THOUGHTS ABOUT CASINOS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS
Wheels are an inherently an “unfair gambling practice”.
You see the Big Wheel and you know that all the values are equally probable. The promise meets reality.
However on the Wheel of Fortune, and all the other slots where that’s a bonus, it’s not true.
The implication is that the results are all equally possible outcomes and they are not.
That’s deceptive.
And, should not be allowed or patronized.
Argh!
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2 Comments | 
GAMBLING | Tagged: FRAUD, GAMBLING | 
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Posted by reinkefj
The Zen of Penny Slots
① You can lose lots of “real money” at Penny Slots; the casinos have them for a reason. (Don’t fail to underestimate just how much you can lose “chasing rainbows”!)
② “Money management” is essential to winning. (Machine limits, session limits, day limits, trip limits) It’s not “winning” unless you take “their” money; that’s management!
③ Any currency that you put in a machine is at risk; includes green backs or the paper take out amounts. (If it’s in YOUR wallet, then it is NOT in the casino’s till!)
④ For your bankroll, think about how many plays you want; then decide how much to play. Decide what you will risk and lose it. When in a hole, STOP DIGGING!
⑤ Play the first half of your machine stake with as big a bet as you can stand. (That comes from the “jump in your grave” strategy.)
⑥ Play the second half of your machine stake with an eye to staying around for the big hit. (That comes from “you have to be in it to win it.”)
⑦ When you hit the “big jackpot” or have seen all the bonus games, leave with what you got. That machine session is over. (That comes from how rare the big payoffs are.)
⑧ Never, ever, put more currency into a machine. The big payoff is NOT just round the corner. “Just another twenty and it will hit” is a logical fallacy and a wallet buster!
⑨ Never, ever, drink when gambling. (There’s a reason that casinos give out free booze to players.) Don’t gamble when you are tired or upset either. It’s supposed to be fun; not therapy.
⑩ Remember your vocabulary. It’s gambling; not investing. It’s a random number generator. There are NO patterns. Despite what you brain, heart, or other body parts tell you. Don’t be stubborn. (A big win is great; a big loss ain’t! Better a small gain taken quickly, smartly, and spritely. Even a small loss can be the best you can accomplish.)
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Posted by reinkefj
Did you ever see “Deal or No Deal”?
As an IT Architecture / BPR kinda guy, I think you have to have a strategy to get through the game. (Hey, I play penny slots too. No genius here.)
The only way to get a MILLION is to have two MILLION cases at the end.
Strategy is critical to escape with a prize.
I think that can apply some elementary statistics or probability theory.
You can predict the “banker’s offer” approximately and that leads you to a process to play.
It seems to me that you can compare the offer based on picking a low or high case. Then you make the decision from that.
Suppose, for example, at any point in the game, the distribution of cases can tell you what to do relative to the offer.
The offer is “fair” if EV = ∑ (p sub i * V sub i) is equal to the Banker’s Offer.
When receiving the Banker’s Offer, one can calculate the EV (ALL) of the current set of cases, the EV (HIGH) dropping the highest case, and the EV (LOW) dropping the lowest case. In a truly random game, you can calculate the potential loss EV (LOW) – EV (ALL) . And the potential gain EV (HIGH) – EV (ALL).
The offer can then be subject to the same test.
IF there is only ONE high value, the OFFER is usually cut in half.
By comparing the potential gain versus the potential loss, that determines if the contestant should take the offer or not.
You can’t pick cases, (although 26 seems to have a MILLION more than probability would dictate), but you can have a money management strategy.
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Leave a Comment » | GAMBLING, INTERESTING | Tagged: GAMBLING | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://catlin.casinocitytimes.com/articles/57864.html
Penney’s Game
6 March 2010
By Donald Catlin
*** begin quote ***
Every now and then in this column I like to look at so-called proposition bets (for example see my archived article An Earful of Cider that appeared in December of 1999). These are wagers that sound like either a sure thing, or at worst a fair bet, and are anything but. A dandy example of this is Penney’s Game named after its inventor Walter Penney (Journal of Recreational Mathematics, October 1969, p. 241). I wish to thank my friend The Midnight Skulker for bringing this game to my attention.
*** end quote ***
I don’t know how this applies to gambling in that I don’t know where you can get such a bet in a casino.
That being said, the article’s findings (i.e., Player B has an advantage) were surprising.
Given that playing slots is like being Player B (I.e., the Casino is Player A and sets the terms of the wager), I’d like an advantage.
Last time I heard of a player getting an advantage was when the Canadian casino kept turning off the Keno machine allowing the same results to come day after day. Wonder if that smart fellow, who won a lot of money, was allowed to keep his “winnings”. (Hope so!)
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Leave a Comment » | GAMBLING | Tagged: Economics, GAMBLING | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
> Hot and cold slots?
No, it’s that human perception thing getting in the way of reality. imho! Like the folks who say the face of the devil in the WTC 9/11 smoke. Humans are wired to perceive that saber tooth in the saw grass. So we see them everywhere. BUT, there’s always a big BUTT, in a random string, there are “sequences: heads, tails, heads, heads, tails. SO you can get a sequence of “winners” of unknown length. Like the gal who held the dice for four and half hours at the Borgata. I think the trick is to have a strategy that allows you to “ride the wave” and not lose your shirt when it collapses.
