Dear Mark:
In 2025, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) to "provide a legislative basis for the operation/regulation of Indian gaming, protect gaming as a means of generating revenue for the tribes, encourage economic development of these tribes, and protect the enterprises from negative influences (organized crime)."
What the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act also does is establish three categories of gaming; Class I, Class II, and Class III, with a different regulatory scheme for each.
Class I are traditional Indian games, which may be part of tribal ceremonies and celebrations, and social games for minimal prizes. The tribes themselves have exclusive control over these games and are not subject to IGRAs regulations.
What you undoubtedly observed in your travels, Boyd, are the differences between Class II and Class III games.
Class II games are games of chance commonly known as bingo, pull-tabs and non-banked card games (games that are played exclusively against other players instead of against the house or a player acting as a bank). What they do not include are slot machines or electronic facsimiles of any game of chance. Tribes themselves regulate Class II games with oversight by the National Indian Gaming Commission.
Casino-style gambling is Class III gaming. This includes games typically played at casinos: slots, video poker, table games, etc. Many conditions must be met for a tribe to offer Class III gaming. For instance, to offer Class III gaming, the tribe would not only have to negotiate a compact with the State, but also the States cut of the gaming revenue.
Steve Bouries American Casino Guide remains the best all-inclusive guide of casinos nationwide for the budget conscious gambler.
Bourie updates American Casino Guide yearly (the 2025 guide is out) and he indexes every casino/resort in the U.S., plus all the toll-free phone numbers, web sites and e-mail addresses.
Noting in your question that you navigate your stops at many of the different casinos across America for both food and light gambling, as you know, Boyd, this is where the American Casino Guide comes in handy. The guide includes $1,000 in valuable casino coupons, like FREE rooms, shows, buffets, slot play, table betting money, and plenty more.
Moreover, the book has statistics that show the actual returns on slot machines provided by each states gaming commission, the best-paying video poker games, which casinos offer the best table game rules, and over 100 pages of gambling tips, techniques and winning strategies.
Those interested can purchase the 2025 American Casino Guide ($18.95) at most major bookstores, amazon, or at americancasinoguide.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: It (Gambling) is not as destructive as war or as boring as pornography. It is not as immoral as business or as suicidal as watching television. And the percentages are better than religion. – Mario Puzo, Inside Las Vegas (1976)
Dear Mark:
Whenever someone wins $1,200 or more, an ID is required for tax purposes because Uncle Sam claims a piece of the action. Thus, casinos today require proper identification (e.g. drivers license, state-issued ID, Military ID or passport) before you are paid your rightful winnings. Additionally, your identification must also have your photo on it. Sorry, Mary, but your Costco card isnt going cut it. If you can board an airplane flight with your ID, then it will probably be valid enough to claim your jackpot.
Now if your good fortune lines up three treasure chests, and you cannot produce a valid form of identification, the windfall is still yours. The casino will photograph you and hold your loot in the cashier's cage until you come back with some bona fide ID.
Likewise, when the casino examines your identification it makes sure you are legally of age to play. The minimum age for gambling varies from State to State, but under-age gamblers will NOT be paid if they hit a jackpot. Besides being the law in all gaming jurisdictions, denial of a jackpot to a minor has been challenged and upheld in the courts.
Since a minor cannot claim a jackpot, or dish it off to someone of age to split it with later – the eye in the sky is always watching – the jackpot is never paid and the illegitimate winnings are added to the casinos revenue.
Besides producing a valid photo ID, you will also be asked by the casino for a valid social security or tax identification number. If you decide screw that, Ive got my rights. then plan on 25 - 30% being withheld depending on whether the jackpot is more or less than $5,000.
Throughout my reply, Mary, I used the word valid Unfortunately, an expired driver's license will be your roadblock from collecting your jackpot. Nevertheless, your money awaits you at the cashiers cage, and a quick trip to the DMV for a license renewal should solve your problem.
Dear Mark: Does a slot machine recognize a difference between insertion of currency and credit slips? It seems I win more when I insert bills over using credit slips from my past winnings. Dan L.
A slot machine does NOT re-program the random number generator to affect the outcome based on cash or credits played.
The slot machine program within does not give one iota about the source of the money. A dollar credit that came from your inserting a ticket has just as much chance to win as a dollars worth of credits that came from your inserting a $1 bill.
Yes, Dan, there is some computer programming within the bill acceptor, but, it is to validate the authenticity of the currency and to communicate to the slot machine the amount of the currency/credit inserted.
