Gamblers are a wildly superstitious lot. They’ve been known to wave their arms over the tables while making mysterious hand gestures; they’ll bring a pair of chicken feet to the casino; they’ll fill their pockets with alligators’ teeth, buckeye nuts, rabbits’ feet and bats’ hearts (don’t ask). They’ll wear their lucky underwear. Repeatedly. Thankfully, unlike baseball players on a hitting streak, they apparently do wash the underwear every night. Whew! They have lucky shirts, lucky hats and lucky belt buckles. Unfortunately, the perceived luckiness of these items is often inversely correlated to their attractiveness.

One casino regular didn’t cut his hair for the duration of his winning streak; when he showed up at the tables with his head shaved cue-ball bald, everyone knew he’d lost. Another high roller has lucky socks, “but he says they only work when worn on the correct feet,” says Trevor Scherrer, vice president of casino marketing at Bellagio. But how can this guy tell which sock is which? “I wondered that myself,” laughs Scherrer. “He says he’s worn them so often, they have the imprint of his toes in them.” And because so many people believe that sprinkling salt defeats bad luck, Scherrer says, “If a customer’s having a bad run, they may sprinkle a little salt under the table.”

Casino executives do not scoff at these dearly held beliefs. Dealers also try to cater to the most common quirks. For example, many customers are wary of changing the color of the chips with which they’re winning. Says Bob Mancari, director of player development at Bellagio, “Many people don’t want to ‘color up,’” trading in their chips for a higher denomination. “If I’m betting $100 chips,” he says, “I want to get $100 chips back every time I win. Even if I win $1,000, I don’t want a $1,000 chip or two $500 chips; I want 10 $100 chips. As soon as I ‘color up,’ I know I’ll lose the next hand.” Some players at dicegames don’t like to have the dice turned before the stickman pushes them back. “Say the customer rolls an 8,” says Mancari, “he wants it to come back as an 8. The stickman will respect that.” Adds Tyler Shook, director of national marketing at The Mirage, “People are very superstitious about their chips. They don’t want the dealer to straighten them.”

Some traditions are more light-hearted. For instance, The Virgin Principle dictates that a woman who has never rolled the dice will have a hot roll on her first try. Other gamblers will often bet with her, predicting she’ll do well. And lots of gamblers carry pictures of their family members, believing their presence will confer luck. For women, charm bracelets with tiny cards or dice on them are often considered lucky (and always make a lovely gift for your lady friends, I’m only saying).