Most profitable string I ever had was in Vegas when they introduced the “loyalty coupons” on the dollar machines. the predecessor of the Players Club cards. When you played the dollar machines, it would count down to zero from 20 and spit out a coupon. Coupon could be redeemed for junk. My theory was that a player would not leave a machine with a low count on the coupon device unless they went broke. Thus the machine was more likely to hit than not. Remember my theory of sequences. So it had been “lose, lose, lose, lose, … lose, lose”. Time for a “win”? At each conference session at the Riveara, I run out get two rolls of dollars and play. Several times I’d have to call the old lady down to wait for a hand pay. We hit so many; she was coming down on the conferences scheduled breaks. Sigh! Made a few thousand and got all sorts of junk for kids. Scheduled another trip back about a month later, but they had changed the system. Argh!
Remember the guy who figured out that the new Niagara Falls casino was unplugging the keno machine at night and it was calling the same numbers every day.
You have to READ the tea leaves and find the blunders. Like the poker strategy, black jack strategy.
imho
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Leave a Comment » | GAMBLING | Tagged: GAMBLING | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
>AC doomed?
No doubt they will be hurt on the margin. (Lose some traffic and some dollars to all this competition.) I wouldn’t say doomed unless the NJ politicians renege and allow gambling in the Meadowlands. AC’s advantage is in the pack of casinos they have. That forces competition which is good for the players. Delaware Racinos, Indian casinos, and single stand alone ones suck on their pay tables. Players instinctively learn it. And, migrate to where they get the best deal. couldn’t be surprised if a few weaker AC casinos go bust. Would expect any new ones. But, “doomed”? Nah, imho.
Of course, I wouldn’t want to bet my future on the trustworthiness of any politician!
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Leave a Comment » | GAMBLING | Tagged: GAMBLING | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
— On Tue, 2/2/10, Casino City Times News Desk <newsletter@mail.casinocity.com> wrote:
From: Casino City Times News Desk <newsletter@mail.casinocity.com>
Subject: Casino City Times: Delaware approves table games for racetrack casinos
On Feb 2, 2010, at 8:42 AM, Luddite wrote:
Nice slot strategy, and table games at Delaware Park and Dover? Cool. LV continues to suffer over years from not being the only place to gamble…still has the magic though.
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I think imho that they (the politicians) are going to kill their own “golden goose”. “Gambling” doesn’t help build the mindset of a vigorous energetic people building “wealth”. I have read some stuff that it impoverishes the bottom strata and extracts net 15% from the local economy. In addition, all the venues makes it less “special” and divides the pie in to infinitesimally small slices that can’t support economic activity. Thus, their “slice” wanes over time. imho!
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Leave a Comment » | GAMBLING | Tagged: Economics, GAMBLING, Gooferment, Human Factors | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://artofmanliness.com/2009/07/17/a-primer-on-roulette-why-are-you-playing-this-game/
A Primer on Roulette: Why Are You Playing This Game?
by Brett & Kate McKay on July 17, 2009
*** begin quote ***
I am going to explain to you how the game is played, and explain why you can’t win. And if you have any sense, you will never play.
*** end quote ***
Wife does pretty good being a lucky guesser; I, on the other hand, never play.
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Leave a Comment » | GAMBLING | Tagged: GAMBLING, GAME THEORY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
There as been a silent money grab in AC by Corzine. I hadn’t heard anything about it, but there was a sign at the Borgata about a new law on casino tickets. I didn’t really read it or really understand it, but they now have new tickets from the slot machines with a blue edge. As I understand it, uncashed tickets that are year old are no longer cashable. I can guess who gets the money. Heard about it. Those tickets are usually for pennies I’d guess. Take a ticket with pennies on it to say a quarter machine and it spits out a ticket for the pennies. People usually leave them in the tray when they go bust. It’s not even profitable for the homeless to collect them. But nothing’s beneath the politicians.
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Leave a Comment » | GAMBLING | Tagged: GAMBLING, Gooferment | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/02/feds-bust-alleg.html
Feds Bust Ring of Alleged Casino Cheaters By Kevin Poulsen February 11, 2009 | 6:36:30 PM
Federal prosecutors in Tacoma, Washington are charging four alleged members of a cheating ring that hit roulette tables at three Indian casinos before being arrested last November.
The men are accused of pulling a simple scam that takes advantage of the variably-colored “non-value chips” issued at roulette tables to identify different gamers’ bets. Every player at the table is assigned one of eight colors. The chips have a default value of $1 each, but a high roller who wants to bet more on each spin can ask the croupier to count his chips at a higher value, such as $25.
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Here’s one way to win at roulette. One wonders at what level of theft it could be detected? Could it be done on a “retail” level?
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3 Comments | GAMBLING | Tagged: GAMBLING | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
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FJohn Reinke
Consultant at Technology Legacies LLC
Advisor, Computer Governance Committee at Manhattan College
Editor / Publisher at Jasper Jottings
Greater New York City Area
JJ Positraction JJ Endnotes Downsize DC
Philosophy of Liberty
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