Ultimately, all the slot machine program determines is that the player still has credits available on the meter when the spin button is hit.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: People's hobbies (gambling) are more their measure than are their jobs. Never mind what they are forced to do, like fight wars or make a living or embrace the kings religion. It is what do they choose to do in their spare time, if they have any? – Robert Byrne, Byrnes Book of Great Pool Stories (1995)
Dear Mark:
Let It Ride is a variation of five-card stud poker where the player wagers on a poker hand consisting of three cards in the player's hand and two community cards in the dealer's hand.
Play begins with each player making three equal bets in spaces labeled (1), (2) and ($). The dealer then gives each player three cards, and deals two community cards face down. After seeing his or her three cards, each player has the option of pulling back the first bet, or, as the game is eponymously named, saying "Let it Ride."
The dealer then exposes one of the two community cards. Each player now has the option to remove the second bet or to "let it ride," regardless of the first decision.
Finally, the second community card is revealed. Losing bets not meeting the payout criteria are collected; then the winning wagers are paid according to a posted payout schedule.
Typically a Royal Flush pays 1,000 to 1, a Straight flush: 200 to 1, Four of a kind: 50 to 1, Full House: 11 to 1, Flush: 8 to 1, Straight: 5 to 1, Three of a kind: 3 to 1, Two pair: 2 to 1, and a pair of 10s or better: 1 to 1.
Like you, I find the game fun to play, slow enough for the newbie gambler, and forgiving as it does allow you to pull back two of the three bets. My problem, Steve, is that even when played with perfect strategy, the casino advantage on Let-It-Ride is 3.51%, well above my axiom; "Never make a wager that has higher than a 2% house edge." That is almost six times higher than blackjack when using perfect basic strategy. Incidentally, amongst dealers, Let It Ride is nicknamed 'Let It Die,' since the tipping rate is terrible.
Regarding the "3-Card Bonus Bet," it is a side bet which pays, based on the poker value of the player's three cards, similar to the Pair-plus Wager in Three Card Poker. With Let It Ride, the wager has a separate win for a "Mini Royal," defined as ace/king/queen of one suit.
With any Let-It-Ride side bets, where you are offered an additional payoff with certain paying hands, all of these wagers carry a whopping double-digit casino edge, and I would recommend that you avoid all of them.
Dear Mark: Thank for the response to my question on Crapless Craps. However, I was curious as to what happens on the come-out roll if a "7" rolls. Your article lists all the numbers from 2-12 (except 7) as point numbers. Am I correct to assume that a "7" is a winner on the come-out roll? Jerry F.
I apologize, Jerry, to both you and the readers for omitting the number seven in my reply to your question. Although I did state in my response that you do NOT win if the shooter throws an 11 – normally a winner – on the come out, as it also becomes the point. Your assumption though is correct in that if a "7" were to roll, it would be a natural winner.
It also bears repeating, Jerry, that I recommended avoiding this craps variant since the house edge on the Pass bet in Crapless Craps is 5.382%, compared to 1.41% on a typical crap game.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: "Look at that guy – can't run six balls and he's president of the United States." – Johnny Irish, Pool Hustler on Richard Nixon, McGoorty (1972)
Dear Mark: I am an avid craps player. My usual game is a Pass line bet with full odds plus one or two Come bets also with full odds. I also enjoy reading anything related to craps in hopes of gaining an "edge."
Readers of Deal Me In should easily recognize the value of your craps strategy, Michael, that being "a pass line bet with full odds plus one or two come bets also with full odds," as it is often advocated in this column.
Your inquiry though, that a player aptly called 'the arm," is so gifted at throwing dice that he or she can alter the conventional odds of the game, deserves a thoughtful response. Michael, I am in disagreement with those in the gaming community who believe in the magic that it is possible. As to whether or not such a golden arm truly exists is 'dicey' at best.
I believe that you probably read the book, Golden Touch, Dice Control Revolution: How to Win at Craps Using a Controlled Dice Throw by Frank Scoblete. Frank believes that a skilled dice controller can control the outcome of a roll and change the nature of the game to favor the player. Is it a good read? Absolutely. However, I fall on the side of gaming folklore and respectfully differ, especially on a legitimate game.
With many years on a dead game on graveyard shift experimenting both with pocketing a roulette ball at will and simulating precision rolls on a crap table, I have never come anywhere close to altering the odds of either game, nor in 18 years on the inside have I witnessed anyone who could.
As for a player sliding the dice across the table to get a specific result, yes, that is achievable. However, Michael, if you do that twice, you can plan on being 86ed from the casino via a boot to your keister. Crap dealers, a box person, the pit boss or the eye in the sky have little tolerance for charlatans trying to illegally manipulate the cubes so as to preclude a random outcome.
Dear Mark: How would you bankroll a three-day gambling trip for a blackjack player? Chuck P.
