Casino Survey Part 11

9 November 2024

By Jerry Stickman

Casinos have a wide range of games designed to attract nearly every type of gambler. Since there is such a variety, I thought it might be interesting to survey casino goers to find out their favorite games and why they play them.

This is the eleventh article in a series of articles that explores this topic.

Responses from a recent casino sampling.

Ron from California:

“There is a whole lot I enjoy about the casino experience.

Like most gamblers, when I first started going to casinos, I played the slot machines. I would first play the ones that offered the highest jackpots, such as the Megabucks, or Wheel of Fortune progressive games. I fantasized about winning the multi-million-dollar amount that was displayed over the bank of machines.

I started with Megabucks. The game requires three dollars per spin to have a shot at the top jackpot. I had a stop loss limit for the game. Once this was hit (and it was usually hit very quickly), I would switch to the 25-cent Wheel of Fortune machine.

The jackpots on this game were lower, but the cost of play was also lower. I also had a stop loss for this game. As with Megabucks, once this limit was reached, I stopped playing and moved to standard quarter, nickel or even penny slots depending on how I felt.

On the big jackpot progressive machines, there were many spins that paid nothing. The standard slots may not have the gigantic jackpot amounts, but the much more frequent smaller wins allowed me to play for a much longer time.

Over time, I became bored with slot machines. There is no thought required to play them, so I switched to some table games.

I enjoy playing most of the table games such as blackjack, Caribbean stud poker, roulette, craps and even Pai Gow poker.

I learned some strategy for blackjack and the poker style games so I could last a bit longer. I also learned the lowest edge bets for craps and roulette.

There are no huge winning bets on those table games, but being involved in the action of making bets and, in some cases, having to make playing strategy decisions in certain games, made play much more interesting.

Over time, I became tired of these games as well. So, I explored some other available games. Eventually I tried playing Baccarat. I found this game was a nice mix of slot machine simplicity and player involvement. The rules of play are fixed. There is no specific playing strategy to learn. The game is relaxing to play – and each player has an opportunity to deal.

Unfortunately, in many casinos, this is only available in the high stakes room where the low limit can be 100 dollars or more. This is well outside my budget, but when I find a game with 25-dollar or lower limit, I am on it.

A typical casino visit now consists playing a few of the other table games and when I am ready to move on, I look for an open lower limit baccarat game to fill the rest of the time.”

What about you? What casino games do you like to play – and why?

As always, may all your wins be swift and large, and your losses be slow and small.


Jerry “Stickman” is an expert in craps, blackjack and video poker and advantage slot machine play. He is a regular contributor to top gaming magazines and 888casino.com. He authored the video poker section of “Everything Casino Poker: Get the Edge at Video Poker, Texas Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo, and Pai Gow Poker!” You can contact Jerry “Stickman” at stickmanjerryg@gmail.com