Casino & Gambling Information

Interview with a Professional Video Poker Player

2007-02-03T13:31:00.001-12:00

by Steve Bourie

Reprinted from 2000 American Casino Guide

Anyone who's played video poker for any length of time has probably heard stories of professional players who can consistently beat the casinos. But, is it really true? Are there actually players out there who can do that? Well, yes there are and I was fortunate enough to track down one professional video poker player who agreed to an interview to give me some insight into his lifestyle and how it came about.

My inital meeting with Johnny Chung (not his real name) was at a restaurant in a "locals" casino in Las Vegas in November 1998. I ran some general video poker questions past him and it was quickly obvious that he was an extremely knowledgeable player. He lives not far from Las Vegas with his wife and two daughters and relies solely on his gambling winnings to make his living.

Keep in mind that I didn't ask to see his bank accounts to verify his income but I did check with other knowledgeable players and I am very confident that his story is true. Two months after our first meeting I conducted the following interview by telephone from my home in Florida.

How did you originally get involved in gambling?

Chung: The first time I came to Las Vegas was to play blackjack during the early '70s. I would come on the weekends and I was strictly a card counter back then.

Were you successful at it?

Chung: Not as much as I could have been, if I had really concentrated on it.

So, you were just doing this for fun and trying to make a little extra money?

Chung: Yes, and I only played single deck. I didn't try to count multiple decks. Then, when the video poker machines started coming out in the early '80s, I thought it was a lot easier to make money off those than it was from the blackjack games. I started studying them and I began playing them on weekends too.

Did you stop playing blackjack then?

Chung: Pretty much so. It was too hard and the main hassle was that they always shuffled up on you or they kicked you out. I didn't like that.

Did you ever try to disguise yourself at the blackjack tables?

Chung: No. It seemed to be too much trouble for me and the return didn't seem to be enough.

When those first machines came out, was it generally known that there were some machines that you could make money from?

Chung: Not really. You kind of had to hand-calculate the returns and I just made estimates. That was really before they had computers and the software that could analyze the games.

What kind of machines were you playing back then?

Chung: Jacks or better progressives.

8/5 (8 coins for a full house/5 coins for a flush) progressives?

Chung: 8/5 and 9/6 progressives.

Were you just playing if the jackpot was above a certain amount that made it a positive expectation machine?

Chung: Yes.

So, you discovered that if you only played progressive machines when the jackpot was above a certain amount, you had a theoretical advantage?

Chung: Yes. Actually, it was Stanford Wong who first started publishing books about the progressives and what levels the jackpots had to be at in order to win.

That was Professional Video Poker? His book that's still out now?

Chung: Yes, I think it's been revised since then, but originally he was the first one who published anything about it. Then in the late '80s some other books started coming out along with computer software that really let you analyze every game, so you could see exactly what the payback was and also what the strategy was for every game.

But you still weren't trying to make a living from video poker at this point?

Chung: No, up until 1994, I was just playing on weekends and I would drive there from my home in California.

What happened in 1994?

Chung: Basically, the aerospace industry fell apart and my company laid off everybody.

Then you had the option of going out and finding another job?

Chung: Well, I saw it coming and I knew I was just going to play video poker full time as soon as I was laid off.

When the big change came, what happened? Did you pack up and move to Las Vegas?

Chung: Yes. The whole family: my wife and two daughters. When I first moved here I lived right next to the Santa Fe Hotel in North Las Vegas. We only moved out here to our new home about a year ago.

Were you successful right away?

Chung: Yes, the first year I made about $80,000 and the next two years about the same. Last year was the best: about $135,000.

What's the worst year you ever had?

Chung: Well, full time $80,000.

Did you ever have a year when you lost money?

Chung: No, never even had a month.

Is this a full-time a job for you? How much time do you put in?

Chung: 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

So it's like a regular job
?

Chung: Well, I can vary that however I want, depending on the conditions. If I find an especially good machine I will play more.

Do you work on the weekends?

Chung: If there's a special promotion that gets me an added return, I might.

How do you find out about these special promotions?

Chung: Newspaper ads, or friends of mine. We have a message beeper network where we leave messages for each other about what the best plays are and everything.

So there are other people who do this besides yourself?

Chung: Yes, I would say, in Nevada, maybe 25 people do this full-time for a living and maybe another couple hundred part-time.

Are there professional video poker players in other states?

Chung: Well, I haven't seen anyone outside Nevada I would consider a full time professional.

Besides Las Vegas are there other places to play professionally? How about Reno?

Chung: If there are professionals who live there, I don't know who they are. I've been up there and I don't think there are enough machines there to sustain them full time.

So, as far as you know, the only people doing this are the ones around Las Vegas?

Chung: Yes, but there are also some who do it by traveling to a few other good spots around the country.

What is a typical day like for you? Where do you go to play?

Chung: Right now I have three places that I go to where the best machines are. I really don't want to say what they are, but it's the same game in three different places and I just split up the action among the three places.

These are machines that return more than 100%?

Chung: Yes, 103.2%, plus cash back too.

That's it? Those are the only machines you play?

Chung: Right. Generally, what I do now is play until I get a royal flush in one place then I go to one of the other two places because I don't want to get too many royals at the same place.

You don't spend all your time going to those three places every single day, do you?

Chung: Well, right now, yes. That's the way conditions are now, but it's not always that way.

But, if there's a special promotion somewhere, would you go there instead?

Chung: Yes.

And you find out about those specials by either reading the newspaper or from your friends?

Chung: Yes, and sometimes the casino will also send you monthly newsletters that tell you about these specials.

When do you decide that it's best to leave Las Vegas and go around the country to try other places?

Chung: Mainly when there is nothing in Nevada that's over about 102%. That's what I try to play as a minimum return - 102%. That will give me about $35 to $40 an hour.

On quarters or dollars?

Chung: On quarters.

Do you ever play $1 or $5 machines?

Chung: Not really, because fluctuations are a lot higher on those machines, plus you won't find nearly as many games offering the higher payback percentages.

So you would prefer to play quarter machines?

Chung: Yes. Unless you find an exceptional play on a dollar machine, which is very unlikely. About the only thing I've played on dollars is Williams Blackjack.

If you found a quarter machine with a 102% payback, and you also found that same machine at the dollar level, would you still prefer to play the quarter machine?

Chung: It depends what the game was and what kind of fluctuations you could expect in that game, but generally speaking that's probably true. But, you also have the additional problem with the dollar machines that you get tax forms on the royal flushes and you have to report that to the IRS.

One thing I've always heard about professional video poker players is that they would rather play a $5 machine, than a quarter machine, assuming they had the same paytable, because the profit per hour is much higher.

Chung: Yes. Except, it's something you get frequent tax forms on and you have to wait about a half-hour hour for each one. Plus, you need a lot larger bankroll to play the higher machine.

Have your ever played $5 machines?

Chung: No, I've never played a $5 machine. You hardly ever find one that's above 100% to begin with, and if it is, it usually doesn't last for very long.

The machines you're playing now are 103%, but if they take those machines out and the video poker inventory become bad, you would then decide to go somewhere else in the country?

Chung: Yes, I would.

But do you know ahead of time when you are going to these places that there is good video poker there?

Chung: Yes, I pretty much know ahead of time before I go.

And how do you find that out?

Chung: I know a couple of people back there that keep me posted on what's happening. Right now Bettendorf, Iowa and Kansas City, Missouri are the only places that have enough to make it worth traveling to. One has blackjack machines and the other has video poker. You could probably make about $40 to $50 an hour, but you could do the same thing here, so there's no reason to travel right now.

How often do you leave Las Vegas to travel around the country?

Chung: Well, last year I did it a lot because there was very little in Las Vegas, but now there's quite a bit, so I probably won't be going anywhere for a while.

Is there a certain kind of machine that opened up in Las Vegas that made it better?

Chung: Well, yes. There are certain types of games now.

You don't want to mention the game?

Chung: There are two games actually. I can mention one because everybody knows about it. It isn't the one I'm playing, but it's the one I would play if something happens to the other one. It's the quadruple deal Odyssey machine.

There are three or four places here that have them with full-pay jokers. It's a 101% game and 101% on that is the same as playing about 103% on a regular machine because you can get three times as many hands.

You don't like full-pay deuces on those machines?

Chung: Well the joker's a higher pay back. It's 101% and the deuces is 100.7%.

How much time did you spend outside of Las Vegas last year?

Chung: Last year was virtually 11 months out of 12.

It was that bad?

Chung: Yes.

What do you play when you go to these other places?

Chung: In Kansas City I played All American video poker. That was a 103% game. Then in Illinois and Iowa I played $1 Williams blackjack.

Are those machines still around?

Chung: There are a few of the Williams blackjack games still around, but on the All American video poker they changed the payoffs, so they're only 100.7% now instead of 103%.

What was the big advantage on those Williams blackjack machines? They allowed early surrender?

Chung: Yes, it was a single-deck game with early surrender and doubling only allowed on 10 or 11. That makes it a 100.35% game (against perfect basic strategy), plus the cash back.

Could you double after a split?

Chung: No. In fact, you couldn't re-split. Dealer stood on soft 17. And if you got six cards it was an automatic winner. The early surrender was the big difference. You could surrender on your first two cards against a 10 or an ace. So, even if the dealer had a blackjack, you still got half your bet back.

That's the game they used to have in Atlantic City when they first opened the casinos?

Chung: Yes. It's about a break even game at six decks. With single deck it's about a .35% edge for the player, plus many of those casinos had a lot of cash back along with it too.

So you did well on those machines?

Chung: Yes, I made about $50,000 on those by themselves.

Don't the casinos find out that these machines are beatable?

Chung: Well, eventually, just by the amount of money they lose. I guess if the company that makes the game tells them the payback is less than 100% they believe them for a long time, even if they're losing money on them. Finally, they have to come to the conclusion, after they lose a couple of hundred thousand dollars, that the company was wrong.

Don't you think that most people don't pay properly and they can't achieve those paybacks and the casinos probably still make money on those machines?

Chung: With the quarter machines you might be right and that's why a lot of the quarter ones are still there. But the dollar ones attract the pro's.

When you go out to play do you think you're going to win money every day? You must have bad days.

Chung: Last year there were 262 winning days and 58 losing days.

So you keep a log every day?

Chung: Yes.

What's the worst losing streak you have ever had?

Chung: About $3,500.

That's in quarters?

Chung: That's in dollars too. But, remember it's only blackjack I play in dollars and there are a lot less fluctuations in blackjack because you don't have to wait for any rare hands to win.

How long did it take you to lose $3,500?

Chung: Oh, probably 3, 4 or 5 days. If you lose that much it's usually over a period of time. Any longer than that and it's going to come back up.

That doesn't seem like that much money to lose in 4 or 5 days.

Chung: Well, all I can say is that I'm a lot more conservative when I play than most of the pros and by playing video blackjack I've had a lot fewer bad days than I would have with video poker alone.

Do you put a limit on your losses? Say if you lose $1,000 you stop for the day?

Chung: No, I just play for as many hours as I want to play.

So, when you start your eight hour day, if it's 9 o'clock in the morning, you decide you're going to play video poker and you're not going to stop until 5 o'clock no matter what happens?

Chung: Yes. There's no sense in stopping. I try to play my game so the expected win is about $300 a day. Total money times percentage makes about $300.

But you don't stop when you hit the $300? You keep playing?

Chung: Yes, for 8 hours or so. I try and look for a game that would have an expected return of at least $300 for eight hours of play.

So, if it's a 103% game and you're putting . . .

Chung: Eight hours and 1,000 hands would be 8,000 hands x $1.25 a hand. So, it's $10,000 x 3% which is $300.

So, if you started playing at 9 a.m. and at 10:30 you hit a royal you wouldn't stop? You just say it's part of your overall win and keep going?

Chung: Yes, and I've hit seven in one day.

Seven in one day? That's pretty good!

Chung: Yes, that was unusual. I've had quite a few where I've hit three in a day but seven was unusual.

What's the longest you've gone when you haven't hit a royal?

Chung: Well, not counting all the time I was playing the blackjack machines, probably about two weeks.

How many hands do you play an hour?

Chung: On one machine about 1,000; two machines about 1,400.

1,000 hands an hour? That's pretty fast!

Chung: Yes. You have to hit the keys immediately. You can't have any time to think about what you're going to do. It has to be automatic.

Does your wife have any problems with your gambling for a living?

Chung: No, actually she plays with me sometimes.

Does she want to become a professional?

Chung: No, she just plays for fun, but she's been making money on it too.

How old are your kids?

Chung: One is 20 and the other is 17.

Do either of them have an inclination to gamble?

Chung: I'm sure the older one wants to try it when she's old enough.

Do you think she might want to become a professional player?

Chung: Of all the pros I know it's almost exclusively men and I'd say only one or two are women. But, I know she has enough of a mathematical inclination, so she might.

As noted previously, this interview was originally done by telephone in January 1999. I followed up with Chung again in late August and he was back in the Midwest. He said he had left in April to play $1 blackjack machines but he "found something much better."

Of course, he wouldn't say exactly what it was, but he did say "it involved a programming error on certain video poker machines and it was very, very profitable." Chung was spending all of his time traveling throughout the country searching for these particular machines (he found them at 25 different casinos) and he only returned home for about three days each month.

I lost track of him after that last conversation but I later read some stories about a malfunction with certain video poker machines at casinos in the midwest and, evidently, the casinos had lost millions of dollars to customers who were able to "milk" these particular machines. Was he one of those people? I don't know for sure, but I'd be willing to bet on it!