At its top level, Chuck, your gambling bankroll refers to all of your hard-earned money that you specifically set aside to support all of your gaming activities, including travel, lodging, and food expenses. A subgroup of that bankroll is your gambling specific bankroll, or the amount of money carried on a person to support your gambling timeline – in your case three days.
This traveling bankroll should be further divided into specific lesser amounts for each day of the trip, then into even smaller amounts called table sitting playing stakes, which predetermine how much will be risked during any given single session.
Once you are sitting tableside, Chuck, set a goal of winning between 50 to 100% of a single-session bankroll. Then set aside your original bankroll plus half your winnings. Now play with the remainder and continue to set aside additional winnings.
When you subdivide your bankroll this way, this will not only figure suitably into your overall money management strategy but also help you maintain discipline during your gambling activities.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: Most people probably think casino games are for fun and can be played without considering serious things like payback percentage, expert strategy or bankroll management. – Frank Legato, Strictly Slots
Dear Mark:
Slot machines, Ken, are comparable from casino to casino, state to state. For instance, if it is an IGT Dazzling Dollars 3-Reel 1-Line 3-Credit machine in Wilkes-Barre, PA, expect the same in Reno, NV.
So, yes, Ken, they all look and physically play the same: you press the credit button, hit spin, press credit, hit spin, keep repeating, and then reach for your wallet for more money.
But, just because any old slot machine looks, walks and quacks like a duck, that doesn't mean it is part of the Anatidae family of birds, especially when it comes to return percentages to the player. "Play" and "pay," Ken, are twins of two different fathers.
Payouts on slot machines are set by casino operators and are not consistent between gaming jurisdictions.
The best cluck-for-the-buck when it comes to playing slots is in Nevada, where the house last year kept 6.4 percent. The worst would be in Iowa, where casinos in that state keep 9.4 percent of every dollar played. Furthermore, Ken, slot machines these days keeping a tighter grip on the money gamblers feed into them, and this translates into your hard-earned money not lasting as long as it used to.
For example, based on the blended slot hold from a decade ago, if your bankroll were $100, you could gamble for 3.2 hours at $0.75 per spin. With higher holds across the board, now you will last approximately 2.6 hours, a 22% decrease. With these tighter slots, your time on device decreases, hence, you lose you money faster. But, Ken, few players play $0.75 per spin anymore. It's more like $2 a pop, so your slot machine play with that same $100 is now reduced to just one hour.
Casinos are also starting to feel the effects of higher hold percentages. Not only are casinos making it tougher for players to win at the slot machines; the rising hold percentage has not translated into incrementally increasing gaming revenue for casino operators post-recession. In fact, many believe higher hold percentage is the contributing factor to slot revenue decline. I agree, but I would vigorously contend that it is equally the lack of Gen Xer and Millennial players.
Here are just a few examples of current hold percentages showing where slots got stingier from a decade ago.
Louisiana 9.26%, was 8.65%
Mississippi 7.49%, was 6.54%
Missouri 9.33%, was 7.44%
Nevada 6.4%, was 5.72%
Iowa 9.4%, was 7.05%
New Jersey 8.96%, was 8.19%.
Conversely, Pennsylvania's hold percentages decreased from 9.56% to 7.82% and their slot revenue increased by 11.8%. Wondering aloud here, but is management upstairs taking notes?
This is not to say that all slots pick your pocket. Some casinos do offer "liberal" slot machines. By liberal I mean casinos that advertise a higher payback percentage on "selected machines." It's up to you to find a casino advertising those liberal paybacks; then you'll need to ask someone in slot personnel which machines those are.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: I'm a gambler. I'll always be one. I couldn't be anything else. So, my life will always be full of wins and losses. I wouldn't have it any other way. It's exciting. There's never been a dull moment in my life. – Doyle Brunson, How I Made $1,000,000 Playing Poker (1979)
Dear Mark: In yesterday's Detroit Free Press, there was a question about tipping. My question is also about tipping but more specifically as it pertains to a casino if you are lucky enough to win something big.
This columnist has no plans to become a weekly shill for the tipping industry. But, with that said, I have always considered myself to be in the hospitality business, not exclusively gaming. Hence, Chris, I will tackle these two questions featured today, then retreat next week to what most of you read this column for, gambling.
I begin with the #1 rule when it comes to tipping: If in doubt, TIP. Reason being, Chris, most front-line slot employees are paid minimum wage. A slot employee's additional income comes through the gratuities of casino patrons. It is through your kind gestures of gratuity that slot employees make a living.
Whether you tip or not, and how much, is essentially up to you. That said, $50-$100 on a $3,700 jackpot to the slot attendant who handled your payment is appropriate, especially if that individual had been helpful and pleasant toward you. Five percent of your total jackpot is not uncommon, especially on midrange jackpots of between $1,000 – $5,000.
