroy you.

Recently I was reading a memoir of a playwright, who recalled his first production that became a smash hit. He threw a party at his home where all of his friends and family gathered. One of his colleagues stood on a table, raised his glass and said, a toast to the man of honor.

Tonight, is the last night he will have any friends.

Everyone loves a winner, until the winner keeps winning too much and too often.

One arena where this principle plays out in an interesting way is gambling. Did you know that sports books can ban you from winning too many of your bets? Have you heard the rumors about casino customers being black balled for excessive winning?

It happens more than you realize. Pit bosses, bookies, gambling websites, they will always find a loophole to limit, freeze and even embargo your activity. After all, they are private companies. They can run their businesses as they see fit.

Gambling companies are not exactly in the business of hospitality. Their goal is to maximize profits and minimize losses by exploiting the galacticly naïve and mentally ill. And it’s got nothing to do with cheating, although casinos will ban you if they suspect you’re counting cards.

However, the rule is, you can win a little bit of money for a long time, and you can win a lot of money for a short time. But you can’t keep sticking it to the house forever. Eventually they will catch on and say, enough is enough. Their pit boss will give you that fated tap on the shoulder and affably say, let’s go for a walk. Five minutes later, you will find yourself sitting in a windowless and cameraless room in the basement, face to face with two very large and angry, ahem, let’s just call them, security guards, who cordially invite you to never step foot in this casino again, unless you want to live out the rest of your days drinking your food through a straw.

Now, that may sound like a scene out of a movie, but this kind of thing does happen, albeit to a less dramatic degree. Which seems ironic to me, as our hyper competitive, alpha dog culture has been preaching the gospel of winning since the inception of our nation.

Most of us were taught the same lesson from a young age. Be a winner and avoid being a loser. Period. That’s what we do in this country. Winning is affirmation of our place in the world. Competition provides us with the answers we seek.

Ultimately, winning is a paradox. It starts out as the only thing that matters. But once the number of marks in the w column pass the point of reasonableness, human nature and mob mentality kicks in, and even when you win, you still lose.

Doesn’t matter how smart or talented or determined you are. The world’s relative lack of success makes them want to destroy you.

Everyone loves a winner, until the winner keeps winning too much and too often.

All the more reason to delete the words win and lose from our vocabulary in the first place. To start playing for the sake of playing. To burn our scoreboards, keep our eyes on the field and just try to enjoy the game.

Sure, television viewership would plummet. Superbowl commercial costs would hit rock bottom. Sports betting websites would go out of business.

But there would be a lot less resentment in the world.

What is it about winners that annoy you the most?