What was written in the book was correct, and that's the reality.
IMO, those who will win against the house edge are primarily relying on luck, not skills, and Taleb doesn’t deny that fact, in fact, being prepared increases your chances of success. What he emphasizes is that even among the prepared, luck still influences outcomes.
Sometimes, equally prepared gamblers achieve very different results due to randomness.
So, while preparation always matters, it’s also important to remain humble and remember that chance often plays a larger role than we realize.
Absolutely right and well said, chance (which in other words, we refer to as luck) is the paramount thing or force when it comes to gambling or playing any game at all whether we are gambling or just playing some random game with friends for fun, regardless of the type of game, whether it's a skill based game, or luck based game, or even games that has to do with our level of knowledge in something, like sports betting for example, all this games will deal on chances luck to win in them, even down to the players playing the match live in the field.
So indeed, luck is not something or a force we have any form of power over, this is something we must always remember and stay humble just as you said, for we never know who luck will favor around us, maybe it's we ourself respectively speaking, or the friend next door, or someone we even spat on and referred to as nobody.. 😁
I believe that, in addition to luck, placing bets also involves analysis and logical thinking, especially when it is not just a spontaneous wager. As a rule, if someone bets regularly, they usually have at least a basic understanding of the game. The deeper the knowledge of the teams, players, and the specific sport’s nuances, the better the chances of making well reasoned predictions. Of course, it is impossible to eliminate luck entirely, but experience and insight significantly reduce the role of randomness.