Dear Mark: Any suggestions on how to make sure that tips left for the housekeeper who cleaned your hotel room actually get to that particular person? Or, do housekeeping tips go into a big pot and then get divvied up? Rhonda S.
Typically, Rhonda, housekeeping operates on a "keep your own" basis so tips go directly to the individual cleaning your room. That is why I mentioned in a recent column that far too many gamblers slight housekeepers when they tip at the end of their stay because they are flat ass broke. Whoever scrubbed your toilet three of the four days you were there could be off on the day that you leave, and your gratuity ends up with her substitute.
Here is how and what to tip a hotel maid. I recommend three to ten dollars a night depending on the quality of service and the hotel. If there are three individuals or more in your room or suite, you should consider a bit larger tip. If a staff member brings up extra towels late at night or fulfills another request, tip $1-$5. By tipping correctly, you show your appreciation and ensure that the chambermaid will take special care of your room.
Make sure that you mark your tip clearly. Leaving cash in the room is not a clear enough signal, as a chambermaid must be extremely careful about taking anything from your room. Enclose the tip in a sealed envelope (check the desk drawer for hotel stationery) and mark it "Maid" or "Chambermaid." And if in your room there is a card giving the name of the person who cleaned the room for you, put that on the envelope, too.
Leave your tip in an obvious place such as on the pillow, the television, or on the bathroom counter.
Leave your tip in cash, not with your spare change, lint included. NO, your empty beer cans that have a 5¢ deposit on them don't count as a tip.
If you travel internationally, find out how to write "Chambermaid" (Camarera, Zimmermädchen or Femme de chambre) in the local language so that you can label the envelope appropriately.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: The more I study and learn about how to play poker, the more playing poker for real money scares the hell out of me.
--VP Pappy
Dear Mark:
What you stumbled upon, Jerry, is an offering called Crapless Craps or Never Ever Craps. Here we go again, Jerry. Here is another example of a casino game designed to relieve you of your hard-earned cash when you belly up to this form of a crap table.
In this modified variation of a regular crap game, you do not lose on the come-out roll when the shooter tosses a craps, a term for the numbers 2, 3 or 12. Instead, the number rolled, (2, 3 or 12) automatically becomes your point, just as 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 does on a standard game. Additionally, you do not win if the shooter throws a natural 11. It, too, becomes the point.
With these shabby extra rules, the house now holds a 5.4% edge on your Pass line bet versus the 1.4% edge on a typical crap game.
I would highly recommend passing on Crapless Craps, whose house edge on the non-suspecting player is nearly quadrupled.
You also mentioned wizardofodds in your question.
For math junkies like Yours Truly, it has no peers. The Wizard of Odds is Michael Shackleford, a professional actuary who has made a career of analyzing casino games. Shackleford's site provides the mathematically correct strategies and information for nearly every casino game in existence.
In this column, I am spreading smart gambling to the masses at a Gambling 101 level, all while working off Sister Cyrilla fifth-grade arithmetic. The Wizard's gambling information level is more like Gambling 105.
If you have any inclination to study gambling mathematics at the highest level, then yes, Jerry, I highly recommend the wizardofodds.
Dear Mark: With the proliferation of sports betting taking place on-line, and with illegal bookies, do you think it will ever become legal to bet on sports in other states besides Nevada? Jeff W.
Of the kazillion of dollars bet on sports each year, only two percent of the action is legal. The remaining 98% is wagered with a bookie named Vito, in a long narrow dark bar called Creedon's, ask for Snuff, or online through gambling websites overseas.
Four states allow some form of wagering on NFL games. Of course, there is Nevada, plus limited betting in Delaware, Oregon, and Montana. New Jersey keeps trying, but it continues to be rejected at the appellate level.
Also standing in the way is the 2025 federal law called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. That law would need to be repealed before other states can allow sports betting.
Delaware, Oregon, and Montana were permitted to sanction NFL betting because they offered some form of legal sports betting before 2025. Those states loop-holed in by tethering sports betting to a state lottery or a fantasy game that they already operated, hence, they were grandfathered in.
By the way, Jeff, I am sitting on multiple questions regarding weekly fantasy football and its legitimacy and legality. A topic worthy of all 600 words that I am allotted, an – albeit negative – column on this form of fantasy football is coming soon.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: A priest rebuked a gambler for the time he wasted at play. "Yes," replied the latter, "there is a lot of time lost in shuffling the cards." – Charles William Heckethorn, The Gambling World (1998)
Dear Mark:
Like Baccarat, Mini Baccarat offers a very low house edge, and for the low roller it is one of the best games the casino offers.
With Mini Baccarat, only two hands are dealt, regardless of how many players are sitting tableside. Your only decision, Keith, is to wager on the Bank or the Player hand.