Video Poker

2007-02-03T13:28:00.001-12:00

by Steve Bourie
Reprinted from American Casino Guide

Okay, who knows the main difference between video poker and slot machines? C'mon now, raise your hands if you think you know it. If you said "a slot machine is a game of luck and video poker is a game of skill" then you are correct! When you play a slot machine there is no decision you can make which will affect the outcome of the game. You put in your money; pull the handle; and hope for the best. In video poker, however, it is your skill in playing the cards which definitely affects the outcome of the game.

Okay, who knows the other major difference between video poker and slot machines? Well, you're right again if you said "you never know what percentage a slot machine is set to pay back, but you can tell a video poker machine's payback percentage just by looking at it." Of course if you knew that answer then you also knew that video poker machines almost always offer you better returns than slot machines (provided you make the right playing decisions).

Now for those of you who didn't know the answers to those two questions, please read on. You others can skip the rest of this story as I am sure you're eager to get back to your favorite video poker machine.

First, let's cover the basics. Video poker has virtually the same rules as a game of five card draw poker. The only difference is that you have no opponent to beat and you can't lose more than your initial bet. First, you deposit from one to five coins in the machine to make your bet. You are then shown five cards on the video screen and your goal is to try to make the best poker hand possible from those cards. Since it is a draw game, you are given one opportunity to improve your hand. This is done by allowing you to discard from one, up to all five cards from your original hand. Of course, you don't have to discard any if you don't want to. After choosing which cards you want to keep (by pushing the button below each card), you then push the deal button and the machine will replace all of the other cards with new cards. Based on the resulting final hand the machine will then pay you according to the pay schedule posted on the machine. Naturally, the better your hand, the higher the amount the machine will pay you back.

That's pretty much how a video poker machine works from the outside, but what about the inside? Well, I had three specific questions about that so I contacted International Game Technology, which is the world's largest manufacturer of video poker machines (as well as slot machines), to see if they could provide some answers. Here's what they said:

#1: Are the cards dealt to you on a random basis?

IGT: Gaming regulations require that gaming devices must have random outcomes of game play results. In order to satisfy this requirement, games of all types use a random number generator (RNG) software algorithm to determine game outcome. While the game is in the idle state, i.e. waiting for someone to deposit a coin or push a play credit button, the RNG algorithm is called hundreds of times every second. The RNG has approximately 16,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible outcomes and, depending on the game type, there will be many billions of outcomes that map into any set of cards, or keno balls, or slot machine symbols. This ensures that all IGT games are completely random, just as if the cards were dealt from a perfectly shuffled deck.

#2: When does the shuffling actually stop?

IGT: On all game types, when the start, deal or bet button is pushed, the randomly selected outcome is determined. This result is determined solely by the RNG and is not dependent on any factors of game play, such as how many coins are bet, or on what happened in the last game played or on how many seconds you wait before deciding what cards to draw.

#3: Is there a draw card assigned to each dealt card?

IGT: No, IGT games operate as follows: the first five cards dealt are displayed and additional cards are taken from the top of the deck as needed. So, if you discard one card it doesn't matter which card you discard, the draw card will be the same.

According to IGT's first answer we know that all of the hands are generated randomly. Some people believe that the machine knows what cards it initially deals you and then it gives you bad draw cards so you won't have a winning hand. This isn't true. The deck is shuffled randomly and then all cards are dealt and drawn in order. By the way, the number with all the zeros is 16 quintillion. Don't feel ignorant if you didn't know it because neither did I. Of course, when our national debt gets that high, we'll all be familiar with it!

One other point must be made here regarding random outcomes in video poker machines. Please notice that the above answer stated gaming regulations require that the machines must have random outcomes. You should be aware that there are casinos operating in places that do not have gaming regulations. Examples are cruise ships which operate in international waters and some Indian reservations that are not subject to state regulations. You should also be aware that the technology exists for machines to be set so they do not act randomly. These machines are actually programmed to avoid giving the players better hands and they wind up giving the house a much bigger advantage. These machines are illegal in Nevada, New Jersey, Colorado and all other states that pattern their gaming regulations after those states. You may, however, come across them in unregulated casinos.

With the second answer we know that the RNG stops when you deposit the first coin, or when you push the bet or deal button. This means that the results will be the same whether we deposit one coin or the maximum coins. Some people think that the outcome will be different depending on how many coins are deposited. This is not true. If you put in one coin and get a royal flush, you would have gotten that same royal flush if you had put in five coins.

The last answer clears up some confusion about how the draw cards are dealt. Some people believe that the machine initially deals 10 cards: five up cards that you see, plus one other card under each of those cards as a draw card. This is not true. The draw card you receive is in the same order as if it were being dealt off the top of the deck. Example: You are dealt (10

§,J§,Q§,6 ¨,6©). You discard (6¨,6© ) and draw (6§,6ª). Had you kept (6¨,6 ©) and discarded (10§,J§,Q§ ) you would have had four sixes.

One final point you should keep in mind - IGT is not the only manufacturer of video poker machines. There are quite a few others and they may engineer their machines to work in a different manner. Their RNG may not stop in the same way and their draw cards may be dealt differently. IGT, however, is by far the largest and it is the type of machine you will most often encounter in a casino.

Now that you understand how a video poker machine works let's learn how to pick out the best paying ones. In the beginning of this story it was mentioned that "you can tell a video poker machine's payback percentage just by looking at it." That's true, but it takes a little bit of knowledge to know the difference among all the different types of machines. An example of some of the different machines available are: Tens or Better, Jacks or Better, Two Pairs or Better, Joker Poker and Deuces Wild. To make it even more confusing, not only are there different machines, but each of those machines can have a different pay schedule for the same hand. Fortunately, every video poker machine's payback percentage can be mathematically calculated. Not only does this let you know which machines offer you the best return, but it also tells you the best playing decisions to make on that particular machine based on the odds of that combination occurring. The bad news, however, is that it's fairly impossible to do on your own so you'll have to either buy a book that lists all of the percentages and strategies or buy a computer program that does the work for you. Take a look at the tables on the next few pages and you'll see some different types of video poker games and their payback percentages (when played with maximum coin and perfect strategy).

(Sorry, but you'll have to buy the book to see the 14 different tables!)

Fortunately, every video poker machine's payback percentage can be mathematically calculated. Not only does this let you know which machines offer you the best return, but it also tells you the best playing decisions to make on that particular machine based on the odds of that combination occurring. The bad news, however, is that it's fairly impossible to do on your own so you'll have to either buy a book that lists all of the percentages and strategies or buy a computer program that does the work for you. Take a look at the tables on the next few pages and you'll see some different types of video poker games and their payback percentages (when played with maximum coin and perfect strategy). For those of you with a computer,

Bob Dancer Presents Win Poker can determine the exact payback percentage for any video poker machine. It retails for $29.95 and besides calculating percentages it will also allow you to play video poker on different types of machines and analyze hands to show you the expected return for each play. You can set the game to automatically show you the best decision each time or you can set it to just warn you if you make a wrong decision on your own. It's so simple that my 11-year-old son plays it and I'm confident he can play better than the average Las Vegas visitor. "I'm going for the flush, dad!"

(These video poker programs can be bought at a discount at our store)

If you have no desire to get quite that serious about learning video poker then I'll try to provide some general tips to help you out. First, you'll need to find the machines that offer you the highest returns. One of the best is the 9/6 Jacks or Better machine. Of course, you're probably wondering "what exactly is a 9/6 Jacks or Better machine?" Well, the Jacks or Better part refers to the fact that you won't win anything from the machine unless you have at least a pair of Jacks. The 9/6 part refers to the payback schedule on this kind of machine. As stated earlier, each machine can have a different payback schedule and there are at least 20 different kinds of payback schedules available on Jacks or Better machines. In Las Vegas the two most common Jacks or Better machines you will find are 8/5 and 9/6. Here's a comparison of their pay schedules (per coin, for five-coin play):

Hand	9/6	8/5
Royal Flush	800	800
Straight Flush	50	50
4-of-a-Kind	25	25
Full House	9	8
Flush	6	5
Straight	4	4
3-of-a-Kind	3	3
Two Pairs	2	2
One Pair J's	1	1

As you can see, the schedules are identical except for the better payoffs on the 9/6 machines for Flushes and Full Houses. The payback on a 9/6 machine is 99.5% with perfect play, while the 8/5 machines return 97.3% with perfect play. Of course, it doesn't make any sense to play an 8/5 machine if a 9/6 machine is available. Yet, in Las Vegas you'll see lots of people playing an 8/5 when a 9/6 can often be found in the same casino. The reason they do that is because they don't know any better; you do. Always look for the 9/6 machines. They can be found in every downtown Las Vegas casino and most, but not all, strip casinos. In other states, including New Jersey, they won't be found as easily. On a trip to Mississippi I found a few, but it took some searching and not every casino had them. If you can't find one be sure to double check with the Slot Host to see if they're offered.

One other common machine you will come across is an 8/5 Jacks or Better progressive. These feature the same 8/5 pay table as above except for the royal flush which pays a jackpot amount that is displayed on a meter above the machine. The jackpot will continue to build until someone hits a royal flush; then it will reset and start to build again. If the jackpot on a 25¢ machine is above $2,240 (for five coins) then you should play it. If it's below $2,240 then stick to the regular 9/6 machines.

Another good tip is to restrict your play to the same kind of machine all the time. Each video poker machine has its own particular strategy and what works best on a Jacks or Better machine is definitely much different from what works best on a Deuces Wild machine. I only play 9/6 Jacks or Better machines because that is what I practice on and I automatically know the best decision to make all the time. Keep in mind that when you calculate the payback percentage for a video poker machine the number you arrive at is based on perfect play. As an example, a 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker machine has a 99.5 percent payback with perfect play. This means that, theoretically, it will return $99.50 for every $100 played in the machine, but only if the player makes the correct decision every time. If you make mistakes, and most players do, the return to the casino will be higher. If you play several different kinds of machines it becomes increasingly harder to remember the correct play to make and you will make mistakes. Therefore, it only makes sense to memorize the correct decisions for one kind of machine and to always play on that same kind of machine (of course, in order to learn those proper strategies, you may want to buy that book or software).

Now that you've decided which machines to play, you'll need some help with your playing strategy. Reproduced on the next two pages are charts that will give you an excellent simple strategy for both 9/6 and 8/5 video poker machines. These charts were derived from computer calculations using the VP Tutor program and will give you a near-perfect strategy for playing your hands. They aren't 100% perfect but they are close to it and will only be fractionally incorrect in some situations. The only difference between the two tables is shown in the poker hands that have been italicized in the 8/5 strategy tables.

(Sorry, but you'll have to buy the book to see the two strategy charts!)

To use the chart just look up your hand and play it in the manner that is closest to the top of the chart. For example: you are dealt (6§,6 ¨,7©,8ª,9§). You keep (6 §,6¨) rather than (6¨,7 ©,8ª,9§) because a low pair (#16) is higher on the chart than a four-card straight with no high cards (#21). Remember to always look for the highest possible choice on the chart when there are multiple ways to play your hand. As another example: you are dealt (8 §,8¨, J©, Q©,K©). You keep (J©,Q©,K©) rather than (8 §,8¨) because a three-card royal flush (#13) is higher on the chart than a low pair (#16). As a final, but radical, example of how to play your hand by the chart what would you do if you're dealt (6 ©,10©,J©,Q©,K©)? Yes, you have to break up your flush by discarding the 6© and go for the royal flush because the four-card royal flush (#4) is higher on the chart than the pat flush (#6).

When looking at the 9/6 chart there are a few things that should seem rather obvious:

1) A low pair is relatively good. Of the 36 possible hands, a low pair is #16 which means there are 20 hands worse than a low pair. If you look at the 15 hands that are better than a low pair eight of them are pat hands that require no draw. Of the other seven hands, six of them are four card hands and the remaining hand is a three-card royal flush.

2) Don't hold three cards trying to get a straight or flush. Nowhere on the chart do you see that you should hold three cards to try for a straight or flush. In some instances you should hold three cards to try for a straight flush, but never a straight or flush.

3) Rarely draw to an inside straight. Inside straights (6,7,_,9,10) appear only twice on the chart and only in rather bad positions: #30 (with three high cards) and #25 (with four high cards). It is much easier to draw to an outside straight (_7,8,9,10_) where you can complete your straight by getting the card you need on either end. Open end straights appear four times on the chart and in much higher positions than inside straights: #21 (with no high cards), #18 (with one high card), #17 (with two high cards) and #15 (with three high cards).

4) Don't hold a kicker.
A kicker is an unpaired card held with a pair. For example (8,8,K) or (K,K,9) are examples of hands where an extra card (the kicker) is held. Never hold a kicker because they add no value to your hand!

Keep in mind that the strategy tables shown here are only for Jacks or Better and are not valid for games played with wild cards such as Joker Poker, Deuces Wild, Double Joker, etc. Those games employ a completely different strategy and it would be wrong to use these strategies for those kinds of machines.

For your information there are exactly 2,598,960 unique poker hands possible on a video poker machine (when played without a joker). On a 9/6 Jacks or Better machine a royal flush will occur about once every 40,000 hands; a straight flush about every 9,000 hands; four-of-a-kind about every 425 hands; a full house about every 87 hands; a flush about every 91 hands; a straight about every 89 hands; three-of-a-kind about every 14 hands; two pairs about every 8 hands; and a pair of Jacks or better about every 5 hands. The interesting thing to note here is that both a flush and a straight are harder to get than a full house, yet a full house always has a higher payback than either of them. The majority of the time, about 55% to be exact, you will wind up with a losing hand on a 9/6 machine.

