Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 354

S.M.A.R.T Casino Customer Service Standards Help Properties Create Outstanding Gaming Experience

Casinos that want to make it through these challenging economic times need to be smart. More precisely, they need to have customer service standards that are S.M.A.R.T. Stellar customer service is the linchpin of casino success now when times are tough and in the future when the economy finds its legs again...read more

Should I bank my free slot play?

Hi Frank, I'm a regular reader of CasinoCityTimes, and have many blackjack books by you and others. I just have a small (percentage-wise) question. I play blackjack regularly at three Indian casinos near my home in the San Diego area...read more

Reading the Placard

It was a holiday weekend, and I was in a large, crowded casino in Northern Nevada. When I first enter a casino I use a mental checklist to evaluate blackjack tables to determine which ones might be good and which ones to avoid. I do this rather than just hoping that the table I sit down at will be a winning one...read more

A shuffle through the gaming mailbag

Q. You always mention that the payback percentage for dollar slots is better than the 50- or 25-cent slots. How about in a multi-play slot machine where you can choose $1, $.50 or $.25? Does the payback change as you change the denomination, or are you getting a lower payback for dollars because you can play the smaller denominations also? A...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: Do video poker machines still deal from a fair deck?

When I first started playing video poker in Las Vegas some years ago, all the machines had a sticker stating that all deals were from a 52-card deck. During recent trips to Las Vegas and to the local Indian casino I could find no such stickers.Their removal would indicate to me that, now that all machines are connected to a central computer and are no longer stand-alone, the machines may not be dealing exclusively from a 52-card deck. From the house's standpoint, controlling payouts on video poker to be more like slot machine payouts would be profitable...read more

I came to gamble

My old friend Jim and I see each other only a couple of times a year nowadays, but we keep in touch. He plays a little blackjack and dabbles in other table games, so when he was going to be visiting in March we planned a day at the casino. It was one of those up and down days...read more

It's real money

Gambling gurus -- of which I am one -- could also be labeled gambling "goo-rues" since we tend to delight in using mathematical terms and figures to prove we are right about everything we are trying to prove we are right about. Such proofs tend to stick the average casino gambler into a sticky morass of mind-numbing goo that tends to make them skip whole sections of what we are writing about in our articles and books. We gambling gurus should rue the day we do such awful things to our fellow casino players, as we often put them to sleep just at the most important moment of our explanation of what is and what is not the best way to bet at this or that game and why...read more

It Isn’t Called Player Development for Nothing

What would be a good gift for my casino host? I have seen this questioned posed on travel, casino and gambling-related forums dozens of times over the years. Usually other posters will respond and suggest wine, liquor, neckties, scarves, flowers, candy, sporting event tickets, or gift certificates to local stores...read more

Avoiding Long Shots at the Tables

We all know someone who won big in a casino. It does happen in casinos all around the country. However, when reading reports by various state gaming agencies, we find the casinos are consistently winning more than they lose and doing it by a substantial margin...read more

Deal Me In: Early worm in robin-swallowing spring training

Dear Mark: I have been reading your column for years and very much enjoy your comments and insight. My question is this: Over the long haul, with many players and many cumulative hours played, casinos approach the statistical advantages you so often cite...read more