The rules are simple enough, the nearest to nine wins. Adding a third card is dependent on the total of the first two cards, and is done by the dealer based on predetermined rules. Although you can easily pick up the nuances of the game in mere minutes, when you come right down to it, you just chill and watch the dealer perform his or her craft. As a side note, it was my favorite game to deal.
The quality of these two wagers is exceptional, especially for those who don't want to use their noggin. The casino advantage on the Bank hand is 1.17% and 1.36% on Player. The one other option you have is a bet that both hands result in a tie. Never, ever make that bet, as the house edge on the tie wager is 14%.
The casino holds an edge against your play no matter if you bet on the Bank or the Player hand, so any notion of "interminable winning" is illusory. It's more like you will lose less money playing Mini-Baccarat than playing almost any other casino game.
Here's the math, Keith. If you were to play $5 a hand wagering on the Bank hand, even with a house edge as low as 1.17%, after seeing 200 decisions an hour, you would still end up having an hourly loss of $11.70. You can't alter that loss, Keith. But for $12 and hour, free cocktails – Vodka Martini "shaken not stirred" – and some points on your Player's Club card, what's not to like?
One option where you can get a decisive break is finding a casino that offers a commission of four percent (compared to the standard five percent) on winning Bank hands. Here the house edge drops to .6%. I haven't seen this opportunity in a long time, but if some reader knows where it exists, I'll gladly pass it along.
Dear Mark: I live in Maryland, and I am starting to learn the game of craps. What is the best strategy for the game? Wendall
As frequently stated in this column, for the newbie, a Pass line bet (house edge 1.4%) and Placing the six or eight (1.5%) is what I repeatedly recommend. Since most readers are bone-tired of reading about those wagers, as an alternative to taking up any more real estate writing about these terrific bets, I suggest you mosey on over to my web site (markpilarski) and use the search feature (upper right side) and type in Pass line or Place bets.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: A gambler's acquaintance is readily made and easily kept – provided you gamble too. – Edward Bulwer, Lyiton Pelham (1828)
Dear Mark:
Between my wife and me, we have nearly three-quarters of a century in the hospitality business; stay tuned for my forthcoming book of far-fetched, but true stories, with a whole chapter devoted to accounts on tipping. Plan on being bowled over at just how downright cheap some of the rich and famous can be.
Most front-line casino employees make minimum wage, or darn near close to it. Additional income comes through the gratuities of casino patrons, like you, Roger. Casino employees need those gestures of gratuity to make a decent living.
Indeed, Roger, contributions from generous patrons such as you to "Lady Luck" have gone my way. The bigheartedness of you and others circuitously put my son through University of Michigan undergraduate and Duke graduate school.
I went to Lake Tahoe to be a ski bum, and the casino business gave me the opportunity to enjoy life: ski all day, then work evenings while tired on the casino's dime – all supported by the gratuities of others when the dice and cards went their way. The Tahoe 'every day a picnic, every night a party' lifestyle can be far more agreeable on a tip-based income pushing dice than on one in supervision. When I was in management, the realities were that of it being a real job.
Since you asked, there is one silent worker who is shortchanged far more often than any other hospitality employee that I can think of. I am writing about the person who cleans your un-flushed toilets, hair from the shower drain, along with substance left behind from a "what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas" night.
Maids, Roger, should be tipped generously! They have one of the toughest jobs in the casino. Unfortunately, many gamblers tend to leave them a buck a day. I figure $5 a day, minimum!
Also, far too many gamblers tip housekeepers at the end of their stay, where they are now economizing because, well, simply, they are tapped out. Moreover, the maid whose elbow grease scrubbed their toilet might be off on the day the gambler leaves and the tip ends up with her substitute.
Another overworked and underpaid employee works in the kitchen. My wife, generous to a fault, will occasionally do this: send $20 back to those working the tank, aka, dishwashers. Will it help your relationship with Lady Luck? Probably not, but no employee will appreciate it more because no one ever tips them.
While we're at it, for those of you who post reviews online at either Tripadvisor or Yelp, I urge you to get in the habit of mentioning the employee by name in your evaluation, and not, "terrific service from the waitress." That, along with writing something like "Fantastic service, Mary. Thanks!" on the receipt will go a long way for them in the eyes of management. Upstairs notices such things.
The upshot here, Roger, is to tip only what you are comfortable with, and to tip only for good service. Even with 20 years on the inside, I won't tip, at least openhandedly, a put-off casino employee.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: "If I could play this game like you, I'd rent the chair I'm sitting in for a year... I'm not lying. I wouldn't need a house, car, job or a friend." This chair would be my only possession. – Jack Richardson, Memoir of a Gambler (1979)
Dear Mark:
You brother-in-law's wagering system is a progressive method of betting where the bet-size is systematically changed, up or down, across a series of hands according to his own predetermined ($5, $5, $10, $10, $20, $20) formula.
