Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 277

Baccarat versus mini-baccarat

Baccarat (pronounced bah-cah-rah, not back-a-rat) and mini-baccarat are not the exact same game, owing to slight changes in their formats and their speeds. Indeed, baccarat is a good game to play, while mini-baccarat can be a dangerous game to play.Baccarat is usually played in high-roller rooms on a large table that can fit at least 12 players; the game often has $100 minimum bets and at least three dealers plus a floor person working the table...read more

Low slot pays and bad blackjack plays

QUESTION: You write all about these new games, and Mad Men and the new Austin Powers sound like fun, but why do they make the games with such low paybacks? Someone should tell WMS and IGT and Bally and all those companies that you can bet as much on a penny video game as on a dollar three-reel game, and players deserve paybacks just as high.ANSWER: Let’s put the responsibility where it belongs here...read more

Customer Service or: Money Down the Drain

I was at a gaming conference and an industry marketing consultant talked about a publicly traded gaming company that spends 37 percent of its revenue on marketing. I know of a property in a very competitive market that spends more than $1 million a month on marketing.Why all this spending? Casinos say they need to be seen to keep guests coming through the door so they can grow...read more

Aristocrat slot machines

Aristocrat Technologies has long been an innovator in the way it uses its reels. It’s the company that introduced Reel Power, the 247-ways-to-win format based on buying reels instead paylines with your bets.The Australian-based slot maker is at it again with Cluster Power, and like Reel Power, it looks like the kind of feature every gamemaker could be imitating a year or two down the road.Cluster Power is being introduced on Sons of Anarchy, based on the FX television hit drama about an outlaw motorcycle club, their lives and challenges.“The game’s not focused on the violence of a motorcycle game,” Siobhan Lane, Aristocrat’s senior director of product management and strategy, casino operations, told me before a tour of the company’s booth at Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Can casinos cap progressives?

Last week we had a question about finding a shirt with Bally's Quick Hit logo for the reader's husband. I wrote that I wasn't aware of Bally's ever making Quick Hit logo shirts for a promotion and asked readers if they knew of a source for the shirts. A number of readers wrote to say that the logo image is very easy to find online (just Google "Quick Hit logo") and that a custom T-shirt store could make a shirt for her. I didn't suggest making her own shirt because I'm sure that Bally's has all the legal protections possible for its artwork...read more

Why not the 5 in the Field?

FROM OLIVIA: Just a random thought that popped into my head. Why isn’t the 5 included in the Field bet? Seems to be the odd man (or woman) out, considering the 4 and 10 are there, as well as the 9.I know there’s a logical explanation I’m missing, but I’ve racked my feeble brain and can’t think of one!Any help? Many thanks.FRANK RESPONDS: The casino needs an edge to win money from the players...read more

Those sevens just kept coming

QUESTION: I was at a craps table where the shooter rolled five sevens in a row. They were all comeouts, so I won my pass bets, but didn’t get any odds.I’ve read you and others say the dice have no memory, and that the odds stay the same after a streak like that...read more

More video poker questions and answers

QUESTION: How many times can I except to be dealt four cards to the royal flush?ANSWER: That’s a good question because being dealt four to the royal flush is an exciting event. The odds of being dealt four cards to the royal flush are 1 in 2,777...read more

Rites and rituals of casino players

A few years ago, I wrote about rituals, the things players do in the name of good luck – whether they believe in luck or not.There was my brother Jay and his jackpot dance that no doubt kept surveillance operators amused. There was Carmen, who had to play her first roll of quarters at the airport on her Las Vegas trips, back when machines actually took quarters...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Paybacks at Indian casinos

Please discuss the Indian casinos in Michigan. Are their paybacks the same as non-Indian casinos? Who regulates them? I frequent a newer casino in Battle Creek. I never can win. Other casinos seem to pay well but not this casino. All the slot machines are new...read more