GAMING GURUS: LATEST FROM OUR STRATEGY EXPERTS

Bye-bye, comps

Stickman,For the past five years I have lived within 10 miles of four different Indian casinos. Over time I have accrued a decent amount of weekly free play as well as a weekly “gift” from each of these four casinos. As you know, the amount of free play and quality of the gift is determined by the amount of money played.These past two years have seen no noticeable changes in my routine...read more

Casino City’s Friday Five: The NFL gambles on the preseason edition

The wait is finally over for National Football League fans, with the 2019 NFL’s preseason kicking off. The gambling industry saw a first last night during the Washington Redskins’ game against the Cleveland Browns. But before we get into that, we had some other top stories catch our attention this week, as well.Four massive jackpots were awarded by International Game Technology in July, with three of them coming in Canada, a Pennsylvania sportsbook opening, another Topgolf Swing Suite makings its casino debuted, and Resorts World Catskills unveiling a new poker room.Let’s kick it off with the IGT jackpots:5...read more

Triple zero equals a zero

QUESTION: I saw one of those new triple-zero roulette tables, and I was glad to have read about the house edge increase.I’m wondering how far casinos could take this. Could they have four zeroes? Five? More? How far could they go in adding zeroes and increasing their edge?ANSWER: The main limiting factor would be player acceptance...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Do you get more favorable results when you bet more on a slot machine?

Question: I would like to know if the reels spin any differently if you play minimum or maximum coin in? Seems to me that more favorable reel results happen when you play higher amounts. Answer: Slot regulations specify that the result dictated by the RNG must be displayed and that the RNG must be free of any outside influences, like the number of coins played...read more

The best of the best casinos

This is not a review of casinos. I am sure that most of you have your favorite casinos at which to play and I am not going to change your minds. No, this is my outline of what is the best of the best in terms of casino offerings for me; these are the important elements I enjoy...read more

Top 10 Mississippi Gulf Coast casino updates, openings and expansions

My first exposure to the 62 miles of white sand beaches on Coastal Mississippi came in April 2009, when I was invited on a media trip to tour the region’s casinos and golf courses. Having never been to Mississippi, I had no idea what to expect as I flew south from Boston.What I found out rather quickly was that there may not be a better place in the U.S...read more

Play it right!

On a Saturday evening in July, I joined longtime friend Matt for pizza and baseball, watching the Cubs and Brewers over some fine dining.Matt doesn’t gamble, so I really didn’t expect to be debating blackjack strategy. But Rob, a friend of Matt’s I’d never met before, had been to a casino that morning and lost a few dollars.Rob wanted to expound on the evils of hitting soft 18 against a dealer’s 9, 10 or 11 – the correct basic strategy plays.“Basic strategy just seems so arbitrary,” he said...read more

Practicing the count

While practicing the count for blackjack at home and you are interrupted for any reason, stop, recite the count to yourself, silently, over and over again so you don't forget it.Let’s say you’re are practicing and one of your little ones has an important question or the phone rings and it’s for you...read more

Casino City’s Friday Five: Sports takeover edition

With the NFL season opener on the near horizon, it's an exciting time for sports bettors in the U.S. now that several states have legalized sports gambling and are accepting wagers.In fact, another U.S. state legalized sports betting in the last week, along with Puerto Rico...read more

Eschewing the big payouts

QUESTION: I saw something happen at Three Card Poker and I wondered if you agreed with the player.He was betting only on ante-play, and the rest of us were betting both ante-play and Pair Plus. Naturally, he was the one who got a straight flush...read more