The next bit of advice concerns how many coins you should bet. On a machine with a 100% or more return you should always bet the maximum amount because it will allow you to earn bonus coins when you hit the royal flush. Example: For a royal flush on a 9/6 machine with one coin played you receive 250 coins; for two coins you get 500; for three coins you get 750; for four coins you get 1,000 and for five (maximum) coins you get 4,000 coins. This translates into a bonus of 2,750 coins! A royal flush can be expected once every 40,400 hands on a 9/6 machine; once every 40,200 hands on an 8/5 machine; and once every 32,700 hands on an 8/5 progressive. The odds are high, but the added bonus makes it worthwhile. If you can't afford to play the maximum coins on a positive machine then move down to a lower denomination machine.And, if you absolutely insist on playing less than the maximum, be sure to play only one coin at a time. It doesn't make any sense to play two, three or four coins, because you still won't be eligible for the bonus.

One important thing to keep in mind when you look at the total payback on these video poker machines is that those numbers always include a royal flush and the royal flush plays a very big factor in the total return. As a matter of fact, the royal flush is such a big factor on video poker machines that you are actually expected to lose until you get that royal flush. Yes, even by restricting your play to video poker machines with a more than 100% payback you are still expected to lose money until you hit a royal flush. Once you hit that royal flush it will bring your cash back up to that 100% level but until it happens you should be fully aware that you are statistically expected to lose money.

According to video poker expert Bob Dancer, "on a 25¢ Jacks or Better 9/6 machine you will lose at a rate of 2.5% while you are waiting for the royal to happen. Another way to look at this is quarter players who play 600 hands per hour can expect to lose about $18.75 per hour, on average, on any hour they do not hit a royal." You really have to keep in mind that there are no guarantees when you play video poker. Yes, you are expected to get a royal flush about once every 40,000 hands but there are no guarantees that it will happen and if you don't get that royal flush it could cost you dearly.

A final tip about playing video poker concerns slot clubs. Every major casino has a slot club and you should make it a point to join the slot club before you insert your first coin. It doesn't cost anything to join and as a member you will have the opportunity to earn complimentaries from the casinos in the form of cash, food, shows, drinks, rooms or other "freebies." When you join the club you'll be issued a card (similar to a credit card) that you insert in the machine before you start to play and it will track how much you bet, as well as how long you play. Naturally, the more money you gamble, the more freebies you'll earn. Just make sure you don't get carried away and bet more than you're comfortable with just to earn some extra comps. Ideally, you want to get comps for gambling that you were going to do anyway and not be pressured into betting more than you had planned. Many clubs will also give you cash back for your play and that amount should be added into the payback percentage on the kind of machine you'll be playing. For example: at Treasure Island in Las Vegas, the slot club rebates .67% in cash for your video poker play. By only playing 9/6 Jacks or Better machines with a return of 99.54% you can add the .67% rebate to get an adjusted figure of 100.21%. This means that you are, theoretically, playing at a game where you have a slight advantage, plus you're still eligible for other room and food discounts on top of your cash rebate.

The story you are reading was originally written in 1994 and is updated each year. The only major difference between 1994 and 1999 is that it's getting a little harder to find the 9/6 machines in Las Vegas. Many of them have been replaced by new machines called Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker or Triple Bonus Poker. Casinos are always introducing new machines and these particular ones are now very popular. The perfect strategy for these machines is much more complicated and the two strategy tables in this book don't apply to them. If you have a computer you can use the Stanford Wong Video Poker or the Bob Dancer Presents Win Poker programs to practice the strategy for the newer machines. Otherwise, keep an eye out for the 9/6, full pay deuces wild or 10/7 double bonus machines. They're harder to find but they're still out there - especially in the numerous "locals" casinos.

Gambling Tips---The World's Greatest Slot Cheat?

2007-02-03T13:26:00.001-12:00

by Steve Bourie
Reprinted from American Casino Guide

The first slot machines were invented in the late 1890's and it probably
wasn't very long after those machines appeared that somebody had the brilliant idea of trying to cheat them. Yes, times may change but, unfortunately, greed is here to stay and there will always be people looking for a fast way to make a buck with a slot machine. Here's the true story of one of those people who probably had the most ingenious method ever used.

On January 14, 1995 Reid Errol McNeal should have been one of the luckiest men on earth. That Saturday afternoon he went to the keno desk at Bally's Park Place Casino Resort in Atlantic City and bought $100 worth of keno tickets: 10 tickets at $10 each with eight numbers picked on each card.

Defying odds of 230,000-to-1, McNeal hit for eight-of-eight on one of the
tickets. The winning payoff of $100,000 was the highest amount ever won on a keno game in the history of Atlantic City and naturally caused quite a stir in
the casino. According to published reports, however, McNeal hardly seemed like the typical winner of a once-in-a-lifetime jackpot. Not only was he
unemotional about his big win, he also had no identification on him and he
demanded to be paid in cash. Needless to say, officials were a little
suspicious, or as one casino executive said, " this just didn' t pass the smell
test."

New Jersey law requires that any jackpot of $35,000 or more be verified by
state gaming division officials and when they arrived they were accompanied by a couple of state troopers assigned to their department. The troopers went
with McNeal to his hotel room at Bally's where they found a friend of McNeal's who identified himself as Ronald Harris. At this point the troopers were simply making an investigation into the oddness of the situation and left
Harris in the room while they took McNeal back downstairs for some further
questioning. It was then discovered that McNeal's friend was an employee of
the Nevada Gaming Control Board which is responsible for regulating all of the gaming devices in that state.

The troopers returned to the room to speak to Harris but he was gone. They
searched the room and, according to state police spokesman John Hagerty, found " computer equipment, computer chips, notes and books describing changes in Bally's machine and describing how to possibly scam or beat the machine."

Police theorized that as a computer technician in Nevada. s Gaming Control
Board Harris had access to a highly confidential "source code" which allowed
him access to the programming in the keno machine's random number generator.Harris then used his computers to duplicate the calculations of the random number generator in Bally' s keno machine and thus, was able to determine the outcome ahead of time. McNeal was arrested in Atlantic City and Ron Harris was arrested by Nevada authorities at the airport in Las Vegas. Both were charged by New Jersey police with computer fraud and attempted cheating. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that all charges against McNeal were dropped in return for his agreeing to testify against Harris and according to Keith Furlong, Public Information Officer for New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement, "Harris pleaded guilty in July 1998 to attempted theft by deception."

Shortly after his arrest Harris was fired from his $48,000-a-year job with the
Gaming Control Board where he had worked for 12 years. Officials there also began their own investigation into his past work for the Board and five months later he was indicted, along with his ex-wife and two friends, on charges of rigging slot machines in three northern Nevada casinos.

As part of his Gaming Control Board duties Harris was responsible for testing
slot machines at casinos throughout the state. He and his co-workers would go into casinos and randomly test machines to make sure they only contained
computer chips that were previously approved by the state agency. These
computer chips are also known as EPROM' s (erasable programmable read only memory) and control the payback percentages on slot machines. The key words here are erasable and programmable because authorities alleged that Harris erased the memory on the chips and substituted his own programming which forced the machines to pay out a jackpot whenever coins were inserted in a certain sequence. For example: if someone inserted 3 coins, followed by 2 coins, then another 2 coins, then 1 coin, then 3 coins, then 5 coins, the
machine would automatically pay out the maximum jackpot.

Not wanting to win the jackpots himself, police charged that Harris used his
accomplices to collect a $9,000 jackpot at Fitzgeralds in Reno, a $5,000 award at the Crystal Bay Club in North Lake Tahoe and another unspecified amount at the Comstock in Reno. According to a story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the attorney general's office later went on to charge him with rigging at least 24 jackpots throughout the state. In September 1997, Harris pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and was sentenced to seven years.

After these problems occurred authorities in both states took precautions to
prevent them from happening again. New Jersey now requires that any electronic keno machines used in Atlantic City have a "source code" different from the same machines used in other states. Also, in Nevada the chairman of the state's Gaming Control Board, Bill Bible, ordered a review of its safeguard measures with an independent firm and now requires staff electronics employees to check each others work.

Obviously, Harris was brilliant with computers but evidently he wasn't too
smart with people. Just imagine how much money he would still be making if his friend had only been carrying some ID with him in Atlantic City!

Gambling Tips---Are Slot Machines Honest?

2007-02-03T13:24:00.000-12:00

by Steve Bourie
Reprinted from 1999 American Casino Guide

All of the stories in this book relating to slot machines and video poker are based on the assumption that those machines act in a random manner. This means we're assuming that those games aren't programmed to avoid giving a player a winning slot combination or poker hand and the opportunity exists on each pull of the handle, or push of a button, for any possible winning combination to occur.

We know that there are gaming regulatory agencies that are supposed to provide the public with protection from playing on a rigged machine but how is it done? and how effective is it?

Being the nosy guy that I am, these were a couple of questions I was curious to get answered and it ended up taking me on a little bit of an adventure. Not only did it result in this story about the regulatory process for electronic gaming machines but it also led me to question the motives of a national news organization.

In the United States there are only four states that have their own facilities for testing electronic gaming machines: Montana, Mississippi, New Jersey and Nevada. For the other states that offer legalized casino gambling but don't have their own labs almost all rely on the services of Gaming Labs International - an independent testing firm based in Toms River, New Jersey.

It only made sense to start with the biggest state first, so in February 1997
I called the Nevada Gaming Control Board to ask for permission to visit their testing lab in Las Vegas. They told me I needed to get permission for that from Bill Bible, the Control Board's chairman, so I wrote him a brief letter explaining that I wanted to write a story about the lab for my book. Twelve days later I received a reply from him stating that I was welcome to visit the lab but that some parts of it were confidential and would not be accessible to me. He only requested that I call that department in advance to make an appointment. A few days later I called and made arrangements for a visit on March 18 at 3:00 p.m.

Not being a computer expert - just a curious casino gambler - I wasn't exactly sure what I should ask and about 10 days before my trip I started to ponder questions I thought might be appropriate. Then, on March 12, just six days before the scheduled visit, I was watching television when I switched channels and caught a story on the ABC News show PrimeTime Live about slot machines. The segment was titled "Against All Odds" and featured their chief investigative reporter Brian Ross.

The story focused on the computer chips in slot machines and began with parts of an interview with Frank Romano who, Ross said, was banned from the industry because a company he owned with two partners was charged with rigging its video poker machines to avoid giving out royal flush jackpots.

Ross went on to say that the public knows little about the inner workings of machines and that PrimeTime conducted a four-month investigation into the industry that included numerous interviews with industry officials, the reading of confidential documents and the viewing of secret video tapes of an interview with a former state gaming official who was involved in a slot cheating scandal.

Ross said that Romano claimed he didn't know anything about the cheating at his company and that he had persuaded a federal judge of that fact. Also, Romano had no qualms with talking about the "secrets" of the gambling industry even though Larry Volk the person at his company who programmed the chips to avoid giving the winning hands had been murdered: Volk was shot to death at his house in Las Vegas shortly before he was scheduled to begin giving testimony about how he programmed the chips to cheat.

Ross said Romano claimed the computer chips made cheating possible and that the true "secret" of the industry was that the chips of many machines were programmed with a "near-miss" feature which didn't directly affect the odds of the game but did lure players into playing longer.

Romano then gave an example where a slot machine would line up two 7s on the payline and have the third 7 settle below the payline making people think they were close to winning. He said those kind of results were programmed into the machines on purpose.

Ross said the casinos pay out up to 98% on these machines and that Romano claimed the industry came up with this idea as a way to get the dollar volume up by keeping the players at the machines for a longer period. Romano claimed it was "cheating" and that the industry was "teasing" the player by making them think they were close to winning.

The next scene shifted to an interview with gambling addiction authority Valerie Lorenz who, Ross said, wasn't surprised that the industry would do such a thing.

Next was an interview with Bill Bible, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board who said that cheaters would be caught and prosecuted. Ross commented that most of the Board's cases involved players cheating casinos and asked Bible if it also applied to casinos that cheat customers. Bible replied that it did and that his department inspects computer chips both before they're put in the machines and also after they're out in actual play.

Ross then questioned how good a job the state did in examining the chips because of allegations raised in a six-hour series of supposedly "secret" videotapes with Ronald Harris, a former Gaming Control Board employee who was involved in a slot cheating scandal. Harris was a computer expert in the gaming lab where the machines were tested and the videos were made by the attorney general's office while questioning him about his cheating activities. Harris was eventually convicted of felony cheating charges.

Parts of the "secret" tape are then shown with Harris claiming that the state's gaming regulations weren't being enforced and that the machines were "deceptive."

Harris: I remember reviewing one, and it was a thousand times more likely that the three 7s would line up directly above the payline than on the payline. I mean, doesn't that seem deceptive to anyone here?

Questioner: To make the customer feel as though they came very close to getting a jackpot and that perhaps the next one or the next one, to paraphrase the ad, the baby would be ready to deliver?

Harris: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, it's out there. It's being done. It's condoned by the board...

Ross commented that the attorney general's office told PrimeTime it couldn't prove any criminal wrongdoing based on Harris' allegations and that they never looked at all into the alleged "deceptive" features on slots.

The interview with Bible then continued with him confirming that Harris was a former employee who had a great deal of knowledge about the industry and that his allegations were still under review. Bible denied that any cheating was allowed by him or the board and he pointed out that Harris just didn't have much credibility.

In the next scene Ross said that two other former employees of the lab, without any criminal backgrounds, also believed that the machines were "deceptive." He interviewed Gordon Hickman a retired employee who said that the machines were very prevalent. Ross said that in a confidential memo to the attorney general's office Hickman claimed that he was ordered to okay machines that "display near-misses in 7s a third of the time just above the payout line." Ross said Hickman thought the machines were "deceptive" but he was ordered to approve them anyway. The machines in question were manufactured by International Game Technology (IGT), the world's largest manufacturer of electronic gaming machines and a company which controls about 75% of the market.