There are an almost endless number of variations of both positive and negative betting progressions distinguished from one another by when the progression is invoked, how much the wagers are raised or lowered, and when the progression is terminated.
The progressive system I have suggested in the past is similar to your brother-in-law's in that, like him, I set a predetermined percentage increase to follow any winning bet, and I retreat to the table minimum after a loss.
My progressive system goes like this. I increase the wager that follows any winning bet - except the first - by 50%: First $5 bet wins, next bet also for $5 wins, and now we're off on the 50% gallop: $8, $12, $18, $28, etc., then drop to the table minimum – 'flat betting' – after every loss.
Like your brother-in-law, I take a conservative approach and lock up that first $5 win, and wait for a second win before bumping up my bets to engage my variation of a progressive system.
Doing some simple Sister Cyrilla fifth grade arithmetic, here are the totals after six hands. For starters, the typical gambler that flat bets $5 per hand would net $30 after six wins. Your brother-in-law nets $70, and my progressive system returns $76. Every winning hand thereafter – taking into consideration that he bumps up his bets incrementally as he has every two hand by $10 – the progressive formula that I use will outperform his.
Every winning streak will have an end sometime, so your brother-in-law's way or mine, the potential gain when using a positive progressive system when on a Eureka moment clearly out performs flat betting.
Just so long, Bill, as you don't employ the Martingale system of betting. The Martingale System is a 'negative' progression betting system whereby you do exactly the opposite by increasing your wager size after each subsequent loss. In essence, you, the gambler, double your previous bet (after a loss) leaning on the statistical certainty that sooner-or-later you are bound to win.
Far too many players believe the Martingale system is foolproof because you have to win eventually. The problem with this money management technique is: 1) you do not have an inexhaustible bankroll to take on multiple losses, and 2) the casino owns the bank and sets the rules—like table limits.
Allow me, Bill, to show you how lethal this form of wagering can be. You bet $10 and lose, then $20 to recoup that loss; followed by $40, $80, $160, and finally $320. Six wagers and you have just invested $630 to get your measly $10 back. Your next bet needs to be $640, but your $10 games may have a table limit of $500. A string of six defeats and you are up against the table limit, possibly tapped out and still chasing ten buckaroos.
Have you ever met a gambler who has not lost six, eight or even ten hands in a row? I sure haven't. Ask any dealer and he or she will tell you that it happens far more often that you can ever imagine.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: "When you're on a winning streak, the feeling is better than any other feeling I know."
– Colin Hayes, Thoughts of would-be professional poker player
Dear Mark: Okay, former Pit Boss, please handle the situation I had with one of your peers on a crap table.
In most casinos, Lenny, when you lay paper currency directly on the Pass line, you are indicating to the dealer that your cash is in action. Once the dice land and you have a losing outcome, you normally have little recourse and are now at the mercy of the person manning the box.
If your play was a consistent $5 action throughout your previous gambling timeline, it usually isn't that hard to convince, Yours Truly at least, that you really wanted to exchange that $20 bill into chips.
Consistent play, Lenny, can build your case for a reversal. The box person can easily verify your play by conferring with the dealer handling your bets. Or, he or she can call upstairs and have security review the film that is recording the game.
What is NOT a certainty is that playing consistently will automatically immunize you against the fallout from your failure of informing the dealer that you wanted to exchange that $20 currency for $5 chips. Yes, a split second decision on my part would probably have gotten you four-nickel chips. Nevertheless, how each casino handles your 'rules-being-rules' scenario, then resolution, will be different amongst my pit bull peers.
Dear Mark: I witnessed something recently for the first time when I saw a blackjack dealer start swirling all the cards around as we used to do as kids playing the game Go Fish. What is the value of doing it? Jason P.
Shuffling cards, Jason, encompasses all kinds of card-mixing techniques to prepare a deck or decks for continued play. All casino shuffling procedures employ a combination of mixing steps, such as 'stripping', 'boxing', 'riffling', 'plugging', 'cutting', and other techniques.
One such method is called 'card washing.' Card washing is a shuffling technique where the dealer spreads the cards on the table face down, and then proceeds to swirl them with his hands in a face-washing action before gathering them up to perform a normal shuffle. Card washing is meant to remove any consistencies in the sequencing of cards that a new deck or decks of cards have.
