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Gaming Guru
Flush Attack3 June 2004
Dear Bill, Of course I remember you. I don't get millions of e-mails, but the number I receive has gone up considerably since Casino City started hosting my column and the others in the Frank Scoblete Network. I used to be able to answer letters within a week or so--and I used to reply via e-mail in addition to posting the answer in my column. Now, I'm over two months behind in answering questions. And I decided that I had to skip sending a reply via e-mail so I would have more time to answer questions. And you wouldn't believe the amount of SPAM I get, even though Comcast's SPAM filter (from Brightmail) catches 90% of it! It's critical that e-mail messages sent to me have "slot/video poker question" or something similar in the subject so I can tell the message isn't SPAM. Sorry you had problems in Atlantic City. I suspect part of the problem is that space is at a premium there, so large vehicles aren't very welcome. Still, the casinos say they need more overnight visitors, so one would think the casinos would do something to help RV owners. I can relate to being in a cold spell. I've been in a long cold spell. I can't remember the last time I left a casino with more money than I went in with. I too took up blackjack a few years ago. Our stories are almost identical. I also learned to play by reading Frank's book. The only difference is that when I did sit down to play blackjack for the first time, Frank was at my side to offer encouragement and an occasional pointer. One advantage of blackjack, and other table games, is that every casino offers pretty much the same game. Some casinos may have tons of full-pay video poker and others may offer nothing higher than 98% payback machines, but they all have blackjack, craps, and roulette games that have close to--if not exactly--the same odds. As for list of slot slang, I don't know if there are really any universally or regionally understood terms. I've read many terms in slot books that I've never heard a slot player use. I would never make anything up, but if readers would like to send in their own slot slang, I'll compile the entries and publish them in a future column. Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
Dear Jeff, Thanks for the kind words about my column. I think you did not read the paytable correctly. I did a search for Flush Attack paytables on the Internet and I didn't find like you described. In any case, you have to take the entire paytable into account, not just the payoffs on full house and flush. If we just looked at those two amounts, we'd think 9/6 Double Bonus was a good game to play. I found four different paytables for Flush Attack on Jazbo's video poker site (www.jazbo.com). He says the best-paying version is "slightly positive." The description for Dan Paymar's cue card on the RGE21 site, however, says the paytables pays back 101.85% and I'd say that's more than slightly positive. The answer to your question of whether Flush Attack is better than 10/7 Double Bonus is that it depends on the which Flush Attack paytable you found. I don't know of any site on which you can play Flush Attack, but if anyone does, I'll publish the site in a future column. Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
Dear Pam, A Class II gaming device is a bingo drawing that looks like a slot machine. Native American casinos need state compacts to offer Vegas-style Class III gaming devices. As I understand it, they can offer Class II devices, however, if the state allows other charitable organizations to offer bingo. Unlike Class III gaming devices that contain RNGs, Class II devices are prohibited from determining their own results. A separate system is used to run the bingo drawing and the numbers drawn are sent down to each machine. The payout is determined by the pattern filled in on the bingo card displayed on the machine. Now, I keep using the term bingo drawing, but it's not the "B-4, O-72"-type bingo game with which we're all familiar. The Class II devices I've seen displayed a card that had (if I remember correctly and I may not because I saw them about a year ago) a grid of numbers with 3 rows and 4 columns. Numbers from 1 to about 20 were randomly distributed in the grid. Players pressed their Spin buttons to join in on the "drawing" and then the system controller drew a set of numbers at random from 1 to 20. I don't know how many were chosen. The numbers drawn were reported to each machine participating in the drawing. Each machine then compared the pattern covered with the payout patterns. If there was a match, the machine would then spin its reels to the proper combination and award the player the appropriate number of credits. If there wasn't a match with any of the payout patterns, the machine was free to display any non-winning combination. Interestingly enough, this "secondary decision" of choosing a particular non-winning combination after it has been determined that the spin will be a loser is illegal in a Class III gaming device. Does anything happen when you touch the bingo card? If not, you can touch it for luck if you wish. And if something does happen, you can touch it if you want because it won't make a difference. The results will still be chosen at random. Best of luck in and out of the casinos, Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert, at slotexpert@comcast.net. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't send a reply to every question. Also be advised that it may take two or more months for your question to appear in my column. This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net. Recent Articles
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