Next was an interview with Tom Baker, president of IGT, in which he's shown a copy of the Harris video. Baker denied that his company's machines were "deceptive" in the way Harris described them on the tape. Ross challenged Baker by asking if his machines were "deceptive" and again questioned whether or not IGT was teasing customers into thinking they were close to winning when they played those machines. Baker replied that Harris said a lot of things, however, Harris was a convicted felon but Baker and his company were not. Ross responded by showing Baker a copy of Gordon Hickman's confidential memo to the attorney general's office about the same subject. Baker then denied there was any favoritism given to his company that he knew about.

At that point Ross pointedly asked if IGT programs its machines with a "near-miss" feature. Baker answered by saying his company's machines were programmed in accordance with the law. Ross then asked if the law allowed the "near-miss" feature. Baker said he personally didn't know, but if his company was doing it then the law allowed it.

A voice-over from Ross then commented that gambling industry critics have concerns about the regulations that are in place and the scene shifted back to gambling addiction expert Valerie Lorenz who said the casino industry makes the laws in Nevada and she questioned if any other business would be allowed to get away with deceiving the public in such a manner.

The next scene shifted back to Bill Bible with Ross questioning him as to whether or not he thought the public was treated fairly when playing gaming machines in Las Vegas. Bible replied that he had no doubt the public was indeed treated fairly.

The final scene went back to Romano who said that the machines were designed to entertain the public as well as to take their money. Ross then asked if a casino customer is better off going to the machines or to one of the table games. Romano replied that they'd be better off going home and that ended the report.

It didn't take long for the effects of PrimeTime Live's broadcast to be felt. The very next day U.S. Representative Frank Wolf (R-Va.), a longtime opponent of legalized gambling, requested an immediate investigation by two federal agencies. "I have asked the FBI to investigate claims of illegality and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate illegal trade practices," Wolf said.

The segment also became a subject of discussion that same day in the Manitoba Parliament when Gary Doer, an opposition party leader, called for a government investigation into the matter because a Winnipeg casino used slot machines manufactured by IGT. "If the computer machines are programmed in the United States to have this kind of near-miss operation to entice people, particularly addicted people, to keep going, I want that stopped here in Manitoba," said Doer.

The show also sparked a call in the Nevada legislature for its own investigation, but with a slightly different twist: they wanted to know who leaked the attorney general's confidential Ronald Harris videotapes to ABC News. "That entire piece is hinging on the unsubstantiated allegations of a convicted felon," said Nevada Assembly Minority Leader Peter Ernaut. "What is said on those tapes is secondary to how they got public."

The Nevada legislature didn't seemed too concerned about the allegations raised in the broadcast because they believed they weren't valid. "Our programs do not create a near-miss scenario and every symbol is randomly selected," said Brian McKay, general counsel for IGT. "We don't make deceptive machines. We never have," he added.

Well, this certainly was an interesting can of worms that had been opened. It surely gave me some additional direction for the questions I wanted to ask but, actually, I was already familiar with the subjects raised in this report.

I knew that American Coin was the company that Frank Romano had been associated with and that it was involved in the biggest cheating scandal in Nevada gaming history. In July 1989 the Nevada Gaming Control Board seized about 1,000 of the company's gaming machines in 93 southern Nevada locations (mostly bars and taverns) after it discovered that they contained unapproved computer chips. The company's video poker machines had been altered to avoid giving a royal flush and their keno machines had also been programmed to avoid giving out the top jackpots.

Eventually, the company surrendered its license and paid $1 million in fines. Authorities also pursued a criminal case against the company but were later forced to drop those proceedings when their star witness Larry Volk, the American Coin programmer who said he had been ordered to program the rigged chips, was shot in the back of the head and killed outside his Las Vegas mobile home in October 1990. A suspect was later arrested and tried in the case but a jury didn't convict him.

Romano, who was a one-third partner in the company along with his brother-in-law and father-in-law, claimed he never knew of the cheating scheme. In a later bankruptcy proceeding against his partners a federal judge agreed with Romano's claim of innocence and ruled in his favor.

As for the "near-miss" scenario I knew that this issue had been raised before with Universal Distributing, a Japanese slot manufacturer, that had specifically developed a "near-miss" program for its slot machines. When showing a non-winning combination on their slot machines Universal's program would put two symbols on the payline and then place the third symbol just above or below the payline to make players think they were close to winning. When the Universal machines were originally approved for use in Nevada the state's regulators weren't aware of the problem. In 1988, however, the Nevada Gaming Control Board discovered the "near-miss" scenario and filed a complaint against Universal. The Board then held a series of hearings to discuss the "near-miss" issue and officially ruled it illegal. This resulted in Universal having to reprogram about 15,000 of its machines throughout the state.

Well, if the "near-miss" had been ruled illegal in 1988 then why would PrimeTime Live broadcast a report that would purposely lead its viewers to believe that it was in use today? Maybe what I had heard about the illegality of the "near-miss" was wrong? I knew this was an issue that I had to bring up during my visit to the testing lab.

The five-story State of Nevada office building at 555 East Washington Avenue is about 10 blocks north of the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas' downtown casino district. I went to the second floor to meet Greg Gale, Chief of the Audit Division for the Gaming Control Board, who brought me to meet Mark Robinson, the Lab Manager for the board's Electronic Services division. They explained that Gale was temporarily supervising Robinson's area because the department's chief recently retired and that Electronic Services would be on its own again once a new chief was in place. All of my questioning was directed to Robinson, but occasionally Gale would supply an answer to help clarify an issue.

What are your department's duties?

We test machines before they're approved for use in Nevada and then we also have a field inspection group that goes out every day and checks the chips that are in the machines to be sure that what's out there is actually what we've approved.

How did your department come about?

Back in the early '80s the Board had the lab and it was under the enforcement division. We also had a group of computer programmers, who did in-house computer programming, and that was in the administration division. The Board decided to form a separate division that had all the technical resources in one division and that became Electronic Services.

So you had a lab back in the early '80s. Do you know when it first started?

I don't know the exact date. Somewhere in the late '70s, like about '75 or '78. They started looking at the mechanical machines and developed sort of an expertise in the enforcement division first. Then, as the electronics grew in the machines, they realized they needed an electronics group to handle it.

How many people are in the department?

There are a total of 18 in electronics and computer services. We've got 10 in the lab part.

What is the background of all the people that check the machines?

Primarily electrical engineers.

How long have you been here?

I've been with the Board 12-and-a-half years and I've been in the lab about a year-and-a-half now.

And you're in charge of the whole lab?

The lab inspectors, the whole thing.

And the lab part tests the machines?

Yes, out in the field and prior to approval. We have a group that does both. We have six people that go out and do it in the field and we've got three here in the office.

This is for the entire state?

Yes. For the entire state.

So, some of you would go to Reno?

Right. We do have agents who are permanently stationed in the Carson City office: four of them. Three of them go out and one is their supervisor who also does some in-house work with the electronic equipment.

What's the normal procedure when a manufacturer comes in with a new slot machine?

We have about a six-month process to get it approved. We start by testing the machine to make sure it's random. We look at the source code. We look at the principles behind how the random generation occurs and we look through the source code for any possible problems.

What is the source code?

The source code is the programming that makes the machine run. All of the slot machines we're approving today are computer-based machines; there are no mechanicals anymore.

Do you get a written printout of the programming?

Generally, we get it on a floppy disk so that we can use our computer tools to review it faster. Reading it page after page isn't practical anymore.

What do you look for?

Most of it's written in a way that's fairly understandable. There's some modules that make up each of the functions that go on in the machine like maybe handling the hopper or handling the coin acceptor so you need to look at those specific functions in greater depth and read through them to see how they work.

The main thing that we're looking at though is its random generation. How does it pick the stops that it's going to show you? Or, how does it pick the cards it's going to show you? And we've developed over the years a pretty good understanding of the various ways you can generate numbers randomly using a computer.

When you approve a particular model of machine. Do you just approve the initial program or every program the machine can use?

We do approve each program. The first program that is approved is the first model of that machine. It goes through the entire process and it gets presented to the Board and the Commission for their approval or denial. If the machine is approved then the manufacturer may modify it under the regulations and they can make all kinds of variations to that machine.

They primarily get a platform approved, like a spinning-reel slot machine or a video poker machine. Then all of the minor variations, like changes in pay tables, or in the case of poker you go from regular poker to deuces wild, to jokers wild, to any possible combinations you can think of...

Gale: We should probably say that before you can actually submit a device to the lab for its inspection approval you need to have a license in the state of Nevada. That's really the initial step. You have to apply to us and you have to submit to a background and financial investigation. Once you have that license in hand you can then submit your device for approval.

Robinson: Once we've reviewed it and we find that it meets all of the regulations and technical standards then we recommend it for field trial and the chairman administratively approves a field trial at a location that the manufacturer has selected. They go out and install one or more machines at that location and we administer a field trial where we observe the machine for problems on the floor. We also have the location tell us about any problems they may have with it.

What can happen in the field test to disrupt the approval process?

The primary thing is meter problems where the machine doesn't have a good accounting of everything that is going on. A lot of times in the field you'll have people playing them and they're hitting buttons all over the place and doing all kinds of crazy things to them that you might not do in a lab environment.

Gale: Like pouring a soft drink down the coin acceptor to see if it will trip the coin hopper!

Just having the machine on for hours and hours and hours - you know - days continuously, sometimes generates different problems than you'll see in a lab environment. Some of the mechanical problems will also show up a lot more in the field than they will in the lab.

Because they're taxed, I guess you need to have an accounting of each machine's revenue?

That's correct. Every machine has to have the capability to count the coin in and the coin out. That's what our audit division is looking at when they're out doing their audits.

Once you've approved a particular machine is that manufacturer then free to re-set the paybacks to whatever they want within the 75% minimum payback limits of Nevada law?

Correct. They can make all the variations to that machine that they want to within the technical standards.

How do you know that the chips in the machines are within the limits of the law? Is every machine tested?

Every machine is tested to a degree, yes. When a manufacturer submits changes he gives a summary list of his changes in the chips. We review those and we also, on a sample basis, review the modules themselves in a greater depth to make sure that what they're telling us on the surface is also true in the chips.

Initially, are you approving the chip or the whole machine?

Initially, we're approving the whole machine including the chip. After that it's just chips that need to be changed to different percentages.

If a casino wants to change a chip inside a machine to make it pay back less do they have to let you know?

No. They can go ahead and change the chips on their own, but they need to have a system internally to be sure that they're putting in only approved chips. That's what our field inspection is going out and verifying daily: that they are all approved chips.

So, if they have a machine that's returning 90% and they want to change it to 80%?

That's okay as long as it's an approved chip.

Who puts the chip in? The casino or the manufacturer?

It depends on their relationship with the manufacturer. Sometimes the manufacturer will come out and do it or sometimes the larger casinos have an in-house staff that can do it and they can probably do it cheaper that way but you need some experience in doing that. The manufacturers will do it but they'll charge extra for doing it.

And each chip is set to pay back a certain amount?

That's correct.

How many approved chips are there?

We have a total of about 45,000 chips approved for all machines.

How many are approved for any particular brand of machine?

It would depend on the particular brand. It could be anywhere from two or three all the way up to several thousand.

But the probabilities of the randomness would be the same in all of that one machine's chips and just the payback percentage would change?

That's correct. Different manufacturers do it different ways. Some put the part that is the random number generator in one chip and then put the attributes about the payout percentage in a separate chip and that makes it easier to sort of mix and match. Other manufacturers don't design that way, but they will have the same random number generator in all their chips.

Is there some sort of coding on the chip that let's you know it's an approved chip?

There is a code number which we have on file that contains all of the attributes on that chip including its percentage. We would look at either the manufacturer's code number or our own approval number which also has to be on the chip and then from that we go back to our computer and it tells us what percentage it has to be.

Are the chips in the machines sealed or taped? Is there any way you can see if they've been tampered with?

Not visually, no.

Gale: Now, with Megabucks and some of the larger slot machine payoffs, many times the manufacturers will actually seal the EPROMS into the boards themselves where people can't take them out, or they'll put them behind a locked door where only they have the key. But, we're talking about Megabucks which is 6,7,8 million dollars a jackpot and it's installed at 135 casinos in the state so they're very concerned about security over their programs. But we detect modification through the inspection process. That's how you know something's been tampered with: you pull it out and you read it.

Robinson: Also, the tape could be missing but the chip could be just fine. So, if you do go after a machine that had been taped and the tape was gone maybe somebody just took the chip out and put it back in again.

Are all of the machines taped?

No. Only the Megabucks machines, the wide-area progressives and some of the casinos voluntarily tape their larger denomination machines

How do you know that a chip hasn't been tampered with internally?

When we go out to the field we have a laptop computer that has a database with all of the signatures of all of the chips so it knows what all of the chips should look like. We take the machine apart and we take the chips out of the machine. We put them into our laptop and press the button and it will read the chip and all of the contents in there. It will do the same calculations on those chips that we did here in the office. It will compare what the values should be and look it up in a database and if it finds that it's an approved value then it will go ahead and say "that was an okay chip." Otherwise, it will alert the operator to make sure that they've actually put the chip in right and then, assuming that was done right, it will log that as a chip it's never seen before and we'll follow up on those.

You only do this on a spot basis?

On a random basis we will show up at a location one day and say "we're going to do your location today and we want access to the machines right now."

Do you check all of the machines in that location?

No. If it's a restricted location (this means it's licensed for 15 or fewer machines) that has 15 machines we'll do all 15. Generally, we can do about 100 machines in a day so we'll only do a sample at a large location because, otherwise, at a really large location, we could be there potentially 20 days.

How long does it take you to visit every casino and do you visit every casino?

We do try to visit every casino and our cycle is about every two years.

What if you get a complaint from a player that they think there's something wrong with a machine?

We'll go and do the same kind of chip inspection and we will see if it's an approved chip or not. If it's not an approved chip we'll take the chip out and bring it back to the lab and analyze it there.