Although card washing is seldom done on a blackjack game, you will observe it more often at a baccarat table, where the cards are washed when old decks are removed from the game, and fresh new decks are brought in to replace them. At the multiple casinos where I dealt BJ, we never washed the cards. But, at the two casinos where I dealt baccarat, we washed them after every shoe, which I valued because it gave me some down time to gather my wits when dealing high-limit action.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: Gambling was his life. He played incessantly, passionately, joyfully, and always for high stakes; not as a business or a profession, but as truly devoted monks must pray... as a kind of prolonged ecstasy. – Nick The Greek Dandalos, Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek (1968)
Dear Mark:
Essentially, Nick, A Buy bet resembles a Place bet except that you pay a 5% commission on the amount of your wager. When you win, you are paid at the true odds, minus, of course, the 5%.
For those buying the 4 or 10, it is advised that you wager at least $20, since the minimum commission the casino will charge you for making a Buy wager is a dollar (5% of $20).
The casino edge on any Buy bet for $20 works out to 4.76%, with smaller sized wagers increasingly higher.
Since a Buy bet does nothing more than give the house a 5% commission for paying you correct odds on a winning bet, I recommend sticking with wagers that only give the house less than a two percent edge, such as a Place bet, but only on the 6 or 8. Stay away, Nick, from placing the 4 or 10, as the house edge is 6.67%.
Not only does placing the 6 or 8 have a smaller house edge, 1.5%, than buying the 4 or 10, but it is also plenty cheap. A Place bet can be made for as little as $6.
My point here, Nick, is that there are other wagers on a crap game that are far superior to buying the 4, 10, or any number for that matter. But for the exception below, I generally cannot affirm the 'Buy' wager as recommended play.
As to your question, Nick, yes, there are certain casinos that offer a different commission structure on a 4 and 10 Buy bet. Although all casinos charge the commission, some only do if you win. When your 4 or 10 are losers, you don't have to pay the commission, and the house edge drops all the way down to 1.67%, making for a terrific wager.
Longtime readers of this column know the drill and only make wagers on a crap table, or any bet in the casino, that has less than 2% house edge. A Buy bet on the 4 or 10, one that is commission-free if you lose, is one that I would recommend adding to your betting repertoire
Dear Mark: On a bike trip across France, I stopped in a casino and happened upon a game very similar to roulette, but much smaller. Do you know anything about it? The game was closed, and there was no one around to explain what it was. Jerome P.
I believe what you are referring to is Boule (La Boule), which is a simplified version of Roulette.
Boule is analogous to roulette in that it features a table and a spinning wheel, but it only has nine numbers and three different colors on which you can bet. Boule is played with a large wooden wheel and a rubber ball a tad bit smaller than a tennis ball.
The game is quite simple, but a very fast way of losing a whole lot of money. Every bet offered has a house edge of 11.11%, which is far, far worse than roulette (5.26%), or a true European single-zero wheel that offers a rule called en prison (1.35%).
La Boule, Jérôme, est un pari terrible.
Dear Mark:
More and more casinos are rewarding slot players with free slot play, giving slots players a chance to win without having to drop a dime into a machine. Slot aficionados see it as getting something for nothing.
Then there are other casinos that offer something less called matching play, whereby you are rewarded with $10 in free play after playing through $10 of your money. Obviously, this offer is not as good a deal as a something for nothing promotion.
Your $5 free play offering is a cash reward for your play. Sad to say, that compensation must be used within the casino. That, Gerry, is the drawback of free play; you can't take the money and skedaddle. In contrast, with cash backs for your action, there is no requirement that you play your cash reimbursement. Like winnings, it is your money, not the "house's," and you can always pocket it to use as you please.
All things being equal, Gerry, I would rather have cash-in-hand that I can spend as I wish. Moreover, with free play, most players do get something, but end up with nothing because they tend to play back their free play allowance before they cash out.
The biggest challenge any casino has is getting you to walk through the front door. Free slot play – something for nothing – is one such Pavlovian offering that triggers saliva amongst slot jockeys.
I have always been amazed at how just $10 in free slot play brings in the slot masses. Unfortunately, once forward-facing a slot machine, you can easily run through that $10 in but a few spins if you're playing max coins and max lines. Now the casino has you captured within their friendly confines for a total outlay of $10.
The up and up, Gerry, is that the random number generator doesnt care one iota if you are playing the free play or with your hard-earned money. What might be happening is that you are the victim of your own selective memory along with a shortened gambling timeline.
Your assumption is that the machines hit less frequently when you are playing free play versus when youre playing with your money. Consequently, you tend to remember the times that you don't hit on the free play and forget the times that you did. I would suggest, Gerry, that you keep track of your play and not rely on discriminatory impressions.
