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Tyler Terhark

Clair Wilden

Engish 120

18 September 2020

There are a variety of ways games are played, some with words, drawings, numbers,

and many more. Some of the games require the game user to use a form of ethos, pathos, or

logos. Some may only include one of these, while others include them all. For instance, in poker

the use of emotional appeal has a strong tactic used in order to get ahead in the game as

players in poker can bluff their way to win or get an advantage over others. However, the two

games I will be comparing focus strongly on logos and ethos strategies. The two games have

some similarities and some differences. The games are, Blackjack and Bingo. Both games

include many numbers, but blackjack is overall a better game because of the use of strategy

and ability to change the outcome.

The first game is blackjack. Blackjack is based on numbers and often times little to no

talking. The game consists of a dealer and at least 1 player; most tables accompany 4-6 players.

Blackjack is most often played in casinos and played for various dollar amounts. According to

Sitandgoplanet, “Blackjack is number one by a long way,” when it comes to casino games. This

is due to the fact that the casino has a very low edge to the game which means the odds are not

exponentially in their favor. Not only are the odds quite strong, this game allows you to be in

charge of whether or not you win the outcome, unlike other games in the casino like slots. The
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odds are so great in fact that, Randy Ray says, “The house edge for Blackjack is less than 1%.”

Which in regards, means that if you were to spend $100 you will get a return of roughly $99 on

average if you play basic strategy. To explain the basics of the game, a dealer passes out cards

to the players around the table. Everyone is playing against the dealer and the person sitting

next to you has no correlation to if you win or not (unless they make a stupid move). The dealer

hands out two cards to each player with the cards facing up. The dealer then proceeds to give

himself one card face up while another lays next to his face down. The goal of the game is to try

to get your cards to add up to or as close to 21 as possible without going over. If you go over 21,

it is considered a bust and you lose whatever money you bet using chips. The dealer goes

around the table asking each player if they would like to, “hit,” which means to deal you

another card or to, “stay,” which means you will stay at your current number. Now it gets more

advanced when you can split, double down, and use side bets to try to win as much money as

possible. After the dealer goes to each person asking what they would like to do, he then flips

over the card he had lying face down. The Dealer also has the same goal of getting 21 however,

he/she must stay when the cards add up to at least 17. If your cards add up to more than what

the dealer is showing, then you have won and will be awarded double the money that you had

played in the hand. However, if you had less than what the dealer had or busted and acquired

more than 21 then you lose that hand and the dealer takes your chips for whatever you had on

that hand. There is a way to tie the dealer and that is when your cards add up to the same

amount in which is called a push. Blackjack allows a player to use logos and numbers to better

allow him/herself to win; unlike bingo where a player has no say after achieving their card. And

although you cannot use ethos to persuade the dealer to help you out, you can almost always
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ask for help on what to do in a situation. Overall the objective is to try to beat the dealer more

times than you lose and potentially win money.

On the other hand, we have bingo. Bingo has been around for a very long time.

According to Luke Ward, “Bingo cards were first used by the Germans in 1800s as an

educational tool…” That being said, it does not seem that bingo will be leaving us anytime soon.

Bingo consists of a caller and at least two players. This game often has many people playing and

can theoretically have an unlimited amount. Everyone is given a card with five rows and five

columns. At the top of each row, there is a letter spelling BINGO. Each square space will include

a number randomly from one to 75 all in different order. In this game, there are no teams;

everyone plays for themselves against each other. There is no way for an individual to gain an

advantage over another player. The caller will be spinning a wheel and randomly drawing

numbers from one to 75. They will then call out the number and each player marks off the

number if they have it. There are many different ways to play bingo, however the most

common way is to get five numbers in a row. However, there are many other ways to play the

game. Some other popular examples is four corners which is hitting all of the corners on the

card, and blackout. Blackout is usually what is played last and it is when you completely fill out

every number on your card. The game gets to be very intense near closing in on the blackout. In

bingo, after you receive your card there is nothing you can do to change the outcome of the

game. You will have no ability to gain an advantage over your opponent’s. Bingo does, however,

use logos when you potentially do get the chance to yell, “BINGO!” After letting everyone know,

you will have to list off the numbers convincing and proving that you are indeed, the winner.
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Blackjack and Bingo are both known to be ways to potentially win money and most of

the time lose money. However, Blackjack is far superior because of the ways to use logos to try

to gain an advantage. In bingo, once you receive your card and sit down, you will have no ability

to change the outcome of the game. There is a reason that Blackjack is the most popular casino

game and continues to mess with your emotions. That is why the game is so addicting and fun.

Games like these are meant to be fun and enjoyable. Blackjack just seems to have the

upper hand due to the fact of playing with the people around you, rather than playing against.

In bingo, you are essentially hoping everyone else around you loses, while in Blackjack everyone

is happy to see everyone winning. Overall Blackjack has such a more powerful use of logos over

Bingo.
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Works Cited

1. Popular Casino Games, 2007, www.sitandgoplanet.com/casino

“This rhetorical analysis is mostly well-written and very compelling. In the future, it would be
beneficial to read your work out loud to find spots that sound awkward, or where you haven’t
quite finished your sentences. These things can often be missed on silent read-throughs, so
reading out loud or having someone else read it to you might help make these moments more
clear”

After checking out your feedback, I went back and read it out loud, and wow did that

make a difference. After reading it out loud, it made it much easier to find the small errors that

you may not be able to hear when reading it in your head. I found a lot of simple mistakes like

using, “of,” instead of, “in.” I also found a few of my sentences not flowing. After reading it out

loud I could easily differentiate the good from the bad. When sentences became choppy, I

would read the text around it and then re word it to sound more appealing and smoother. I also

found a couple sentences that I did not really finish as I must have been thinking too fast for my

typing. Things like this will turn a good paper into a rough one. Nobody would want to read a

paper that includes errors like missed words and unfinished sentences. Revisions is a huge part

of papers and I really took that for granted in this paper. If I would have spent a little more time

revising, I would have easily caught these mistakes and made this a better overall paper to not

only understand but to read as well. I definitely think these simple changes changed my paper

dramatically. That’s how far revising can go; just spend a little time going over it and you may

be able to change your grade significantly. I now understand how important re reading your

paper out loud is and will be making sure I do it with this reflection. I hope you do not find any

simple mistakes! If you would like to re-read my paper without having any issues this time you

may, however, I am overall fine with my grade. I will without a doubt take revisions into more

consideration in the future.