Then, on a case-by-case basis, depending on what we see is wrong with it...if it's labeled with an approved label number we'll start by comparing that chip with the approved chip and see how different it is. Is it completely different or just a couple of bytes different? Then we'll actually go in and analyze what the effect of the difference is. We will also talk to the manufacturer and say "how did this get out without going through the approval process?" and we try to work it through there until we eventually determine what the problem is with the chip.

What's the penalty if it's not an approved chip?

It could be anywhere from a simple violation letter all the way up to loss of license. It depends on exactly what we're looking at: was it maliciously done? Is it actually a gaffe where the house or player is cheated?

We had the case of American Coin back in 1989 where they were specifically putting in gaffed chips that produced no poker royal flushes. They lost their license on it as opposed to an administrative error on their part where it's a good chip, but somehow it got through the cracks and it didn't get submitted to the Board properly but there doesn't seem to be any malicious capability in the chip - somebody was just sloppy with the paperwork.

I saw the recent PrimeTime Live show about slot machines and it implied that many of your machines have a "near-miss" feature. I thought that the "near-miss" was outlawed. Is that correct?

That's correct. There was a case that involved an attribute that was labeled "near-miss" and that relates back to Universal Distributing Company in 1988. The process that they were using, which was deemed at that time to be a "near-miss" feature, was not in accordance with the regulations. What they would do was after they selected the reels, if you had a losing combination they would present a different losing combination that was more like 7, 7 and 7 just below the line. It was outlawed because it didn't just independently select the reels and then display the results to the player. It independently selected the reels and if it didn't like the results that it came up with it went to another table and randomly selected a different set of results to show to the player.

Gale: After it determined that a losing combination was selected then it went out and got different symbols to display to make it look like you just barely missed a jackpot.

Robinson: More frequently than it should.

Gale: But you're right (about it being outlawed) since regulation 14 was amended back in 1989 to prevent that type of activity.

What Gale was referring to here was the section of Nevada's gaming laws that was completely updated in 1989 and applies to "manufacturers, distributors, gaming devices, new games and associated equipment."

Regulation 14.040 pertains to minimum standards for gaming devices and parts of it specifically state "All gaming devices submitted for approval: must use a random selections process to determine the game outcome of each play of a game. Each possible combination of game elements which produce winning or losing game outcomes must be available for random selection at the initiation of each play. The selection process must not produce detectable patterns of game elements. After selection of the game outcome, the gaming device must not make a variable secondary decision which affects the result shown to the player." The wording in those regulations seemed to adequately sum up the state's position on the "near-miss" scenario: it's illegal.

After the interview we took a brief tour of the lab. I guess I had visions of a sprawling lab with technicians in white coats scurrying about in a high-tech environment. Instead, it was just a rather small room - about the size of your average McDonald's dining area - with nobody there and work benches strewn with electronic equipment plus a few slot machines. The highlight was seeing the area where the approved chips were kept. It consisted of a series of storage cabinets that were covered with a heavy-gauge metal screen and padlocks.

My visit left me with the impression that these guys were obviously very good at what they did and there seemed to be a lot of safeguards in place to prevent cheating on a machine. It just seemed that the department was kind of small for the massive amount of work it needed to do.

A check of Nevada's gaming records for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1996 showed there were 185,610 slot machines throughout the state. Hmm, let's see, if there are six people that go out and check on the machines and they can do a maximum of 100 machines a day - it would take them 1,856 days, or five years, of working seven days a week, to inspect every single machine!

Of course, Nevada's gaming industry really hasn't had much in the way of scandals so maybe their system works just fine. But what about the other states? Do they do it differently?

On May 15, 1997 I went to 1601 Atlantic Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey to meet with Richard Williamson, Supervisor of the Technical Services Bureau at the state's Division of Gaming Enforcement. We were joined by Keith Furlong, Public Information Officer for the Division and we spoke in Williamson's office located in a state building just a few blocks west of the boardwalk's casinos.

What does your department do?

We do the pro-active review of the games.

How many people are in the department?

There are 19.

How many actually go out in the field to test the machines?

Eleven. We're not that big of a unit for the job we've got. A little bit of a historical perspective on this: we're the same size that we were 10 years ago and in the past four years we've gone from just four slot manufacturers to 11, plus three keno systems.

How many machines are there?

33,000 but that goes to 35,000 right before the end of the summer with the opening of Bally's Wild Wild West Casino, plus Trump is putting in another 600 games in a new area which will be open by the Memorial Day weekend.

Do you test every single machine in the city?

Yes. Every game that goes up in the casinos, we go out and we inspect every game. We actually seal the chip onto the circuit board. We come back... we have a database where we put in the information that "machine 1234 was put on Bally's Park Place floor on this date, with this denomination and this program in it." And if it's a progressive, it was set at this rate of progression. We have documentation that supports all that information so that we've got an audit trail.

How long does it take you to inspect all of the games in the city?

Well, we don't go out and inspect every game every year. What we do is I have an audit program set up where we use a random selections process. We're at a 95% assurance level with a 2% deviation. We go out and we take from the population of slot machines. We have a random start and we pick every Nth one. We go out and we just inspect all those games from top to bottom. We come back and record it.

Are you selecting by kind of game or by casino?

By casino. We'll do a random selection of all the games in a casino. But that's our audit program. That's the only time that we go into a casino and don't tell them what games we're going to look at.

All of the other times we go and do inspections is when the casino is calling us to change the payoff percentage, do denomination changes, put bill acceptors on, or do some kind of a modification to the game. We go in and the casino creates the on-site inspection paperwork which spells out what's happening. Then we go in, we inspect the games and sign off on the paperwork. We give a copy to the principal that's on-site for the Casino Control Commission so they have our signature that the games are working as approved. The games goes up and we come back and document it in our database.

So you don't continually inspect every machine?

We pre-inspect every machine before it goes up. It has to have the approved EPROM (computer chip). We don't do 100% verification because I don't think it's cost effective. What I do keep track of on a database is the last time we looked at a game so at any point in time I can query for any game that has been looked at any variety of times.

Can a casino go in and change an EPROM on their own?

No. Not in this jurisdiction.

What do the casinos do when they want to make a change? Call the manufacturer?

No. They contact us and we schedule one of our gaming equipment specialists to go out to the casino and, generally, when they're doing an EPROM change they're doing a bank of games or they're doing a model change where you change the chip, you change the glass, you change the reel strips and you've got a new slot machine.

So, the casinos are not allowed to go inside the machines to change any of those things unless you're there to supervise it?

Yes.

How does your approval process work for a new machine?

Well, naturally, the company would have to be licensed, or at least be in the licensing process, before they could submit a product.

Assuming they've met that requirement, what do they have to submit?

They send in a full slot machine. They send in documentation on...let's say an operator's manual. They also send in more detailed documentation on the random number generator used within the game. I'd have to say that's one of the most important features. We do that first because if the random number generator doesn't pass then that's the end of the game.

What kind of testing do you do?

The first thing we check is the random number generator to make sure that there are no discernible patterns within that program. Then we do a physical review of the game. Review it for security to see that it can't be compromised in very simple ways, like easily opening up the door, or having easy access to the inside of the machine. Then we do a review of the circuitry of the board to see that they don't have switches or ways of manipulating the game that would not be detectable by the casino management or the regulators.

A lot of times the tendency by a manufacturer is to make these machines real user friendly and sometimes they can go to excess and give them (the casino) the ability to change payout percentages without any notification to management or the regulators. So we would have them remove anything that could compromise the integrity of the game.

The next thing we'll do is a mathematical review of the particular program that operates the pays and plays of the game. When we do that review we're doing it to make sure that it's in compliance with the minimum payout percentages mandated in this jurisdiction.

The final step is to do an emulation of the game. We take it into the lab and then with our electronic equipment, rather than just playing the game, we force pays and we force losers.

For instance, we require that all machines lock up on the top award. So, if you receive the top award, say a royal flush, then you should not be able to throw those cards away. Then we check that the meters are working properly; that the pays occur and record properly; and that the machines will lock up on single awards over $1,200 because that's an I.R.S. rule.

About how long does it take for your approval process?

The time is really subjective to the experience of the company and the familiarity of the company with our regulations. So, for a seasoned manufacturer - someone who's been submitting products for years - the approval process is generally quicker. Also, location has a big difference. If they're close we can pick up the phone and talk to them. Time zones make a difference, language barriers - if it's somebody from Europe or Japan - it's more difficult. So those are factors that extend the time of the prototype approval. Say, if the company was in New Jersey, and they submit the product and they're very familiar with the rules and they've done all their homework on the game we could probably knock out a prototype in 60 days.

It's my understanding that your department was also involved in the discovery of the "near-miss" slot machine programs. Is that correct?

Yes. It was discovered while it was in here for approval but the facts are that it was discovered at the same time in Nevada and that company withdrew it from the approval process here. So, actually, we never did issue a letter on it.

But, the "near-miss" machine is illegal? Is that correct?

Well, it would be illegal in this jurisdiction if someone were to send one in.

Do you consider a video poker machine to be different than a slot machine?

It was determined by the Casino Control Commission back in the first couple years of the '80s that it is a slot machine.

So you don't make any difference in your laws between skill and non-skill machines?

Only to the fact that we require the payout percentage to be 2% higher on a game that is affected by skill.

You require it to be 2% higher? That's the first I've heard of that. I haven't completely read your laws, but...

It won't say that in the law. It was a policy adopted by the Commission about the time that video pokers were approved because of a field test. They went out and they watched people play and it was determined that someone who was very unskilled at playing poker could lower the payout percentage of the game below the minimum standard just by continually making poor selections. So they thought they should raise it 2% so that even a poor player would have a better chance with the added 2% payout.

The minimum return on slots is 83% so the video poker machines would have to return a minimum of 85%?

Yes.

I've read some articles where the writers claim that because New Jersey law treats video poker machines the same as slots that the video poker machines might be programmed to avoid giving players better hands by dip switches or other means. Are the machines allowed to do that?

No. As part of our proactive approach to the game inspection we do not allow dip switches. We do not allow a casino to arbitrarily change the payout percentages. We do keep a record on what program is in there at all times for investigative and auditing purposes. The casinos are required, when they do their count of the games, to calculate the payout percentage of the game and compare it to the theoretical payout and investigate the differences. They have to report that to us for every slot machine.

They have to tell you the theoretical payout?

We require them to compare the actual with the theoretical and we tell them what the theoretical is.

What are the sanctions you can take against a casino if you find them in violation of your policies?

Well, that's all licensing and it comes down to individuals. We have licensing requirements with internal controls where an entity would have to report this and someone in a certain department is required to report those things. So, if they don't report it, you go to the person whose job it is.

Generally, most of these things can be worked out by going to the individual. If that doesn't work you go to their boss. If that doesn't work you go to corporate counsel. If that doesn't work then you resort to legal measures, but it's really all one-on-one. It's not that big of an industry here, we've just got 12 entities and we know all of them. So, if you've got a problem you just walk in, or make an appointment, and sit in their office or have them come over and talk it out.

What would you say is the most common problem you've seen in the machines?

Most common? Lights out. The game's got to operate as prototype approved. It's like your car: if your turn signals aren't on who's going to know you're turning? If the coin-in light is off how are you going to know that the coin was accepted?

My point is that when a game hits that floor it should be in a working condition so that the patron understands how the game works because there's no place else they can go for the rules other than what's right in front of them. And, if they do have a question, someone within the casino, be it a slot attendant or whoever, should be able to come over and explain it to the patron so that there's no complaint that goes beyond that game.

After our interview I took a tour of the testing facilities and I noticed it contained many of the same electronic testing machines that I had seen in the Nevada lab. The only difference here was that the facilities were spread out in three smaller rooms as opposed to being in one room. Also, I guess my timing was better here because I did see a few people working on some projects.

My impression, once again, was that many safeguards were in place for the player. Actually, there seemed to be more safeguards in New Jersey because of their restrictions on the ability of the casinos to go in and make changes to the machines on their own.

Also, it was interesting to discover that although Nevada has almost six times as many machines as New Jersey, they only have about half as many inspectors: just six compared to New Jersey's 11.

Even with their more aggressive rules, however, New Jersey officials still don't test every machine on a continuing basis and, just like in Nevada, a random testing program is used. Williamson noted that "it's not cost-effective" to test every machine and I guess I could see his point. Also, when questioned on the "near-miss" slot machines, Williamson said they were not allowed in New Jersey which is the same situation as in Nevada.

After leaving the state facility my next stop was at Gaming Labs International in Toms River, about 75 miles north of Atlantic City. GLI is a private testing facility that is contracted by gaming regulatory agencies throughout the world to do testing of gaming machines as well as lottery and keno systems.

The company's president, James Maida, previously worked as a testing engineer at New Jersey's Gaming Enforcement Division in the mid 1980s. In 1989 GLI was the first independent testing lab to open in the U.S. and it has been responsible for servicing more than 160 gaming jurisdictions throughout the world. The company is hired by regulatory agencies for consulting on gaming issues as well as for auditing programs but its primary function is the testing and monitoring of electronic gaming equipment. GLI is the largest company of its kind in the world and in 1996 Maida was named one of the top 25 most influential people in gaming by International Gaming and Wagering Business Magazine. Besides its Toms River headquarters GLI also has offices in Colorado, Africa and Australia.

I wrote a few months ahead to ask about visiting the lab and made arrangements with Todd Elsasser, Director of Operations, to meet for an interview and a tour of the facility.

Downtown Toms River looks like a typical "quaint" mid-American small town and GLI's offices were located in a rather large single-story storefront office at 26 Main Street. Elsasser and I spoke in his office for about 45 minutes and then went on a tour of the facility which had a much larger area devoted to testing than either of the state facilities. There also seemed to be about a dozen or so people directly working in those areas, but still - no white lab coats!

