Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 156

Social slots

QUESTION: Do you know anything about the Slotomania game Grand Phoenix? It has a bonus where you pick feathers to win a jackpot. The feathers are gold to start, and when you pick one it changes to another color. When you pick three of the same color, then you win the jackpot of that color.I ALWAYS win the blue jackpot, the mini...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Dealing with slot machine button bangers

Question: Great column about the Borgata returning money to a player. Here’s my story. I often (too often) visit a casino here in Pittsburgh. I go every Sunday morning to buy lotto tickets for the week and to play craps. About a month ago I exited the elevator upon arrival and was counting out $200 while walking to the restroom...read more

The gambling buffet

Casinos have great dining buffets. You can get all manner of ethnic offerings such as Italian, Southern, Chinese, Irish and Scottish, along with many other European and Asian specialties. Not every buffet will have every ethnicity's or country’s offerings, but tour the country as I have and you will eat – a lot! (And gain a ton of weight.)However, this column is not about eating at buffets, but rather about you making casino games a buffet session...read more

Payback changes

Changing the expected payback percentage on any one slot machine remains a time-consuming process for the most part.Yet overall payback percentages on slot floors evolve, and in some cases change dramatically in a short time.A reader e-mailed recently to say the returns at the casino where he plays most, paybacks had dropped from 92.5% to 90% within a few months.If it’s such an arduous process to change each machine, how could such a large change come about so fast?It can happen without tinkering with return on any one game.Examine the possibilities:The casino may have had a change in marketing goals and decided to emphasize penny slots or other low denominations. Higher denomination slots such as quarter and dollar games usually have higher payback percentages than lower denominations.Let’s try a simple example...read more

$1 8/5 vs. $5 9/6 Jacks or Better

Jerry,I enjoy your columns very much, especially the ones about video poker. Although the conventional wisdom is to always play video poker at full coin to capture the royal bonus, I’m not sure that advice applies to the $1 player whose only choice at that level is an 8/5 game, as is often the case these days...read more

Some interesting slots and some easy games

QUESTION: What do you think of these slots where you can win a different number of free spins depending on numbers on the symbols?You need at least three symbols, and when you get them, you add them up for a number of spins. One that I play has a maximum number of 7...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Borgata reunites player with money left on a machine

Question: I felt sorry for the guy in your 4/17/19 column who left his ticket in a slot machine and didn't get his money because the ticket had been cashed. A few months ago, I left $50 in a slot machine at Borgata in Atlantic City. I went to security and they said they would investigate while I went to dinner. When I got back to the security window about two hours later — much to my surprise, they handed me my $50! YEAH. Security explained to me why I was able to get my money back. Turns out, the ticket was cashed soon after I left the machine...read more

Some player superstitions

Humankind is a superstitious lot. There’s no doubt about that. Throwing salt over our shoulders if some it had spilled on the table or floor; not walking under ladders or stepping on cracks on the sidewalk. Look at the number of religions in the world over time, perhaps tens of thousands, all basically explaining everything but doing it differently...read more

Breaking down the craps place bets

Comparisons in wagering options at casino games usually are made in terms of the house edge. Craps players know the house edge on place bets on 6 or 8 is 1.52%, far better than the 4% on 5 or 9 or the 6.67% on 4 or 10.Sometimes, I get a request to break down what that means in terms of dollars and cents...read more

Bigger payouts

Many of us have heard that dollar slot machines pay out more than the nickel ones. Why do the casinos want to do that?The reason behind that idea is really very simple. Nickel machines require the same amount of floor space, the same amount of maintenance and support people to service them as dollar machines do...read more