Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 284

Ask the Slot Expert: Lowering the W-2G threshold on slot wins

Follow-up to IRS proposal to lower W-2G threshold to $600: In a surprise move, the IRS has decided not to lower the W-2G threshold to $600, but it will instead eliminate the requirement the W-2G altogether, bringing the reporting requirements for slot players in line with those for table games players. April Fools! The proposal is still in the comment phase...read more

Good dealers versus bad dealers

It’s Thanksgiving for good dealers.If you play slot machines, your only worry used to be getting your hands dirty from the coins, but today that is no longer a problem since coins are things of the past. Now everything is paper. Yes, you could have a problem if a stiff wind blows through the casino, ripping the paper from your hands and blowing it to who knows where.For table-game players, often what makes or breaks a game are the dealers, who come in the usual range of human personalities from sunshiny and pleasant to sour and scowling...read more

Splitting 4s in blackjack

QUESTION: I have a question about splitting 4s in blackjack. When I learned basic strategy, I memorized that you always split the 4s if the dealer has 5 or a 6. That’s what I’ve done for years and years. Lately I’ve been seeing others hitting instead of splitting, even guys I know a little bit...read more

My remarkable streak of royals

The hope of all video poker players is to hit a royal flush. Sometimes it takes weeks, even months or years before you hit one; other times, you might just get lucky and hit one or two quite quickly. Think that’s impossible? Read on, because I’m going to share with you a remarkable streak of royal flushes that happened to me...read more

Penny slots and combination betting

QUESTION: My question has to do with the lack of single-line, 25-cent reel slot machines in many of the casinos I look to play at in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. They’re tough to find, the once popular Red White Blue, Wild Cherry and Double Diamond slots .....read more

Ask the Slot Expert: IRS proposes changing slot jackpot threshold for W-2G

Thank you for your recent article about VLTs (Video Lottery Terminals). In the Horseshoe in Baltimore (a Caesars Entertainment property), are their video poker machines VLTs too? They have a few full-pay video poker games. Is it still 99.54 percent for 9/6 Jacks or Better? I do not want waste my time there if the video poker is a lottery controlled by server. In one sense, it used to be much easier to answer questions when I first started this column almost 20 years ago...read more

Sal and Frank talk the Captain and craps

This letter has many questions and comments, so I will answer them as they come up.FROM SAL: You are one of my favorite reads. Primarily craps reads. Especially all the words you have written regarding the Captain (God rest his soul). I would have loved to have met him and toss the bones with him...read more

Seven steps to playing the slots

When reviewing information about casinos' revenue, what they have taken in, based on the amount of table and machines games offered, we find that they receive the most income from slot machines. The American Gaming Association, a casino trade group, reported in their annual survey that 62 percent of all casino visitors played slot machines while only 21 percent played blackjack...read more

Answering video poker questions

Carl is a video poker player who has written to me off and on for many years. I’ll sometimes go a year or two without hearing from him, but then a question will pop into my e-mail inbox.In the latest, he wanted some information about progressive games, where a percentage of each wager is added to the usual 4,000-coin jackpot on royal flushes.“I don’t play close to home as much as I once did,” he wrote...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Can a cell phone affect a slot machine?

Your answer to the slot ticket scam letter was not good. I had this exact problem with a $10 bill in a casino in Colorado. The slot attendant checked the machine and it said the last bill was a $20 bill. I insisted that I put in a $10 bill...read more