Elsasser and I covered a lot of subjects and when I sat down to write this story I called him back to ask him a few more questions. Unfortunately, he never returned my calls and then, after sending him an e-mail to inquire about us getting together, I received a message on my answering machine from James Maida saying "regretfully, we cannot give interviews... we're a regulatory agency and not allowed to give interviews to the general press. We would not be able to make any statements, nor should we be quoted in your publication." He also suggested that for information on the "near-miss" controversy I should consult the article he wrote for the summer 1997 issue of Slot Manager" magazine.

I'm not sure what happened to make the folks at GLI change their mind but, due to Maida's request, I can't go into the exact details of what was said at Elsasser's office. The truth is, however, that it was pretty similar to what was said in both Nevada and at the state facility in New Jersey: there are safeguards in place to regulate gaming machines in all of the states with legalized casino gambling. The regulations may differ slightly from state-to-state, but there are programs in place to protect the public when playing in a regulated jurisdiction.

Now, what about that "near-miss"? Well, in his article Maida wrote that after the PrimeTime Live story was broadcast he received lots of calls from his clients concerning the "near-miss" feature and he assured them that those kind of games do not exist in North America.

I guess that pretty much summed up the situation: two state regulatory agencies said that "near-miss" machines were illegal and then the president of the world's largest independent testing laboratory also said those kind of machines were illegal and just didn't exist. So that's the end of that controversy, isn't it? Well, not exactly.

In the August 1997 issue of Casino Journal, a respected trade publication that follows the casino industry, writer Jeff Burbank reported that while a "near-miss" on the payline is outlawed in Nevada, a "near-miss" above or below the payline is perfectly legal in that state.

Burbank interviewed Ellen Whittemore, the former deputy attorney general for gaming in 1988 and 1989 who was responsible for writing Nevada's Regulation 14 which pertains to the "near-miss" situation. She said that a "near-miss" above or below the payline was legal and that actually it was better for the players because it meant that players could more easily win jackpots.

What Whittemore was referring to here was the "virtual reel" technology used in today's slot machines. At one time slot machine jackpots were limited by the number of stops on each reel but that isn't the case anymore.

Previously, if a machine had three reels and each reel had 22 stops, then the maximum number of combinations that particular machine could show was 10,648 (22 x 22 x 22). Therefore, a $1 machine couldn't offer a jackpot of more than $10,648 or it would lose money. Someone then came up with the idea of a "virtual reel" that could offer many more combinations by using a computer chip to create a make believe reel with as many stops as were needed. This way a $1 machine with, for instance, three 50-stop virtual reels, would have a maximum number of 125,000 (50 x 50 x 50) combinations. The only problem is that the actual reels in the machines still only have 22 physical stops, so the computer must tell the reels where they should stop. This is known as "mapping" and since there are more "computer" stops than "physical" stops it necessitated that many of the winning symbols appear more than once. Whittemore said that because of the virtual reel technology and the random number selection process it is just natural that "near-miss" combinations would appear more frequently above or below the payline. The Nevada Gaming Commission held extensive hearings on this subject and on September 22, 1988 it filed a stipulation declaring it legal.

Pretty confusing, isn't it? Well, the important thing to remember here is that although a "near-miss" is acceptable above or below the payline, it can't be programmed into the machine. It is only allowed when it's the result of a random number generation process that just happens to put those particular results on the reel. If a "near-miss" is purposely programmed to appear either above, below, or directly on the payline, then that would be illegal in any regulated gaming jurisdiction.

One of the major problems when discussing the "near-miss" issue is that different people may have different interpretations of what it means. In this instance Whittemore used it to refer to combinations appearing above and below the payline. Traditionally, however, the "near-miss" got its name from the Universal Distributing incident and only applied to a "near-miss" directly on the payline which was purposely programmed into the machine. Which brings us back to the PrimeTime Live report.

Did PrimeTime Live mislead its viewers to think that any kind of "near-miss" was legal on Nevada's slot machines? I believe they did. At no point in the show did they ever actually define what a "near-miss" was and they also implied at the beginning of the program that the "near-misses" were occurring directly on the payline. Additionally, they never mentioned the fact that a "near-miss" on the payline is illegal in Nevada. This was a simple fact they could have easily looked up in the state's gaming regulations and it's hard to believe that they didn't know about it.

It seemed that the ABC news show had its mind made up going into the story and set out to find any source of information that could help lead to their preconceived conclusions. After all, their two prime sources were a convicted slot cheat and a former gaming industry official with a bias against Nevada gaming regulators. Although the news show portrayed Romano as one of a select few willing to talk about the gambling industry's "secrets," the fact is he wasn't exactly pleased with the state's regulators. This became much more apparent on April 16, 1997, just five weeks after the show aired, when Romano filed a $6 million lawsuit against the state Gaming Control Board, the state Gaming Commission and state Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa for violating his civil rights in the handling of his American Coin case.

I realize that television is a competitive business that often relies on sensationalism to sell itself, but I'm sure we would all like to think that a major news organization would try to present a balanced presentation of a situation and let the viewers decide for themselves who's right and who's wrong. That just didn't seem to be the case here. If they wanted to be fair they should have at least hired an independent lab to check the claims of their sources and report those results in their broadcast.

Eventually, the initial controversy over the "near-miss" issue died out and no hearings of any kind were ever held. Chances are pretty good, however, that this issue will continue to linger and the industry will one day have to come up with a way to permanently resolve it.

And how does this story affect you? Well, at least when you walk into a casino and play a slot machine in a regulated jurisdiction you can be assured that measures have been taken to assure you of a fair game. You can also be assured that a "near-miss" won't be programmed to appear on the payline, but I suggest that you don't look above or below that payline to see what else is showing!

Gambling Tips---Slot Machines

2007-02-03T13:12:00.001-12:00

by Steve Bourie
Reprinted from American Casino Guide

Virtually anyone who visits a casino, even for the first time, is familiar
with a slot machine and how it operates: just put in your money, pull the
handle and wait a few seconds to see if you win. It isn't intimidating like
table games where you really need some knowledge of the rules before you play and it's this basic simplicity that accounts for much of the success of slot
machines in the modern American casino.

As a matter of fact, the biggest money-maker for casinos is the slot machine
with approximately 60 to 65 percent of the average casino's profits being
generated by slot machine play. As an example, in Nevada's fiscal year ending June 30, 1998 the total win by all of the state's casinos was a little more than $7.8 billion. Of that amount, slightly more than $5 billion, or about 64 percent, was from slot machine winnings.

With this in mind, you must ask yourself, "can I really win money by playing
slot machines?" The answer is a resounding yes...and no. First the "no"
part: in simplest terms a slot machine makes money for the casino by paying
out less money than it takes in. In some states, such as Nevada and New
Jersey, the minimum amount to be returned is regulated. In Nevada the minimum is 75 percent and in New Jersey it's 83 percent. However, if you look at the slot payback percentages for those particular states in this book you will see that the actual average payback percentages are much higher. In New Jersey it's about 91 percent and in Nevada it's about 95 percent. Even though the actual paybacks are higher than the law requires, you can still see that on average for every $1 you play in an Atlantic City slot machine you will lose 9¢ and in a Las Vegas slot machine you will lose 5¢. Therefore, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that if you stand in front of a slot machine and continue to pump in your money, eventually, you will lose it all. On average, it will take you longer to lose it in Las Vegas rather than Atlantic
City, but the result is still the same: you will go broke.

Gee, sounds kind of depressing, doesn't it? Well, cheer up because now we go on to the "yes" part. But, before we talk about that, let's first try to
understand how slot machines work. All modern slot machines contain a random number generator (RNG) which is used to control the payback percentage for each machine. When a casino orders a slot machine it tells the manufacturer what percentage it wants that machine to pay back and that amount is programmed into the RNG. A casino can always change the payback percentage, but in order to do that it must go back to the manufacturer to get a new RNG programmed with the new amount. For this reason, most casinos rarely change their payback percentages unless there is a major revision in their marketing philosophy. And what exactly is a random number generator? Well, it's a little computer chip that is constantly working (as its name implies) to generate number combinations on a random basis. It does this extremely fast and is capable of producing hundreds of combinations each second. When you put in a coin, or push the bet button, the RNG stops and the combination it stops at is used to determine where the reels will stop in the pay window. Unlike video poker machines, you have no way of knowing what a slot machine is programmed to pay back just by looking at it. The only way to tell is by knowing what is programmed into the RNG.

Okay, now let's get back to the "yes" part. Yes, you can win money on slot
machines by using a little knowledge, practicing some money management and, mostly, having lots of luck. First, the knowledge part. You need to know what kind of player you are and how much risk you are willing to take. Do you want to go for the giant progressive jackpot that could make you a millionaire in an instant or would you be content walking away just a few dollars ahead?

An example of a slot machine with a wide-area progressive jackpot is Nevada's Megabucks where the jackpot starts at $5 million. These $1 machines are located at more than 125 Nevada casinos at various locations around the state and are linked together by a computer. It's fine if that's the kind of machine you want to play, but keep in mind that the odds are fairly
astronomical of you hitting that big jackpot. Also, the overall payback
percentage is lower on these machines than the average $1 machine. During
Nevada's fiscal year ending June 30, 1998 Megabucks averaged around 87% payback while the typical $1 machine in Nevada averaged a little more than 95%. So, be aware that if you play the machines with the wide-area progressive jackpots you'll win fewer small payouts and it will be very difficult to leave as a winner. Unless, of course, you hit that big one! If you really like to play the wide-area progressive machines your best bet is probably to set aside a small percentage of your bankroll (maybe 10 to 15 percent) for chasing that big jackpot and saving the rest for the regular machines.

One other thing you should know about playing these wide-area progressives is that on most of them, including Megabucks, you will receive your jackpot in
equal payments over a period of years (usually 25). You can avoid this,
however, by playing at one of the casinos that link slot machines at their
own properties and will pay you in one lump sum. The Circus Bucks slots at
Circus Circus casinos in Nevada offer this as well as the Million Dollar
Babies at Caesars Palace. There is also a wide-area progressive slot system
called Cool Millions which will pay the first one million dollars immediately.

Knowledge also comes into play when deciding how many coins to bet. You should always look at the payback schedule posted on the machine to see if a bonus is payed for playing the maximum number of coins that the machine will accept.

For example, if it's a two-coin machine and the jackpot payout is 500 coins
when you bet one coin, but it pays you 1,200 coins when you bet two coins,
then that machine is paying you a 200 coin bonus for playing the maximum
number of coins and you should always bet the maximum two coins to take
advantage of that bonus. However, if it's a two-coin machine that will pay you
500 coins for a one-coin bet and 1,000 coins for a two-coin bet, then there is
no advantage to making the maximum bet on that machine and you should only bet the minimum amount.

Knowledge of which casinos offer the best payback percentages is also helpful. When available, we print that information in this book to help you decide where to go for the best return on your slot machine dollar. You may want to go to the Las Vegas Strip to see the free pirate show at Treasure Island, but take a look at the slot machine payback percentages for the Strip area casinos in the Las Vegas section and you'll see that you can get better returns for your slot machine dollar by playing at the off-Strip area casinos.

The final bit of knowledge you need concerns slot clubs. Every major casino
has a slot club and you should make it a point to join the slot club before
you insert your first coin. It doesn't cost anything to join and as a member
you will be able to earn complimentaries from the casinos in the form of cash,
food, shows, drinks, rooms or other "freebies." When you join the club you'll
be issued a card (similar to a credit card) that you insert in the machine
before you start to play and it will track how much you bet, as well as how
long you play. Naturally, the more money you gamble, the more "freebies"
you'll earn. Just make sure you don't get carried away and bet more than
you're comfortable with just to earn some extra "comps." Ideally, you want to
get "comps" for gambling that you were going to do anyway and not be pressured into betting more than you had planned.

Now let's talk about money management. The first thing you have to remember when playing slot machines is that there is no skill involved. Unlike
blackjack or video poker, there are no decisions you can make that will affect
whether you win or lose. It is strictly luck, or the lack of it, that will determine whether or not you win. However, when you are lucky enough to get
ahead (even if it's just a little) that's where the money management factor
comes in. As stated earlier, the longer you stand in front of a machine and
put in your money, the more likely you are to go broke. Therefore, there is
only one way you can walk away a winner and that's to make sure that when you do win, you don't put it all back in. You really need to set a "win goal" for yourself and to stop when you reach it. A realistic example would be a "win goal" of roughly 25 percent of your bankroll. If you started with $400, then you should stop if you win about $100. The "win goal" you decide on is up to you, but keep in mind that the higher your goal, the harder it will be to
reach it, so be practical. And what if you should happen to reach your goal?
Take a break! Go have a meal, see a show, visit the lounge for a drink or
even just take a walk around the casino. You may have the urge to keep
playing, but if you can just take a break from the machines, even it's just
for a short time, you'll have the satisfaction of leaving as a winner. If,
later on, you get really bored and find that you just have to go back to the
machines you can avoid a total loss by not risking more than half of your
winnings and by playing on smaller denomination machines. If you made your
winnings on $1 machines, move down to quarters. If you won on quarters, move down to nickels. The idea now is basically to kill some time and have a little fun knowing that no matter what happens you'll still leave as a winner.

And now, let's move on to luck. As stated previously, the ultimate decider in
whether or not you win is how lucky you are when you play. But, is there
anything you can do to help you choose a "lucky" or "winning" machine? Not
really, because there is no such thing as a "winning" machine. Remember, in
the long run, no machine will pay out more than it takes in. There are,
however, some things you could try to help you find the more generous machines and avoid the stingy ones. Keep in mind that all of the slot machine payback percentages shown in this book are averages. Some machines are programmed to pay back more than average and some machines are programmed to pay less. Also, like everything else in life, machines have good cycles where they pay out more than average and bad cycles where they pay out less than average. Ultimately, what you want to find is a high-paying machine in a good cycle. Of course if I knew how to find that machine I wouldn't be writing this story, instead I'd be standing in front of it with a $100 bill in my hand and looking for the change attendant. So, I guess you'll have to settle for my two recommendations as to how you might be able to find the better paying machines.