So, Gerry, in the future as you play free slot play promotions, humor me and keep track of the number of spins and the number of hits that you get from free play. Then, actively track the same number of spins with your money. As your gambling timeline extends, your returns should be relatively close.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: Gambling heats the mind like an oven. – Henry Ward Beecher, Gamblers and Gambling (1896)
Dear Mark: This regular reader and occasional correspondent continues to view in awe the breadth of your knowledge about all casino operations, but occasionally I take issue with your comments. The newest case in point is your observation:
Alternatively, near the top of every dealers list of stupid player tricks is flat-betting through a run. Finally, we do know when a run ends: When you finally lose a bet. Robert W.
Call me whacky, Robert; many have. But if you flip a coin ten times and it is streaking heads, the chance of getting heads on the 11th flip remains 50-50. Yet, I can recognize a streak. Once I was on such a losing one that had I been around in 1775, I would have taken the British and given points.
Yes to your comment, Streaks are real, actual events that can be observed. We all can see streaks: the good, the bad, and back-and-forth ones. The problem with streaks when dealing with the randomness inherent in casino games is that it is impossible to predict what comes next. All we know for sure is what has happened in the past, and, that we will all experience streaks in the future.
I see streaks, Robert, as nothing more than a welcome (to the winning side, that is) momentary blip in someone's endless gambling time-line, which eventually is balanced by one or more unwelcome runs.
That said, Robert, yes, future streaks are coming your way. Unfortunately, you cannot predict when they will arrive. Far too many gamblers are inclined to be overconfident and read too much into hot or cold streaks.
As for my streak belief in reference to slot machine play, and you, a blackjack player, dissenting, I see some merit in your thinking, not in your hot-hand theory, but in your use of progressive betting.
I have advocated many times in this column progressive betting while winning consecutive bets. In one of my first columns 20 years ago, I wrote how I once dealt a young lady 32 straight winning hands of blackjack. I beseeched her to progressively wager more, but she took her $64 (32X$2) after the run ended and walked, gambling story in hand.
Although different from yours, the winning progressive method I employ uses a predetermined percentage increase for each winning wager. For example, I increase my winning bets by 50% after the second win: $5, $5, $7, $10, $15, $22, etc. I continuously flat bet (table minimum) once the streak stops.
Likewise, there is no harm, no foul with progressive betting when making safe bets that have a low house edge. Slots can have a 20% hold whereas it can be under .05% for the skilled blackjack player.
Finally, Robert, let us agree to disagree in your belief of the predictability of streaks. One thing I am sure that we can agree on, is that when you are on a winning streak, there is no better feeling.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: When a man gets a streak of luck…he don't get tired. The luck gives in first. Luck is a mighty queer thing. All you know about it for certain is that it's bound to change. And its finding out when its going to change that makes you. – Bret Harte, The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1870)
Dear Mark:
As the budget-minded gambler that you are, Jeremy, when playing penny slots, you have plenty of betting flexibility in the number of lines and coins per line that you can bet. On the flip side of that same penny, penny slots are huge money makers for the casino. And the reason is they get a tremendous amount of play because penny-wise – and sometimes pound-foolish – players like you love them; but they also tend to have relatively low paybacks.
To be regarded as a prudent player, it is important for one to comprehend base denomination. Penny machines should be just that, penny machines; not $5 a pop per spin betting max per line.
What also remains the same, no matter how much or little you wager, are those low paybacks. The player who bets multiple coins per line creates per-spin bets that are no longer penny play, but a quarter, even dollar action; all against a house edge that could easily be 15%.
Your penny slot system -- per your description – has one great feature going for it. You have set realistic win goals and loss limits.
Deciding to swap machines when yours goes cold is called "hit-and-run gambling." This type of short-term play is centered on perceived streaks. Streaks, Jeremy, are nothing more than hindsight of past performance. You, me, even casino management know not when a streak starts, let alone ends.
What is quite real, Jeremy, is the casino's built-in advantage. It is predicated on the operation of the "law of averages." Over the long run, no in-and-out system is going to work against it. Once your hard-earned money is exposed for an extended period, it's going to get gobbled up.
The only true benefit of walking from a machine is that when you get up and leave that comfy Naugahyde stool, you are physically not playing that penny slot, and the built-in edge of that one-armed penny bandit can NOT eat away at your bankroll.
I suggest that you stick with what you are currently doing, Jeremy, that illusionary stopgap, the $5 trigger of max credits that forces a retirement from the game.
As often stated in this column, each spin on a slot machine is an independent event based on the random number generator (RGN). Swapping machines cannot change that, nor make much of a difference on your overall outcome. To slow the pace of the machine's built-in house edge you stop yanking the handle. Doing this develops discipline and fiscal awareness of your bankroll when you play. It doesn't help in your search of Gold Mountain.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: A drunken monkey can be as successful at slots as a sober Einstein. – Bob Dancer