GAMBLING: Hot and cold slots?

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

> 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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GAMBLING: AC doomed?

Sunday, March 7, 2010

>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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GAMBLING: Expanding casinos will lead to Chapter 11 all around

Friday, February 12, 2010

— 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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MONEY: Might be a good answer to the wrong problem!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Nothing against discount brokerages, but may I suggest that it might be the “right answer to the wrong problem”. I was always enamored of the metaphor of “leaning your ladder against the wrong wall”. Recently, after many years of meandering and sometimes successful trading (i.e., went all in on a stock that tripled), I’ve decided that, like medicine, sometimes one can be too smart for one’s own good. I hired what I’ll describe as “an institutional portfolio manager”. (Yeah, have to a 500k$ portfolio to get into that game!) But, I’ve concluded that the “casino” (aka Wall Street) is no place for the DIY crowd like I once was. The electronic trading, the specialists, the “financial consultants”, mutual fund’s crass graft, and all the other machinations have taken the “game” to a new level. The globalization of finance has convinced me that the dollar is on a fast road to perdition. Even gold coins now carry a hefty 12% markup over spot. SO there is no “good” investment for the little guys. Even at cheap transaction fee!

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GAMBLING: Roulette is fixed

Saturday, July 18, 2009

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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GAMBLING: State of NJ takes your old uncashed tickets?

Friday, May 8, 2009

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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GAMBLING: One way to cheat at roulette

Saturday, February 14, 2009

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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POLITICAL: Unwinding the Social Security Ponzi scheme

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

http://tslrf.blogspot.com/2009/01/entitlements-part-15-social-security.html

Friday, January 9, 2009

Entitlements Part 1.5- Social Security

*** begin quote ***

This brought up enough discussion that some things deserve to be addressed in a venue more public then the comments section. I will address as much as I can in no particular order. Here it goes.

First of all I did not mean anything seriously bad to the older folks who read the blog or your peer group. I poked some fun but it is just that, fun. I take a few friendly shots at just about everyone given the right setting. I am enough of am asshole that if I wanted to say something really mean I would.

*** and ***

The most interesting idea that came out of the comments was what happened in Chile with their SS plan in the 1970’s. If you are as familiar with that as I was three hours ago then read this. I think that is sort of idea is probably the best chance of making our system viable but I still have the same big question/ concern I had about going to a privatized system before reading that article.

*** end quote ***

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Guess who made that comment? It is a good discussion about the Social Security Ponzi scheme and how to plan around it. No need to rehash it here or repeat my comments. You can read them over there.

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GAMBLING: Playing in a ‘tight’ Indian casino

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

During our recent traipse around the countryside (NJ – Hickory – Jax – Cherokee – NJ), we happend to linger at an Indian Casino. I can attest that the ‘house’ was the only one that one in this visit. White men got scalped! Hence, I am revising my thinking about how to play in these.

We did well when we played big in the extremes of denomination (i.e., penny and dollar); in the middle (i.e., nickels and quarters) we had very little winnings.

On Poker, (my initial foray with my hand-written cheat sheet form the inet) I KNOW that you are supposed to hold “a low pair” as the about the sixth place on the list. In my play, I NEVER improved on a low pair. I played a lot of hands. I should have kept a stroke count, but I KNOW I never drew out to trips, two pair, or four. NEVER! I don’t know what the stats are, but NEVER! ZERO, nada, zilch. Either I was the unluckiest bettor known to man. Or those machines were rigged.

I did note that the pay tables on some of the slots were biased against the player (Three red sevens play the same as three any sevens.) And why can’t one take pictures in a casino?

Afraid some one might gather evidence?

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