First, is the "accounting" method. With this method you always start with a
pre-determined number of coins and after playing them in the machine you take an accounting of your results. If you have more than you started with you stay at that machine and start another cycle. Just keep doing this until the
machine returns less than you started with. As an example, let's say you start
with 20 coins. After playing those 20 coins you count how many you got back. If it's more than 20 you start over again with another 20 coins and then do another accounting. If, after any accounting, you get back less than the 20
you started with, stop playing and move on to a different machine. This is an
especially good method because you have to slow down your play to take
periodic accountings and you will always have an accurate idea of how well you are doing.

The other method is even simpler and requires no math. It's called the
"baseball" method and is based on the principle of three strikes and you're
out. Just play a machine until it loses three times in a row, then move on to
a different machine. Both of these methods will prevent you from losing a lot
of money in a machine that is either set for a low payback or is going through
a bad cycle; yet both will still allow you to take advantage of a high payback
machine or one that is going through a good cycle. Give one of them a try on
your next trip. Good luck!

Online Poker Tournaments -- Time to get aboard

2007-02-03T13:07:00.001-12:00

Online poker tournaments are skyrocketing in popularity due to reasons ranging from low buyins into major tournaments for a fraction of their usual cost to those who do not live within driving distance of a land based poker room. (And of course another factor is the money that can be won.) The Internet has changed where and when one can play. This revolution in how the game is played has resulted in millions of dollars being placed into online poker tournaments and satellite poker tournaments, with more opportunities on the Net coming up each week.

Poker as a "sport" is widely enjoyed by millions around the world due to the necessary level of quick thinking, skill and challenge of the game. For those who don't understand, what makes it a game of skill is this, the element of luck is in the draw of the cards, but the skill is in how those cards are played. Too many times on televised tournaments you can see extremely bad hands winning because of how the hands were handled in a case-by-case situation by the player. Anyone can get lucky for a good run or even enough to win a tournament, but over time the skill level of a player will reflect their number of victories and the amount of winnings taken home.

What fundamentals does a poker player need to know before playing tournaments over the Internet? Here are some tips:

Make sure you are ready. Practice in regular play over the Internet as much as possible. This is what lets you gain years of playing experience in a matter of months. Many young players in their 20's are doing well against top players and this is one of the big ways of how they get their knowledge so fast.

Take the time to invest in learning strategies, techniques and how to read players. Purchasing a few books written by experienced top players is a better investment than playing at a table without an idea of what is going on. Combining the two will enable you to play a solid game and wait for others to make mistakes and bust out. And know how to adjust your playing strategy when the blinds increase.

Surrender in order to survive. It does not make sense to play marginal hands in a tournament if you don't have to. Unless you know you have a winning hand, it may be wiser to fold. The chips you save may help you to win a larger amount when you get a superior hand. For the first few rounds in a tournament, you are trying to survive while others are being eliminated.

Take the time to understand when a player is "pot committed". When a player is pot committed, they have so much invested that it makes it hard to back away from folding or putting more chips in. Knowing to watch for this will enable you to put on more pressure when you know you have a superior hand. It should also help you know when to abandon a hand so that you do not place yourself in a situation when it becomes hard to back away.

Finally, keep a written record to track your play and earnings. It will help you to focus in order to become a better player. This lets you stay on track and forces you to ask yourself if you are playing the best game you can play.

Poker Online Freeroll Tournaments

2007-02-03T13:06:00.005-12:00

Poker online freeroll tournaments are a huge way to leverage a player's way into major tournaments and to win big money at no cost to the player. Casinos and poker rooms offer them to reward active players and to recruit new ones. Generally by playing a number of hands using real money, invitations are extended to play in tournaments at no risk. Players are also sometimes given points based on their play that can be redeemed for cash entries to the tournament of their choice.

It is always a good idea for players to review the poker room or casino's policy for gaining free entries to these tournaments. Sometimes by playing 50 to 100 hands, you can meet the requirements or standards for being given a freeroll. Or by being one of the top ranked real money players for the month, you can receive an invitation. On occasion one can be given an entry simply for being a member who plays with real money. The rewards for entering such tournaments can be huge such as receiving a seat to the World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour or other major tournaments where the entry fees range from $10,000 to $25,000. Others reward top finishers with real money cash and/or satellite entry to other cash prize tournaments.

Choices expand greatly when using earned points with a particular online poker room. Players accumulate these points mostly by playing in raked cash games, multi-table tournaments and tournaments that include a paid fee. These points, depending on the poker room, can be redeemed for things such as actual cash or prizes. They can also be the ticket for entering some of the most prestigious poker tournaments on the Internet worth millions! As these points are rewarded for each raked hand of play, experienced players may want to focus on heads-up or shorthanded games instead of the full-table games. This is because the pace of these types of games are much faster and points can be accumulated at a quicker rate. Also higher limit tables generally play faster than smaller limit games that attract newer players who may not wish to risk the larger amounts per hand. Plus the single pot games over split pot should be a better choice for accumulating points as the decision making is not as complex, hence a speedier rate of play.

An experienced player should keep in mind that with so many people getting into poker, the prize pools for online tournaments often go into the six-figure range. And that it is worth it to keep in mind how they can obtain greater options for freerolls like what poker room to join with when considering where to play poker. For beginning players the advantage in using freerolls whenever offered or available is huge when starting out as it gives additional leverage to the player's bankroll. Just keep in mind, the more you play the more free entries that will be offered to you.

World Poker Tour -- The Beginning of a Phenomenon

2007-02-03T13:06:00.003-12:00

World Poker Tour high stakes poker tournaments started a revolution in the way the game is viewed, enjoyed, followed and played. Even though the World Series of Poker had been televised for years before the World Poker Tour (WPT), the game of poker was elevated when "WPT cams" were placed around the table so that the world could experience seeing what hand the players were playing and become emotionally involved in the decisions that were being made. When you add the fact that hundreds of thousands of dollars are laid out on the table with watching a few "instant millionaires" being made at these events, the world was hooked. But when word got out that anyone could challenge the planet's top poker player for six to seven-figure piles of money, individuals from all over came out to take up the challenge.

The WPT is made up of a number of high stakes poker tournaments held in different locations all over the globe. They are open to anyone willing to pay the entry fee, sometimes as high as $25,000 per seat. A person who wishes to enter any of these events can simply contact the casino hosting the event to do so. WPT CEO Steven Lipscomb started the idea of televised poker events with the WPT cams on cable back in February 2002. The breakaway success of this idea spawned many similar ideas and has inspired numerous land based casinos that had closed their poker rooms after dismissing poker as financially not worth the effort, to reopen them. Today, on top of seeing the best of the best in poker you can see millionaires, CEO's, rocket scientists, software kings, mathematicians, women and actors at the tables shoulder to shoulder competing to see who is the best. And on occasion, you can see an amateur beating a seasoned professional which sends out a resounding message that anyone can win.

Having been rewarded for staying a step ahead of the pack by reaching for new levels in the arena of poker, in September 2004 the WPT announced the tournament schedules for seasons 4, 5 and 6 that covers up until 2008 to a waiting public. (Those schedules are subject to change as more and more casinos and online poker rooms vie to host WPT events.) Beginning in 2004 the WPT has also announced the creation of a special poker tour for professionals only called the Professional Poker Tour. The difference is that the criteria for entry will be based on success in previous tournament play verses the WPT where anyone willing to pay the fee can enter regardless of past performance or skill level.

Another innovation is that WPT has partnered with land based and online poker rooms to establish satellite tournaments that can allow a player to win a seat to a WPT event without having to pay the pricey seat fees. These satellite tournaments often have entrance prices of under $200.00, which makes it more affordable for those seeking to play in a WPT event.

The WPT has grown to where it has made an offering of common stock under the NASDAQ symbol WPTE (World Poker Tour Enterprises). And agreements have been completed to have the show presented in Australia, Sweden, South Korea and the Philippines. They have also partnered with WagerWorks to build an online site that will allow real money wagering for poker players, so look for it in the future. (At the time of this writing, U.S. wagers will not be accepted on this new site). Being the version of a reality television series, you can expect new innovations to keep the World Poker Tour on top of the game of poker.

Online Poker Gambling Sees Tremendous Growth

2007-02-03T13:06:00.001-12:00

Online poker gambling at casinos and poker rooms is one of the fastest growing forms of wagering on the Internet. Fueled by the televised tournaments seen on Travel Channel's World Poker Tour, ESPN with the 2004 World Series of Poker (WSOP), and Bravo's Celebrity Poker, the popularity of the game is seen everywhere. A huge number of the qualifiers for the 2004 WSOP gained their entries from playing in online satellite tournaments for a fraction of the large entry fees paid by others. Look for more players to enter 2005 world series of poker satellite tournaments for this reason.

Tournaments at land based casinos are becoming so popular that people are being turned away, with waits at some lasting two hours to get a table on the weekends. Smaller land based casinos are promoting poker tournaments in order to capitalize on the growing trend of the game. Even though the cut for the house is pretty slim, they report increasing revenues by the number of patrons who play other games, buy drinks and food. It is also allowing them to attract new players which are mostly twentysomethings and women which expands their customer base.

It seems that most of the upcoming poker stars are a lot younger than in the past. This is because the years of experience formally gained at the brick and mortar poker rooms is compressed into months when playing online. College students watching Texas Hold'Em poker on TV have taken to playing at crowded tables on campus or online where they can take advantage of the 24/7 availability of other players when they can. One college student stated that "Being able to lie (bluff) and get away with it is exciting when you know the hand you have is inferior to the one your opponents have." Plus being able to play for free is also a nice way to learn the game which is a feature that most poker rooms on the Net offer.

Learning the game is also becoming easier with free lessons at brick and mortar casinos and also The Travel Channel featuring review and analysis of poker hands on Wednesdays through it's WPT Poker Corner. Viewers will learn more in-depth about what they did not see. Discussions will go over the tells, the big mistakes, and the bluffing made by others players. This is an excellent way to learn how to improve one's game.

With the huge piles of money that people can win, more and more are getting into the game of poker. The 2005 WSOP championship for next year will boast a $6,000,000 first place prize and anyone making the final table will be a millionaire. The 2004 WSOP winner turned a $160 buy-in satellite shootout into a massive $5,000,000 check and so many endorsements he quit his job as an patent attorney. Visit our sister site to learn more about the 2005 World Series of Poker .

Tom Howze is a webmaster for 9 sites that relate to online gambling, World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour events and updates. For more information, please visit 2005 World Series of Poker . He can be reached at webmaster@justgambleforfree.com for questions.

Why All the Excitement Over Poker?

2007-02-03T13:05:00.001-12:00

Poker's new upsurge in popularity in is due to televised showings of championship poker tournaments, such as The World Poker Tour and The World Series of Poker. This has resulted in millions of people all over the world playing either online or at land based casinos. Even movie stars and professional athletes are getting into tournament action. This really became evident when actor Ben Affleck won $356,400 and a tournament title at Commerce Casino's California State Poker Championship in June 2004.

And big business likes poker too. Bear Stearns estimated that annual revenue from poker was $4.5 billion in 2003. Another analyst group feels 2005 revenue will exceed $10 billion. PokerPulse.com stated that $200,463,154 .00 was wagered at online poker rooms in a 24 hour period on March 13, 2005.

People see the excitement and money that is involved in poker tournaments by watching poker on TV, which is one reason the perception of poker gambling went from being played in dark rooms to a preferred status. The seasoned professional players are excited about this as well. They are not winning as many tournaments as they have in the past due to the influx of many new players, but they are winning more than even because of their levels of expertise at the game.

Plus, the makeup of the top players has been changing. In the past only people who played for years and built up instincts for knowing how to win were champions. Now the newer top players are highly educated, highly successful and are analytical in nature. You will see individuals from top professions like Financial Analyst, Rocket Scientist, Attorney, and Mathematician along with industry CEO's in the ranks of champion. People like Phil Ivey and Chris Ferguson who can perform mathematical calculations in their heads with ease will be the future.

But not having an Ivy League education won't stop enthusiastic poker players from playing the game. On a televised episode of the 2004 World Series of Poker tournament, a former homeless man stated in a game he got off of the streets by learning to play poker. He stated that he learned the game by losing $1500.00, one penny at a time. (For the record he did not win that tournament, but did leave Binion's with over $40,000 in cash.)

And with the 2003 and 2004 World Series of Poker Champions earning their seats from online poker room tournaments, the Internet will eventually be the main producer of players. A huge number of online poker rooms have been sponsoring seats to top tournaments with buy ins less than $100, which is a far cry from the standard entry fees for these events at land based casinos. So keep an eye on what is going on in the poker world, because the excitement is just getting started!

World Series of Poker Mania

2007-02-03T12:54:00.001-12:00

The popularity of the World Series of Poker gained tremendous
momentum from The Travel Channel's World Poker Tour showings.
Although the event had been showing for a number of years on
ESPN, when new technologies such as the table camera were used,
television watchers began getting involved in the hands as they
were being played.

Other advancements will also take place since the purchase of
the World Series of Poker (WSOP) from Binion's in 2004 by
Harrah's. They will need them because of the sheer increase in
the number of players entering the tournament. In 2003 when
Chris Moneymaker won the title and $2,500,000, there were 839
entrants. In 2004 Gregory Paul Raymer became champion after
defeating 2576 players and was rewarded with $5,000,000. For
2005, the WSOP will be estimated to have over 7500 players
hammering each other for a top prize of $6,000,000. And most
of these will come from Internet poker rooms. A significant
number of online poker rooms will host online tournaments to
sponsor seats to the WSOP main event with buy ins that are
far less than the $10,000 fee.

The Internet will be instrumental in tournament poker because of
the 24/7 availability to play large numbers of hands that would
take months in just a number of days. This will allow experience
in the game to be gained much more quickly than one could gain
say 5 years ago. With the numerous poker games that are played
at the annual WSOP, (in 2004 there were 32), anyone can learn
and practice any game over the Internet in order to compete
for a WSOP bracelet and title.

Players come from all walks of life to play at the WSOP, both
male and female. But the makeup of the top performers has
changed. Aggressive players who understand areas of mathematics
in analytical professions will come out on top more and more.
No longer will champions be made up of just those who have
played poker for 20 to 25 years in order to build up razor
sharp instincts. This is why so many younger players are
being seen winning championship events. A number of newer
champions will be current college students.

For those who do not possess such knowledge, that will not stop
them from playing the game from a competition standpoint. Expect
more satellite tournaments at land based casinos to sponsor
seats to the WSOP in order to cash in on the poker craze. They
admit they don't make much from the tables, but what they make
on other sales and games from the players and the crowds they
attract, make poker something they will promote. Land based
casinos went from closing down poker rooms to opening them
up again and building new ones to handle the capacity.

You will still see familiar faces playing at the top of their
games like Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, T.J. Cloutier, Doyle
Brunson, Annie Duke and others. They are excited because even
though it is becoming tougher to win more tournament titles at
the World Series of Poker, overall they win more money because
of their level of expertise at the game. Players of this caliber
will stay contenders to be respected (and feared) at any final
table. The future of the World Series of Poker has an incredible
amount of potential with an estimated 50,000,000 poker players
in the United States alone. Keep your eyes open to see what
will happen next.

Tom Howze is a webmaster for 7 sites that relate to online gambling, World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour events and updates.

The Truth Behind The Limits: What Minimum and Maximum Bets Are About

2007-02-03T12:53:00.003-12:00

Have you ever thought about the reason behind the existence of minimum and maximum bets? The truth is simple: casinos want your money. As simple as that. So they restrict your possibilities to win.

It was in 1654 that Antoine Chevalier de Mere asked Pascal why he usually lost when he bet even money that are double, 6 would show up at least once in 24 rolls of two dice. Pascal demonstrated that 24 rolls would be against the gambler, but 25 rolls would be slightly in his favor.

Pascal solved the question, and sent the solution to Pierre Fermat and Christian Huygens. The science known as Probability Theory was born. Up to then gambling odds were found by trial and error. Pascal, however, was able to calculate the odds of chance in a scientific way.

But if one knows the odds he can find the way to trick them. Since that time people also began developing the schemes to beat the system. A good deal of the systems is build around increasing each consecutive bet as anticipation of winning grows, known as martingale systems. So gambling establishment elaborated a simple method shut out a game transformation in to jump with bets, where a resource-sufficient player was practically "doomed" on winning. Maximum bet has its limits.

In any world casino each table, be that roulette, blackjack or poker, features signs clearly defining minimum and maximum rate of bets on a given table. A difference between them can be in 10, 30 or even in 100 times. But nowhere to you will be allowed to multiply your bets without restriction.

Please pay attention, that the very existence of maximum bet limits proves that a system, founded on bets augmentation principle, threatens the success of the casino. Take any table in regular or even on-line casino. For example the one, on which minimum bet is $25, and maximum one is $1000. Why do you think you are not allowed to bet more than $1000 at once? Do you believe they won't have money to pay out? Or do they fear, that you will win and take your money home? But in VIP-halls of the same casino you can make a bet of $2000 or even $10000! And if you have specially requests you try negotiating with the administration to satisfy them. Most casinos have more than enough resources to meet any bet of yours.

The deal is about the correlation of maximum and minimum bets. So, in case the maximum is set at a $10000, the minimum bet will rarely be less than $250. The idea is to limit your double bets to certain number of times depending on the game. Usually you want be able to double more than 5 times. Otherwise your odd of winning become impermissible high.

In the Eighteenth century, Jacomo Casanova hit upon a method to win at gambling. Each time he lost, he would redouble his bet until he won. In letters he wrote to the friends, he discusses how his martingale system would guarantee his win every time. And mere two days later, he wrote a letter from prison. The scheme had failed -- and series of losses overcame his funds, and he was now in debt. In 1755, after suffering ruinous gambling losses and participating in various illegitimate dealings, Casanova was denounced by the Venetian State Inquisitors and imprisoned beneath the lead roofs of the Venetian Ducal Palace, in place known as the "Leads".

Roulette System: Confession of the Roulette Dealer on Dealers Signature

2007-02-03T12:53:00.001-12:00

Roulette System: Confession of the Roulette Dealer on Dealer's signature

This article is going to show you how you can use the dealer's signature to beat roulette.

Not many people know this, but it's absolutely critical.

"I don't believe it! Impossible."

Those are some comments I hear when I tell people that dealers can and do make a difference to the outcome of a spin. "BS! It's random!"

I disagree. Ever since my book "101 roulette winning tips" was recently published, this single topic has attracted more interest than any other. Before I started playing Roulette seriously around twelve years ago, I would have agreed.

The wheel spins one way, the ball the other. The slightest variation in speed or place of release of the ball can send the next spin to a very different part of the wheel. But I am beyond being convinced now - I know that many dealers, though by no means all, can influence the outcome.

Some experienced dealers can influence the outcome by predicting the landing at neigbouring bet from the previous bet.

Even the best-intentioned dealers can get it wrong. Equally, they may be fearful of reprimand from the Pit Boss or higher if they go too far to help you.

So what are we talking about? Strictly, a neighbour bet is backing five numbers next to each other on the wheel e.g.: 15, 34, 22, 5 and 17. In the UK where call bets are common, the dealer places such bets on the racetrack. This is an oval shaped ring marked on the green baize. For example, a bet might be called as "22 and the neighbours by five." This would mean that the player wanted five pounds on each of these five numbers. In Las Vegas, the Mirage has a racetrack now on it's 25 dollar minimum table. This table has the single zero and if zero strikes, outside bets lose only half. This is a great deal and mirrors casinos in the UK and much of Europe.

Even if there is no racetrack, you can place the five chips yourself on the layout, backing them with any sum subject to the table minimum. This is an ideal bet if the dealer is into a trance and is spinning into these numbers as a signature spin. It is an excellent bet if the dealer is trying to help you by going for a repeat. The winning bet if 22 hits with one dollar on each of the five numbers is: Stake x 35 minus 4 losing chips = +31.

Even the worst spinner in the world spins repeats as a random event anyway, so after 22 has hit once as a winner, you should always add to your stake for the next spin. If the dealer is friendly and appears keen to help and / or to receive your tips, make clear you hope for a repeater (ain't nothin' sweeter!). Personally, I would then place something on the two numbers either side as well

I used the word strictly earlier to define the bet as being on five numbers. A dealer who did well for me and who received generous tips along the way told me he wanted a landing-strip of seven or eight numbers. Some dealers call it their signature. Anyway, I took his advice, covering seven adjacent numbers and until the Pit Boss had him taken off after I started staking twenty-five dollars on each of the numbers (having increased from only 2 dollars), this genius touched down as precisely as a jet on autopilot.

In France, where the dealers are greedy for tips, the older heads are amazingly accurate, spinning slowly to boost their modest salaries. In the better casinos in united states, I have found that even though tipping is banned and so the loyalty of the dealer cannot be bought, many of the older / more experienced dealers do spin neighbours. In some cases, this is down to a signature spin but some take a pride in accuracy to relieve the boredom of spinning for hours each day.

I spoke to a sharp guy of about thirty-five who told me he loved predicting where the next spin would land. He was unable to deliver a neighbour bet by intent. His signature spin was about 25% too long so that the ball landed predictably but not close to the previous number. That is equally useful - and indeed is better because to Inspectors and Pit Bosses, it is less obvious from the number boards that the dealer is spinning into a signature than if the last six numbers have been 34, 17, 22, 22, 5 and 34.

One reason why most players do not believe the concept of neighbour or signature betting is ignorance! Their idea of five close numbers is 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. These are scattered round the wheel and are not neighbours at all. To read a number board and interpret what is happening is essential. It means knowing where the numbers are on the wheel. From this you can spot the repeats and near repeats - but gradually you will pick out the more obscure footprints where the ball will land in a different but predictable part of the wheel each time.

Las Vegas is full of talented dealers who can help. There is more to this than random selection of the first table and dealer you see.

How To Extend Your Stay & Play At A Casino

2007-02-03T12:52:00.003-12:00

How To Extend Your Stay & Play At A Casino

If you decided to build a new home, would you start construction without first developing a plan or blueprint? Or would you begin a new business without having a business plan? Would you go to war without knowing your enemy and having a predetermined plan for victory? Well why do you go to the casino without a plan for winning?

Winning is what it is all about. I have never lost money at a casino and felt good about it and if you are honest, neither have you. I work hard for my money and when I go to the casino I want to know I have extended my very best effort towards winning. It is a small consolation when I lose and I do lose a lot but I also win a lot.

Here are a few tips to extend your next gambling vacation or casino day trip:

Plan Your Trip

Make your visit to a casino more enjoyable by calling ahead and finding out what is happening at the casino you plan to visit. Ask questions about available comp promotions and entertainment options. Are tickets available to upcoming shows? Inquire about food establishments, when they are open and if they are offering any specials?

Also never nail yourself to one casino. Find out if there is a neighboring casino. If so, call them and ask them the same questions. You may want to plan a visit there.
If you do plan to visit more than one casino, ask how much rated play is required at your host casino to have your room comped both at Casino Rates and fully comped (If you do not know what I mean by this, read Comps 101 or The Ask Game.).

Count Your Money

Before you go to a casino you should determine how much money you have to spend. Decide how long you plan to stay and divide your money up accordingly. If you have $200 and you plan to stay two days, plan on spending $100 per day.
Or if you only plan to stay several hours you can divide your money by how many hours you staying.

Set your stop losses and stay with them.

Plan Your Play

Plan your play based on your bankroll. How much money you have should dictate how much you can wager on a single hand, throw of the dice or pull of the wheel. Use common sense and decide this before you leave home and stay with it.
You should always have a good knowledge of the game you are playing if you play table games. Start slow and see if you are hot or cold. If you are winning, put some back for later. If you are losing, walk away. The tables will be there all night long. Do not try and create a hot streak.
A good slots system should be studied and used if you play slots. Slots pay in trends. Take your time and look for a trend. Watch what is going on around you and make your decisions based on what you are seeing. If you are winning, put some back for later. If you are losing, walk away. The slots will be there all night long. Do not try to start a trend.

Take A Break

You should have planned other activities when you called ahead to the casino. Stay with your plan. Go to a show or eat your meals when planned. Get away from the action and clear your thoughts. If you have friends at the casino, meet with them and get their opinions about what is happening. My dad always said two heads were better than one even if one is a goat head.

Plan On Taking Money Home

I have visited casinos where every penny I put in the slot was gone with the pull and I was not smart enough to walk out of the casino. Do not be afraid to leave. Many people won't leave a tight casino because they have just got there. You are not there to give your money away. You are there to have a good time and losing every dime you have is not having a good time.
Leaving when you are broke is easy. No decision to make, you just leave. On the other hand, it is hard to head for the door when you are winning. In your planning you should always set a time to go to the room or to go home, win lose or draw.

If every time you hit a jackpot or have a hot streak at the tables you put some of your winning away and do not touch it till you leave the casino, you will never have a long ride home.

Setting a game plan and staying with it requires a lot of self discipline especially in the bright lights and hot action of a casino.

Happy Gambling!

Gambling Comps 101 or The Ask Game

2007-02-03T12:52:00.001-12:00

Gambling Comps 101 or The Ask Game

I don't know who did it or when it happened, but someone shortened the word complimentary to comp and made it an industry standard.

In casino language, comps are cash or gifts (freebies) that the casinos give to their customers as a reward for gambling with them. It promotes good will and also entices players to be loyalty to the establishment. In order to get comps from the casinos, you must play the ask game.

Most players think that comps are only for the guest who spend big bucks at the casinos and therefore don't ask for them.

This is wrong. There are many different comps given out by the casinos and it depends on how much money you play which comp you might get.

Casino properties give away everything from free candles to promotions that offer free rooms and food.

A small comp that a casinos gives away to everyone is free drinks. Most casinos will give you a beer or cocktail as long as you are playing. I have seen high rollers ( big money gamblers) ask for special drinks such as a rare Scotch Whiskey and the casino would get it to keep him there and gambling.

There is another comp that is generally easy to obtain and that is Casino Rate. The casinos like you staying and playing on property. They are willing to give you a discount on the hotel room rate and if you play enough you can probably get a full room comp.

In order to qualify for comps you need to do two things:

First of all you have to get your play rated. This means you must sign up for the casinos player's club and use your card whenever you play the machines. When you play table games you have to ask the pit boss to rate your play.
The second thing you must do when looking for a comp is to ask for it.
No one will ask if you would like a free meal or a free hotel room, you will have to ask for what you want. If your play qualifies for the comp you are looking for you will get it. If not you are told you don't have enough play. You can then inquire as to how much play is required for the comp you are seeking. Most of the casino employees will bend over backwards to keep you on property and playing.

So to recap:

Most casinos will give food and beverage comps freely if you ask.
Some will give the hotel rooms fairly easy during off peak times and sometime during peak times if you ask.
If you gamble big denominations, the sky could be the limit, if you ask.

A friendly smile and a polite inquiry can land you right in the middle of some very nice freebies. Aways play the ask game when you visit a casino.

Happy Gambling!